The Burgeo whale.
It was a lifeless scene except for a scattering of gulls and three eagles soaring on the updrafts over Richards Head. When I dropped my gaze, we were entering Aldridge’s Pond.
The whale was there.
She had been immense in life; now she loomed twice as huge. Bloated with the gases of putrefaction, she floated on her back high out of the water, exposing the pallid mountain of her belly. From a vision of transcendental majesty and grace, she had been transformed into an abomination, grotesque, deformed, and horrible.
She stank so frightfully that we had to fight down nausea.
I cannot say what Onie felt as we drifted toward the monstrous corpse. Claire was weeping quietly. I cannot express what I felt.
I believe we were all grateful for the distraction when a chugging engine announced the arrival of the plant’s workboat. Manned by some of the men who had shot the whale, it went directly to the corpse. Ignoring our presence, the men secured a loop of wire cable just forward of the mighty flukes. Then the workboat, diminished to insignificance by its tow, put its stern down. White water foamed under its counter as it took the strain. Slowly, ponderously the whale began to move. The bizarre cortege drew abreast of us and swung into the narrow mouth of the pushthrough on its way out to sea, where the corpse could be set adrift.
Unable to surmount the barrier rocks in the pushthrough while alive, the whale floated easily over them in death–returning, now that there was no return, to the heart of mystery whence she came.
Author’s Note
Claire and I have written several other books that expand upon aspects of the Newfoundland story.
First Comers
Newfoundland and Labrador were probably the first parts of the Americas to be settled or visited by Europeans. I have written two books about these early ventures. The Farfarers (Key Porter Books, 1998) deals with voyages by people from the northern British Isles to Canada’s eastern arctic, Newfoundland and Labrador, as early as the eighth century. Westviking (McClelland & Stewart, 1965) chronicles the westward voyages and attempted settlement in Newfoundland of tenth and eleventh century Norseman.
Seafarers
I have written extensively about the men and ships who, during the first half of the twentieth century, dared the unquiet waters of the northwestern Atlantic to rescue other men and ships. Many of the rescuers came from the Sou’west Coast of Newfoundland. I have described some of them and their achievements in Grey Seas Under (McClelland & Stewart, 1958) and The Serpents Coil (McClelland & Stewart, 1961).
Islanders
Wake of the Great Sealers (McClelland & Stewart, 1973) is a composite picture of the outporters of the northern bays during the late nineteenth and early-to-middle twentieth centuries, illustrated with drawings and etchings by David Blackwood. This Rock Within the Sea (McClelland & Stewart, 1968) describes the people of the Sou’west Coast in wintertime at home and at sea. It is illustrated with photographs by John de Visser. Outport People (McClelland and Stewart, 1983) by Claire Mowat is an account of our life together in Burgeo, and of the inner workings of a Newfoundland outport in the 1960s.
Other Creatures
A Whale for the Killing (McClelland & Stewart, 1972) contains a full account of the circumstances leading to the killing of the fin whale at Burgeo in 1967. Sea of Slaughter (McClelland & Stewart, 1984) catalogues modern man’s almost inconceivable destruction of non-human life in Canada’s eastern lands and seas.
Farley Mowat began writing for a living in 1949. He catapulted into our national consciousness as a passionate advocate with his debut, People of the Deer, in 1952. He is the bestselling author of forty books, including Never Cry Wolf, Owls in the Family, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, and The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float. With sales of more than fourteen million copies in twenty-five countries, he is one of Canada’s most successful and beloved writers. He and his wife, Claire, divide their time between Port Hope, Ontario, and River Bourgeois, Nova Scotia.
