Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel
46 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago -“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).Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
EPISODE 46 - SPARBLES, SAVELOYS AND SCROOPY BOOTS
January 12, 2021 12:30 - 9 minutes - 6.78 MBIn 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 us a Text Message.
EPISODE 45 - BOATS AND BEARS ON ICE
January 05, 2021 12:30 - 16 minutes - 11.3 MBIn this episode Ella Manuel recalls ice-boating on Burnt Bay off Lewisporte in the 1920s, and how her friend Nancy met a "bear" while crossing the Bay on the winter ice. Send us a Text Message.
EPISODE 44 - THE LUMBER CAMP TRICKSTER
December 29, 2020 12:30 - 14 minutes - 9.98 MBElla 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 us a Text Message.
EPISODE 43 - GRANDFATHER'S FAMOUS GOAT
December 22, 2020 12:30 - 9 minutes - 6.63 MBMany are the stories told around Newfoundland and Labrador about goats and rams possessed of special powers and inclined to mad antics. Here is one that Aunt Jenny, who lived in Bloomfield many years ago, told Ella Manuel about a hymn-singing goat. Send us a Text Message.
EPISODE 42 - THE GHOST OF DORMAN'S COVE
December 15, 2020 12:30 - 13 minutes - 9.21 MBUncle John tells the young Ella Manuel a spooky story from the Bay of Exploits. Send us a Text Message.
EPISODE 41 - BONFIRE NIGHT IN BURNT BAY
December 08, 2020 12:30 - 15 minutes - 11 MBIn this first episode of the final season (“Ghosts and Dirty Tricks") ,Ella Manuel recalls a memorable Guy Fawkes night when she was a young girl in Lewisporte in the 1920 s. Send us a Text Message.
EPISODE 40 - YANKEES IN THE KINGDOM OF COD
December 01, 2020 13:30 - 12 minutes - 8.96 MBHere 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 us a Text Message.
EPISODE 39 - WHEN SHIPS WERE SHIPS AND NOT TIN POTS
November 24, 2020 12:30 - 14 minutes - 10.2 MBHere Ella recalls an old salt named Will Barnes. Though she never met him in life, his memoir of wild exploits at sea delighted her. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 38 - SIX MONTHS ADRIFT ON THE ICE
November 17, 2020 12:30 - 13 minutes - 9.47 MBDuring 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 us a Text Message.
Episode 37 - THE SUFFERING OF NEIL DEWAR
November 10, 2020 12:30 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBThis story was first told by Neil Dewar himself, and has been repeated in several recent books. Dewar's experiences remind us of the terrible conditions that faced those who two centuries ago survived shipwreck on the empty coast of northern Newfoundland. It is a tale of horror, suffering and courage, of compassion and survival. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 36- MURDER AT SEA - OR WAS IT?
November 03, 2020 11:30 - 11 minutes - 8.22 MBAround 1900, John Pittman of Rocky Harbour disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Here Ella Manuel tells a story of what might have happened to him. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 35 - SHIPWRECKED OFF GREEN GARDENS
October 27, 2020 11:30 - 18 minutes - 12.5 MBAmong 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...
Episode 34 - MacDERMOTT OF FORTUNE BAY
October 22, 2020 17:30 - 11 minutes - 8.01 MBAnother 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 us a Text Message.
Episode 33 - DR. FITZ OF "THE ALBATROSS"
October 13, 2020 11:30 - 12 minutes - 8.41 MBAbout the same time that James Lumsden arrived in Newfoundland, young doctor Conrad Fitz-Gerald landed in Harbour Breton to attend to people who worked along the southeast coast for a company of fish and wine merchants. As Ella Manuel relates, there were few medical men as tough and indestructible, and as self-effacing. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 32 - JAMES LUMSDEN, THE "SKIPPER-PARSON"
October 06, 2020 10:30 - 13 minutes - 9.52 MBTwenty-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 us a Text Message.
Episode 31 - OUT FROM GREENSPOND WITH JULIAN MORETON
September 29, 2020 11:30 - 13 minutes - 9.05 MBOver the years, Newfoundland and Labrador benefitted from the efforts of dedicated men and women who were sent here to promote one Christian denomination or another. One who fascinated Ella Manuel was Julian Moreton, who pitched up on the shores of northern Bonavista Bay as a Church of England missionary. His 1863 memoir “Life and Work in Newfoundland: Reminiscences of Thirteen Years Spent There” tells of his travels and adventures in the scattered and thinly populated northeastern corner of...
Episode 30 - McCREA IN FISH-AND-FOG LAND
September 22, 2020 11:30 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MBThroughout 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 us a Text Message.
