Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel
“DOWN TO SALLY’S COVE” is a collection of stories about Newfoundland and Labrador by Ella Manuel (1911-1985) and read by me, Antony Berger. I’m the editor of my mother’s writings about the history and rich culture of the places she lived, and the people she knew and loved. New episodes will be uploaded every week until mid-January 2021.
In 1945, after years in England and the USA, Ella returned to Newfoundland to live, a single mother with two small boys. Using her maiden name, she began to write for newspapers and magazines and to read for radio stories about the places and people she met, recapturing some of the forgotten men and women of Newfoundland’s past. Over the next three decades, her voice became known across Canada through her many broadcasts on the CBC. When she died, she left behind a confused mass of undated manuscripts and notes, which I have now arranged and edited. Only a few recordings of her marvellous voice still exist, so I have decided to read her stories myself, notwithstanding the challenge of a male voice substituting for hers.The stories are arranged in five groups. Season 1 is entitled Around Bonne Bay; Season 2 - Friends and Neighbours; Season 3 - Beyond the Bay; Season 4 - Medics, Missionaries and Military Men; Season 5 - Tough Times at Sea; Season 6 - Ghosts and Dirty Tricks
A biography of my mother, together with a selection of her writings and broadcasts, including many of these podcast episodes, has been published under the title “No Place for a Woman. The Life and Newfoundland Stories of Ella Manuel” (Breakwater Books, St. John’s NL, 2020).Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel
Episode 35 - SHIPWRECKED OFF GREEN GARDENS
Among the early 19th century seamen who wrote of their voyages to Newfoundland and Labrador was British Lieutenant Edward Chappell. In 1818 he published an account of the cruise five years earlier of H.M.S. Rosamond to Newfoundland and Labrador “of which countries no account has been published by any British traveller since the reign of Queen Elizabeth.” While visiting southern Labrador, he wrote that “We were much surprised, on visiting our good friend Mr. Pinson, to find a handsome female seated at the head of his table. The sight of a white woman was now a real gratification to us all; and our officers were anxiously desirous to discover by what means she had been thrown upon the savage territory of Labrador.” Chappell recorded the strange tale told by “Mrs. E” as he called her. In the following, Ella Manuel, in the voice of the young woman herself, re-tells with some artistic license, the story of Mrs. E.