Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel

In this final episode of the "Down to Sally's Cove" podcast, Ella Manuel comments on some of the odd phrases and strange words she came across in her travels around Newfoundland. Most, but not all, are now clearly explained in the magisterial Dictionary of Newfoundland English. Send a text

Ella Manuel tells a story about a young sleeveen from Baker's Brook who was forever causing trouble in the woods camp where he worked. Send a text

Uncle John tells the young Ella Manuel a spooky story from the Bay of Exploits. Send a text

Here Ella Manuel recalls a visit to Newfoundland 170 years ago of an American ship loaded with dignitaries come to see what should have been the laying of the first telegraph cable to Nova Scotia. Send a text

During the long history of Arctic exploration, of expeditions that disappeared and of the many attempts to find them, one in particular stands out for its connection with Captain Isaac Bartlett of Brigus. Here is Ella Manuel's re-telling of the rescue of shipwreck survivors from southward-drifting Greenland ice floes. Send a text

Around 1900, John Pittman of Rocky Harbour disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Here Ella Manuel tells a story of what might have happened to him. Send a text

Another missionary of sorts, this one with a medical wife, was the Rev. Hugh MacDermott who arrived in 1904 not far from where Dr. “Fitz” was working, though the one seems to have written little about the other. Ella Manuel’s story of the man once described as “to Newfoundland what Grenfell has been to Labrador” is based on his 1938 memoir “MacDermott of Fortune Bay Told by Himself” Send a text

Twenty-five years after Anglican missionary Julian Moreton, the subject of the previous episode, left Newfoundland, along came to the northeastern coast another preacher, whose parishes overlapped Moreton’s. James Lumsden’s assignment was to minister to Wesleyans, later known as Methodists. Here, Ella Manuel tells of his nine years in eastern and northern Newfoundland. Send a text

Throughout the long and complex history of relations with the United States, there came a time when an American invasion was thought to be imminent. In this story, Ella Manuel tells how an officer sent from England to defend Newfoundland discovers the ups and downs of life in St. John’s and recounts one of the last duels fought there. Send a text

As a young girl, Ella Manuel often went by boat to visit the lovely island of Exploits in Notre Dame Bay, where her father and his grew up. Many years later she returned, sharing a boat ride with Gail and Gerry Squires, who had made a seasonal home there. It was here that Gerry began to develop his artistic vision of Newfoundland landscape and spiritual heritage. In this story, Ella also tells of three old brothers who once lived on Exploits. Send a text

Here Ella Manuel explains how an old friend from Labrador took a long and completely unwanted voyage in the late 1950s - an unintended prisoner on a coastal steamer. Send a text

In the summer of 1967, Ella spends a few days celebrating Canada’s 100th birthday on one of her favourite rivers. And she looks ahead to the world her grandchildren will inherit. Send a text

In the mid-1940s, Ella Manuel travelled by train to the Codroy Valley of southwestern Newfoundland. Here she met people whose forefathers had years before settled there, some from Nova Scotia. Their traditional music so fascinated her that she helped to organize a ceilidh for them in Corner Brook. Some of the older residents told her why the Scots came to the Codroy and about the fierce fights that sometimes occurred. Though much has since been written – and recorded – about the history and t...