Canadian World Traveller Spring 2024 Issue

66
Canada, who also meander the Northwest
Passage on other High Arctic small-ship
expeditions.
We followed in the path of earlier explorers
like Leif Eriksen, who 500 years before
Columbus led a Norse-Icelandic journey to
far-eastern Canada. Seeing massive rocks
but no grass, they concluded the land would
be useless for agriculture. When Italian John
Cabot arrived in 1497, he noted the abundance
of cod and the ease of casting baskets
into the sea for plentiful harvests of the salty
fish. That inspired fishing settlements. By the
early 1800s, a forestry industry was thriving;
many locals today have ancestors who
worked in island sawmills.
Our expedition lecturers shared background
like this each morning and again before dinner
each evening. “You’re in for a real treat,”
Endeavour leader Scott McDougall told us on
the first day. “Few places can boast the stark,
wild beauty and warm hospitality found in
Newfoundland.”
Around Newfoundland by Ship with Adventure Canada
Many television viewers, I suspect,
might credit a German shepherd
for what they know about
Canada’s most easterly and isolated
province.
In the Canadian police drama “Hudson &
Rex,” a detective and his canine partner solve
crimes in and around picturesque St. John’s,
capital of the province of Newfoundland and
Labrador. Through six seasons (including
2024), their cop work has taken them to all
corners of Newfoundland, the world’s 16thlargest
island; to adjacent Labrador, a
sparsely populated fragment of the North
American mainland; and even to the French
territory of St.-Pierre-et-Miquélon, anchored
just offshore Newfoundland in the Atlantic
Ocean.
Article and photography by Nicholas Kontis
Not surprisingly, the real Newfoundland is
very different than the one you might see on
your TV screen. Locals affectionately call it
“The Rock” and pronounce its name as
“Noof’n-lund.” It’s larger than many nations,
including the United Kingdom and New
Zealand. The maritime province is constantly
windy. A quarter of the island’s population
(about 110,000 people) live in greater St.
John’s — which like most island settlements,
is built along the shore. It can be a long way
by road from St. John’s to other towns, and
the original European-descended colonists
found they preferred boats for getting
around.
Those who came before
Sea was my choice as well. One rare, sunny
October day, when the wind was barely blowing,
I boarded the MS Ocean Endeavour for
a two-week expedition cruise around the
island of Newfoundland. I couldn’t imagine a
better way to explore.
Our host for the journey was Newfoundland
native Dennis Minty, an eco-guide, photographer
and naturalist since 2002. Tony Oxford,
another native son, served as “cultural educator”;
the onetime mayor of tiny Cox’s Cove
composed his own music for nightly jam sessions
and enthralled us with daily talks on
dozens of subjects. An example was his
description of the island’s unique, Gaelicaffected
English dialect. Should someone
(such as Oxford himself) offer the greeting
“Whadda y’at?” he said, the proper response
is: “This is it!”
It was a real treat to have Chief Mi’sel Joe,
the hereditary and spiritual leader of the
Mi’kmaq people of Newfoundland and
Labrador on board. Joe is a master storyteller
and the author of numerous literary works
about his people. He and co-author Shiela
O’Neill, a distant relative, taught us about
Aboriginal culture. “It’s so important that we
tell our own story, because nobody else is
going to do it,” Chief Joe emphasized.
Highlights of the voyage
Our first stop was at Terra Nova (“New
World”) National Park. Tourism is restoring a
We departed from and returned to St. John’s.
On board were 167 guests (80 percent of
them Canadians), 103 crew, and 39 expedition
team members: our guides, as it were.
They were mostly Canadian High Arctic
experts from Toronto-based Adventure
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