BOOKS BY FARLEY MOWAT
People of the Deer (1952, revised edition 1975)
The Regiment (1955, new edition 1973, paperback edition 1989)
Lost in the Barrens (1956)
The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be (1957)
Grey Seas Under (1958)
The Desperate People (1959, revised edition 1975)
Owls in the Family (1961)
The Serpent’s Coil (1961)
The Black Joke (1962)
Never Cry Wolf (1963, new edition 1973)
Westviking (1965)
The Curse of the Viking Grave (1967)
Canada North (illustrated edition 1967)
Canada North Now (revised paperback edition 1967)
This Rock Within the Sea (with John de Visser)
(1968, reissued 1976)
The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float (1969, illustrated edition 1974)
Sibir (1970, new edition 1973)
A Whale for the Killing (1972)
Wake of the Great Sealers (with David Blackwood) (1973)
The Snow Walker (1975)
And No Birds Sang (1979)
The World of Farley Mowat, a selection from his works
(edited by Peter Davison) (1980)
Sea of Slaughter (1984)
My Discovery of America (1985)
Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey (1987)
The New Founde Land (1989)
Rescue the Earth! (1990)
My Father’s Son (1992)
Born Naked (1993)
Aftermath (1995)
The Farfarers (1998)
Walking on the Land (2000)
High Latitudes (2002)
No Man’s River (2004)
Bay of Spirits (2006)
THE TOP OF THE WORLD TRILOGY
Ordeal by Ice (1960, revised edition 1973)
The Polar Passion (1967, revised edition 1973)
Tundra (1973)
EDITED BY FARLEY MOWAT
Coppermine Journey (1958)
Praise for Bay of Spirits
“Mowat has a deep understanding of the sea and the natural world. His observations of the outporters are equally perceptive and provide a fascinating window into a little known corner of North America. In this tender elegy to a lost Newfoundland, Mowat shows an amused tolerance for almost everything except the human greed that has inexorably destroyed his adopted home’s cultures and environment.”
–Publishers Weekly
“Mowat reminisces about his early romance with his wife-to-be, but he’s preoccupied with a larger, harder love story–his courtship, adoration and disappointments with Newfoundland at the end of the outpost era.”
–Canadian Geographic
“This is a briny maritime tale from head to toe, with Farley and Claire finding any excuse at all to continue exploring…. Blessed with an endlessly curious and energetic cast of mind and an outrageously colourful personality, [Mowat] has also been gifted with a perfect life companion and a love that has endured for many decades.”
–Quill & Quire
“Look for Mowat’s usual entertaining descriptions of geography, local customs and harrowing, or just plain bumbling, misadventures at sea. It’s a fascinating look at the life of a Canadian literary icon.”
–Outpost magazine
“Mowat describes with sailor’s envy many enchanting, exhilarating and dangerous journeys in and out of the tiniest outport villages. It is here he is at his best, telling the tales of the local people in their dialect and colour.”
–Halifax Chronicle-Herald
Copyright © 2006 by Farley Mowat
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher–or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency–is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Mowat, Farley, 1921–
Bay of spirits : a love story / Farley Mowat.
eISBN: 978-1-55199-151-1
1. Mowat, Farley, 1921–2. Wheeler, Claire. 3. Newfoundland and Labrador–Social life and customs. 4. Fishing villages–Newfoundland and labrador–History–20th century. 5. Harbors–Newfoundland and Labrador–History–20th century. 6. Burgeo (N.L.)–Biography. 7. Authors, Canadian (English)–20th century–Biography. I. Title.
FC2199.B86Z49 2006 971. 8 C2006-902157-0
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
All photographs © Claire and Farley Mowat
Maps by Visutronx
McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
75 Sherbourne Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5A 2P9
www.mcclelland.com
v1.0
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
Dedication
Maps
I am deeply grateful to…
1 Island in the Mist
2 Ferryland
3 A Southern Shore Bummer
4 The Angels Sing
5 The French Isles
6 Hard Times
7 Pushthrough
8 Head of the Bay
9 Bay of Spirits
10 Stormy Passage
11 Searching for an Anchorage
12 Stone Valley
13 Queen of the Coast
14 Seduction
15 Dropping the Hook
16 The Petit Nord
17 Back to the Bay
18 Basques and Penguins
19 Shape Changer
20 Winter of Their Times
21 The Whale
Author’s Note
About the Author
Also by Farley Mowat
Praise for Bay of Spirits
Copyright
Farley Mowat, Bay of Spirits: A Love Story
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