Episode 29 - THE 1905 GUIDE TO NEWFOUNDLAND
September 15, 2020 11:30 - 13 minutes - 9.52 MBHere Ella Manuel describes a charming old guide book to Newfoundland, full of information that the tourist and sportsman of the day would need. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 28 - BACK TO EXPLOITS
September 08, 2020 11:30 - 12 minutes - 8.89 MBAs 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 us a Text Message.
Episode 27 - THE SKIPPER ON THE BAIE VERTE RUN
September 01, 2020 11:30 - 18 minutes - 12.7 MBIn the early 1960s, Ella journeyed around the Northern Peninsula by coastal steamer, then the only public means of moving people and goods from one isolated outport to another. In this account of one trip she made around western Notre Dame Bay, she tells of her conversations with the captain. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 26 - AROUND THE ISLAND FOR 75 CENTS
August 25, 2020 11:30 - 14 minutes - 9.87 MBHere 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 us a Text Message.
Episode 25 - THE NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR PILOT
August 18, 2020 11:30 - 9 minutes - 6.32 MBIn this episode Ella Manuel takes a bemused browse through an old copy of the guide to sailors in Newfoundland waters. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 24 - CENTENNIAL ON THE UPPER HUMBER
August 11, 2020 11:30 - 10 minutes - 7.58 MBIn 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 us a Text Message.
Episode 23 - CHASING THE HERRING
August 04, 2020 11:30 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MBAs the Second World War ended, and life began to return to normal, Ella Manuel was keen to learn more about the commercial fishery. Here she tells of her experience on a purse seiner cruising Port-au-Port Bay for herring. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 22 - AMONG THE SCOTS OF THE CODROY
July 28, 2020 23:30 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBIn 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 ...
Episode 21 - THE WOODS CAMP IN WINTER
July 21, 2020 11:30 - 17 minutes - 11.9 MBHere Ella Manuel discovers life in a typical woods camp in winter. She revels in the wintry landscape and sees how the contractor and his wife live while his men are cutting trees for the paper mill in Corner Brook. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 20 - CRUISING DOWN SHORE WITH EMMA AND UNCLE ELI
July 14, 2020 10:30 - 16 minutes - 11.3 MBWith Uncle Eli and Em Tapper, Ella Manuel heads north on Orangeman’s Day, fishes Western Brook, visits Sally's Cove and Portland Creek, and watches Hib repair an airplane. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 19 - THE NEW ROAD NORTHWARD
July 07, 2020 11:30 - 11 minutes - 7.71 MBORIGINAL BROADCAST In this rare recording, originally broadcast on the CBC on September 24, 1964, Ella Manuel tells her listeners of the changes, both good and not so, that the newly built road down (up) the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland have brought to the people who live along it. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 18 - DOWN TO SALLY'S COVE
June 30, 2020 11:30 - 11 minutes - 8.02 MBAs the road north from Rocky Harbour was being built in 1953, Ella Manuel walked the old coastal trail from Baker's Brook. In Sally's Cove she met three old Roberts brothers, all born in Bonne Bay in the 19th century. Here is the scene as she picked her way north. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 17 - JINNY DOWN-BY-THE-BOW
June 23, 2020 11:30 - 11 minutes - 7.9 MBIn Woody Point, Ella acquired her first cats. She was drawn into the feline world through her friends, the Campbells of Black Duck. Here is the tale of her first two cats, and their remarkable ancestor. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 16 - MORE OF MY FAVOURITE UNCLES
June 16, 2020 17:30 - 16 minutes - 11.3 MBBrief vignettes of some of the colourful older men around Bonne Bay, whom Ella Manuel called her uncles. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 15 - JIM SHEARS OF ROCKY HARBOUR
June 09, 2020 11:30 - 11 minutes - 8.07 MBAmong the first to settle in the outer part of Bonne Bay in Rocky Harbour was the Shears family, well-known for their amazing ingenuity, as Ella Manuel describes in this story. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 14 - CANTANKEROUS UNCLE GEORGE
June 02, 2020 10:30 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MBHere Ella Manuel talks about one of the splendid older men she came to know in Bonne Bay. This was “Uncle” George, well-known in Woody Point many years ago, an argumentative old man who made life difficult for his son by insisting on doing what he wanted to and not what he should. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 13 - NAN HARDING REMEMBERS
May 26, 2020 20:30 - 16 minutes - 11.1 MBElla Manuel learns about a well-known Norris Point family and their connections with the late 19th century history of Bonne Bay, including the British naval fleet and that "muscular Christian", the Rev. Joseph Curling.. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 12 - HUGH McKENZIE'S GRAND-DAUGHTER
