7:00 pm
LIFELINE: THE STORY OF THE ATLANTIC FERRIES AND COASTAL BOATS is a fascinating, awe-inspiring, occasionally hilarious, and always vital history of the ferries that serve the Atlantic provinces, and of the coastal boats that keep rural Newfoundland and Labrador alive. It also details the amazing story of the Prince Edward Island ferries and their predecessors—the iceboats men hauled over and through the challenging icepacks of the Northumberland Strait. Here, too, are the stories of the development of the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to Bar Harbor, Maine, ferries, and the run from Digby, Nova Scotia, to Saint John, New Brunswick.
Award-winning author Harry Bruce recounts tales of heroic captains and crews, ships wrecked against ice floes and rocks and the ocean’s fury, political machinations, and the tragic outcome of a Nazi torpedo’s attack on the Caribou ferry in 1942 on the Cape Breton–Newfoundland run. Harry Bruce’s telling is gripping, his research impeccable, and his people come alive in these pages—drive homing the complexity of keeping the water portions of the Trans-Canada Highway intact and our island provinces within confederation.
Illustrated with a gallery of historic photographs and glorious pictures from the Marine Atlantic fleet today, LIFELINE is a must-read for Atlantic Canadians, and their friends.
In his award-winning classic book called Lifeline: The Story of the Atlantic Ferries and Coastal Boats, Harry Bruce tells the history of the ferries of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, PEI, New Brunswick, as well as the coastal vessels that kept the Newfoundland-Labrador communities alive. Lifeline won the first Evelyn Richard Award for Non-Fiction. Recipient of the 2011 Atlantic Journalism’s Lifetime Achievement Award, Harry Bruce is one of Canada’s preeminent men of letters. A journalist whose roots in Nova Scotia stretch back to the late 18th century, Harry has inspired more than a generation of writers and broadcasters with his incisive reporting, masterful prose, thoughtful commentary, and peerless editing. Born in Toronto, he was educated at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., and the London School of Economics. He made his mark as a journalist. In 1979, he became the founding editor of Atlantic Insight Magazine, which won the Outstanding Achievement Award of the National Magazine Awards Foundation. All along the way, Harry produced work that continued to cement his reputation as one of the country’s finest and most influential writers, as well as a true Maritime son.
Harry’s presentation is co-sponsored by our colleagues at Cape Breton Books.
For additional information:
Richard MacMichael
902-424-8897
richard.macmichael@novascotia.ca