The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927
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by Gerald Hallowell
Nimbus Publishing, 256 pages, $21.95
The ships are safer now, equipped with satellite radio and outfitted with high-tech survival suits. But each time a vessel heads out of port for its fishing grounds there’s a silent prayer whispered by the crew’s family and friends onshore: Be safe. Make it home.
Sadly, Atlantic Canada is no stranger to seafaring tragedy. Over the centuries, thousands of fishermen never made it home, instead becoming victims of raging storms and rough seas.
In The August Gales, historian Gerald Hallowell recounts the tales of two terrible storms that ravaged fishing communities in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and New England in 1926 and 1927. Hallowell worked for years as an editor at University of Toronto Press, and it’s clear he has a gift for storytelling. He transforms his rigorous research into compelling prose that keeps the pages turning.
An Ontario native, Hallowell currently lives in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, a town that is steeped in fishing history. Home of the Bluenose and Bluenose II, this seaside village on the province’s South Shore figures prominently in the book; at least six ships from that port sank in the August gales of 1926 and 1927.
The August Gales also features a series of black-and-white photos that help to bring the stories of these tragic events to life.
— Mark Collin Reid (Read bio)
Mark Collin Reid is the Editor-in-Chief of Canada's History.