The Boat Who Wouldn't Float

Farley Mowat is nothing if not persistent. After purchasing the Newfoundland schooner from Hell, badly misnamed as Happy Adventure, he finds he has a boat that leaks constantly, has a compass that doesn't know where magnetic north is, hates to head West, has an engine that works when it feels like it and that is just for starters. Much of the time sailing is in the fog, both real and self imposed. Most sane men would have turned this boat into kindling, but Mowat sailors on, one harrowing experience after another with an assortment of mates and in the process tells us a funny and true story of his adventures as only he can. Written over thirty years ago, the story has lost none of its charm and interest.

Farley Mowat has written on a wide variety of subjects, from arctic wolves, Northern Man, WWII, deep-sea salvage tugs, and his experiences as a boy and young man. All have been well worth the reading, and many have become my treasured friends, to be re-read over and over...In "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float" Mowat describes in detail his ownership of a Newfoundland schooner "Happy Adventure" (aka "Itchatchozale Alai" and the flagship of the Basque fleet of St. Pierre - read the book, you sort of had to be there...)Vintage Mowat, and yet another which I have worn out the paperback, and sought the hardback.

This is a tremendous sea yarn told by an old salt with many years of sailing under his belt. Farley Mowat is not well known as a sailor perhaps, but as someone who has skippered his way along the Newfoundland coast and survived, he must be reasonably authentic. Like many inland-born Canadians, Mowat had not sailed a small boat at sea before arriving in Newfoundland after the war. However, he had done a lot of sailing on Lake Superior in his boyhood and youth, on a yacht his father owned and sailed for many years. And sailing appears to have been in his blood.The tale of how he acquires this particular boat, then sails along the coast for the summer and finally brings it up the St-Lawrence Seaway all the way to Montreal, will please any lover of maritime fare. Among his many books, Mowat wrote a number of autobiographical ones, some of which are lighter in tone. "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float" is delightfully easy to read and, along with "The Dog Who Wouldn't Be"(the story of Mowat's childhood), gives interesting insights into the life of one of Canada's foremost writers.

The first time I read this book was on a passage aboard a thirty foot sloop. We were sailing from Baddeck on Cape Breaton Island on our way to the south coast of Newfoundland.This was in 1977. The book I believe had been relaesed not much before that time. It was as if I was reading an introduction to the Island and to the people of Newfoundland.I could not put it down. My sides ached from laughing from the beggining to the end.If you have never been to Newfoundland this book will give you inspiration to want to go there. It is a wonderful portrait of the Island and the People.