Doug Gray – författare

Fifty years ago, Royal Mail Ship Nascopie ended a life full of adventure on an unmarked reef in Hudson's Strait. Launched by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1911, her main mission was to supply the Company's far-flung posts in Canada's North. Alone and without any of today's navigation and communications equipment, she battled ice and icebergs, fog, storms, and uncharted waters to delivery everything the posts needed to survive and trade.Few ships played such a prolonged role in developing Canada's North and maintaining her presence there. Nascopie was a strong ship sailed by strong men. She played a historic role for Canada and this is her story.

Down the Ottawa and up the St. Lawrence. The author of The Rideau and The Timiskawa Navigators shows us how to cruise these two waterways in a safe, enjoyable and seamanlike fashion. The ice may still be on the water when Doug starts us off with the planning and preparation phases. He has us studying the charts, laying off distances, figuring our time lines, making our lists and checking our gear. Then he takes along the rivers, telling of their histories, what to see and do and what to watch for. He describes the great ships plying the Seaway, and what they mean to us in our little craft and he does it all in his own unique style. Serious advice is lightened by his wry sense of humour.Each chapter ends with a Rumrummer Tale, a story of those fascinating characters who freighted booze across the water every means, conceivable and otherwise.