May 19, 2020 11:30 - 9 minutes - 6.3 MBHere Ella Manuel visits an old lady from a long-established family down in the bottom of the South Arm of Bonne Bay, who tells about her life in days of old. A girl's duties - curing the fish, rug hooking, making sealskin boots, spinning and knitting, preparing Christmas dinners, and enjoying life in general. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 11 - THE REMARKABLE EMMA TAPPER
May 12, 2020 11:30 - 9 minutes - 6.46 MBAppearing in many of Ella Manuel’s stories, Em Tapper was one of her closest friends in Bonne Bay. At home in the woods, on the river or in a boat, she guided for Ella during the Killdevil days. Here is the story of how they first met, and something of Em’s upbringing. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 10 - WINTER ON THE HILL
May 05, 2020 11:30 - 20 minutes - 14.4 MBWith wind and snow every day, Ella Manuel crosses Bonne Bay on the ice, prepares for Christmas, and hosts a New Year’s Eve party. By the way, all across Canada the community with the highest average annual snowfall is none other than Woody Point, where over six meters or nearly 21 feet can drop over a three-month period. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 9 - AUTUMN IN THE BAY
May 01, 2020 11:30 - 17 minutes - 12.3 MBElla Manuel visits the Woody Point clinic, where she hears about jannying, the old yuletide tradition of visiting homes in disguise. She recounts the story of John Charles Roberts’ seed potatoes and their connection with the Scots of Cape Breton. As winter approaches, the weather turns rough. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 8 - A SUMMER OF WONDERS
April 28, 2020 11:30 - 20 minutes - 14 MBIn this second episode of a typical year in mid-century Bonne Bay, Ella Manuel tells of watching a house being moved, launching her new rodney, entertaining the Rockefellers, and joining a grand party in the old Orange Lodge. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 7 - SPRING - HOME AGAIN
April 24, 2020 10:30 - 11 minutes - 8.07 MBIn the next 4 episodes, Ella Manuel describes the goings on of a typical year in mid-twentieth century Bonne Bay, now the heart of Gros Morne National Park of western Newfoundland. The events she relates might well have taken place in many another outport, for they illustrate something of the traditions and culture of rural Newfoundland and Labrador. This episode begins as Ella returns to Woody Point after a winter on the Mainland, rants about the protests over the seal fishery, meets old ...
Episode 6 - THE ELECTRICITY KERFUFFLE
April 20, 2020 11:30 - 12 minutes - 8.81 MBHere Ella Manuel faces frustration as she challenges power company regulations, but finally succeeds in connecting her new house on the hill in Woody Point to electric power. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 5 - BUILDING MY HOUSE ON THE HILL
April 17, 2020 17:30 - 21 minutes - 14.5 MBHaving discovered the beauty of Woody Point and its friendly people, Ella Manuel decided to build a house for herself. Little did she know the challenges and frustrations that awaited her as she befuddled the builders with her plans. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 4 - GETTING MY BEARINGS AGAIN
April 17, 2020 17:30 - 11 minutes - 7.75 MBA few years after her Lomond venture, having sold Killdevil Lodge to the Anglican Church, Ella Manuel returned to Bonne Bay. She rented a house for the summer in Woody Point, made many new friends, and began to think of settling down. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 3 - MY KILLDEVIL DAYS
April 13, 2020 17:30 - 14 minutes - 10 MBElla Manuel returned in the mid-1940s to Newfoundland, a divorced mother of two small boys. Chatting with American sportsman Lee Wulff about the need for fly-fishing camps in north-western Newfoundland, she suddenly decided to start a sports-fishing venture. In Lomond, the once busy logging town in Bonne Bay, she set up a summer-time operation at Killdevil Lodge. Though it did not prosper, Ella gloried in the beauty of her surroundings. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 2 - A CHANCE MEETING, A NEW IDEA
April 13, 2020 17:30 - 7 minutes - 5.42 MBIn the 1940s, as Ella Manuel was thinking of how to earn a living in Western Newfoundland, she met some disgruntled fly-fishermen from the southern United States. This may have led to the sports-fishing venture she later developed at Killdevil Lodge. Send us a Text Message.
Episode 1: NO PLACE FOR A WOMAN
April 13, 2020 14:30 - 10 minutes - 7.29 MBGrowing up in Lewisporte in northeastern Newfoundland, Ella Manuel acquired a love of fishing that stayed with her for the rest of her life. In this story she tells of days on the rivers of western Newfoundland and of her encounters with men who could not accept the idea of a woman fishing expertly. On the Lomond River she glories in the thrill of fly fishing, and first hears about the remarkable Emma Tapper, who was completely at home on any river. Send us a Text Message.