Frederick Sleigh Farrar

This book is part of a series from around the 1950s that was intended to tell great Canadian stories. The author was part of the crew aboard the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) schooner St. Roch, which in 1940 was tasked with sailing through the Northwest Passage from west to east. It was the first vessel to do so, and it was a perilous journey. The story is told in a straightforward manner, with illustrations in the style of the older Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels—mostly black and white with some splashes of a single colour.

I found this story interesting and in a way refreshing: reading about temperatures in the minus 30s Celsius when you’re experiencing heat in the plus 30s is delightful. And as a snapshot in time, this book is interesting for its writing style, illustration, typesetting, and overall presentation.

On the negative side, some of the dialogue seemed a bit exposition-y or contrived to impart information to the audience. And while the crew of the St. Roch welcomed the opportunity to meet and trade with the Inuit in the communities they sailed to, the author’s description of them comes across as patronizing to a 21st-century reader.

I would recommend this for people who are really geeky about old books about Canadian history.… (more)