Farley Mowat, The Boat Who Wouldn't Float ***

I would characterize Mowat's writing style in The Boat Who Wouldn't Float as a cross between Jean Shepherd (of A Christmas Story fame) and James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small). His old-fashioned comic sensibilities are similar to Shepherd's, and his characters are lovable rural eccentrics like Herriot's. All three men purport to be telling autobiographical stories. When I read this introduction to a comic set piece, I can only hear it in Shepherd's Christmas Story voiceover:

I have never been able to decide whether I am glad I was not present when Jack arrived at Muddy Hole... I missed witnessing a scene which has since become part of Southern Shore folklore.

Evelyn ordered this book for me because it takes place in Newfoundland (and has a titular sailboat). Despite the fact that Mowat lived in Newfoundland for many years and is presumably fond of it, in this book he emphasizes the negative stereotypes about it: desolate interior, impossible to get around in, constant fog, drunken residents, treacherous coastlines. The only place that comes off well is Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the French islands off the southern coast.

I had a hard time with a lot of the nautical humor, because his schooner was so dangerously unseaworthy. I didn't believe that Mowat would head to the open ocean knowing the boat's shortcomings. (I know, it's a comedy.)

I was happy to learn about an old smuggler's trick: tying bags of salt to the illicit as "insurance" against coast guard cutters.

If one o' they cutters comes onto we, we heaves bags and boxes over side. The salt, bein' heavy, takes the boxes straight down below, and there they stays 'till the salt melts into the water. How long that'll take depends on how much salt you uses and what kind o' bag. ... You can time it pretty close ... When 'tis time for the crates to come afloat why there'll be a couple o' dories nearby, jiggin' for cod as innocent as you please.

The Nonpareil Books edition has a nice photo on the cover, although I don't think it's actually Happy Adventure.