Outrageous Seas
Shipwreck and Survival in the Waters Off Newfoundland, 1583-1893
- Publisher
- McGill-Queen's University Press
- Initial publish date
- Oct 1999
- Category
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780886293581
- Publish Date
- Nov 1999
- List Price
- $95.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780886293192
- Publish Date
- Oct 1999
- List Price
- $29.95
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Description
There was a time in history when the sea was as important as the land for defining a country's social and cultural identity. Outrageous Seas is about that time, and about the harrowing, almost mythic, experience of shipwreck, near-shipwreck, and survival in waters off Newfoundland. Travellers from many walks of life - explorers and missionaries, traders, fishers and mariners, Native Peoples, aristocrats and immigrants - have left rare and fascinating first-hand accounts of such disasters. Their narratives span four centuries and touch many historical sub-themes such as the appeal of religion in times of crisis, gender roles, and the ocean-as-workplace. Apart from its obvious scholarly appeal, this collection evokes psychic responses to calamity and brushes with death, perhaps the most universal experience of all.