Posted by: alexhickey | July 17, 2026

Alex Hickey Interview – Newfoundland Quarterly Online

“It is critical to develop a deep understanding of those things you write about”: Alex Hickey’s Whispered Secrets

July 2026

Can you tell us a little about yourself?
There’s a well that I draw creativity from. I’ve known about it most of my life and I return frequently, sometimes simply to gaze into its depths and others for affirmation. It manifests itself in the community of St Jacques, on the south coast of the island in Fortune Bay. I was born there into a family of eight children. Call it homing or call it home, it never fails to charge my batteries and deliver me inspiration. As a young adult I taught there before moving on to a career in education that included the Department of Education, Memorial University, and the Newfoundland and Labrador Teacher’s Association.
The arts, and arts education, have been a life-long passion. Though my entry point was visual arts, my engagement has been across disciplines, which in recent years has led me to writing. Whispered Secrets: From Fortune Bay to Emerald Bay is my third book. Misfortune Bay: The Loss of the Albatross was released in 2024 and Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Schooner Hesperia, in 2025.

Can you give us the gist of the plot of Whispered Secrets? What inspired it?
The story, centered on themes of family history, memory, and personal reflection, is set in Newfoundland during the early 20th century and explores family secrets, personal struggles, and the impact of war on individuals and communities. It highlights Newfoundland’s wartime atmosphere, debates on enlistment, local reactions to the war effort, and a community’s resilience amid economic and social challenges. The narrative explores deep personal connections of love, longing, and emotional struggles among the characters, highlighted by the impact of religious differences and societal pressures on their lives and family relationships.
In 1932, Claire returns to the rugged shores of St Jacques, Newfoundland, to bury her father – and to confront the bitterness, betrayal, and religious divides that once tore her world apart. What she discovers through her mother’s guarded stories forces her to unravel the truth behind a long-buried family rift, one that began when a Protestant Claire dared to love a Roman Catholic boy.
As a teenager during the First World War, Claire’s life was shaped by two young men: Ted Burke, the boy she couldn’t forget, and Sam Farewell, the loyal friend whose letters and wartime photographs carried the weight of unspoken devotion. While the world fractured abroad, St Jacques simmered with its own tensions, leaving Claire caught between duty, desire, and the shadowy intrigues that swirled behind small-town doors. When crisis strikes, Claire and Ted flee to America, an act that binds their fates together – yet changed them forever.
Spanning continents and generations, this sweeping historical mystery uncovers the secrets we inherit, the loves we risk everything for, and the powerful currents of history that carry us farther than we ever expect.
The book was inspired by a story told to me a decade ago by an 83-year-old woman from Michigan who had returned to St Jacques to see the place where her mother had been born. I was able to give her a tour of the house her mother lived in as a child, one built in the 1880s. It was an emotional journey back in time, both real and imagined. After I unlocked the door she hesitated and stood still. I asked her if she was going to go inside. She responded, “This is too big of a moment to rush.” There were other equally poignant moments that brought laughter, tears, and stories. I learned of how her parents were in a relationship forbidden by their religious differences. That day was the genesis of this book.

Is this your first work of published fiction? How did (or did?) the process differ from writing non-fiction?
When your writing is set in the past, inspired by true events, at the outset there’s a delicate balance between the actual occurrences and those which you write. As characters emerge and their stories unfold the two diverge and your narrative stands on its own ground. That was different from my previous books which fell somewhere between non-fiction and creative-non-fiction. In them the challenge was to remain accurate to the events and portray the characters as closely as possible to the actual lives they lived. This required extensive research into them, their families and friends, and the times and places in which they lived in order to build plausible profiles. It meant questioning every action, every phrase, asking, based on what I know of this person, would they have done or said this.
While consistency and plausibility are essential to creating fictional characters, the accountability you feel as a writer is different; it’s more internal, less bound by other people’s knowledge and perception. There exists greater freedom in that. Yet, the creation and development of a believable character set in a time over a century ago still requires extensive contextual knowledge to draw upon. They must act and speak within their own life settings unless your intent is to deliberately do otherwise. If you don’t you run the risk of a reader not engaging as a result.
The process had similarities for me in that I could draw upon research which contributed to the first two books to find people as foundations to build characters. Neither type of book can be written in a vacuum thus it is critical to develop a deep understanding of those things you write about even if a great deal of that doesn’t make it directly to the printed page. Characters, circumstances, and their actions will resonate with your audience if they feel the complexities behind them.

The storylines span a century – how did you research the different time periods?
A bountiful aspect of writing later in life is decades of learning and experiences are ready at hand. This was certainly the case with Whispered Secrets. I grew up in a community with two evenly populated faith groups at a time when many stories of earlier tensions and conflict were told. Oral history and storytelling characterized my upbringing in a place steeped in colourful characters, rich history, and inter-generational conversations. Thus, when the time period overlaps your own lived time period that becomes a fertile garden to harvest.
We live in an era where a phrase such as ‘shared memory’ refers first and foremost to a computer function. In human terms it means those memories and experiences accessible to a person from their own lifetime, those told directly to them by parents, grandparents, and if lucky, great-grandparents. It can also include memories shared with them by previous generations and in turn shared with you. If you have children and/or grandchildren then you have access to their memories as well. That becomes a complex resource to utilize and when mixed with a large measure of imagination and creativity it becomes limitless. I dearly love the research one can carry out that way.
By the time I had finished writing Whispered Secrets I felt as though I had lived in those time periods, resided in those places, and walked beside those characters. Superficial knowing rarely satisfies me. I probe, deconstruct, and reflect upon historical records and documents until I internalize them to the degree that they become conversational to me. Once that emerges, writing flows relatively easy.
The World War 1 content in this book derives from my long-standing interest in that war and its impact upon Newfoundlanders. It is an interest I share with many others and was able to draw upon their work and writings as well as other projects I have been involved with around that topic over the years, which includes many years of trying to assemble a picture of St Jacques’s past. At this point I have gathered information that fits in almost every year since the mid-to-late 1700s. Research of the 1930s required a revisit to local historical work I’d already completed.
Gloucester and the northeastern United States play a significant role in this story. I had carried out research into this region several years ago when exploring the fishing-based relationship between it and the south coast of Newfoundland. This required a refresh and consultation with friends and family living there.
Michigan required extensive examination since I had limited knowledge of the history, settlement, or geography of the state. I learned quite a bit from that and was able to apply knowledge I had acquired from my University days and my interest in folklore research methodologies. Through that lens I was able to construct the latter portion of my story. A keen interest in Newfoundland music and the works of ethnomusicologists such as Kenneth Peacock, Elizabeth Greenleaf, Helen Creighton, Alan Lomax, and others helped as well.

You play a lot with textual formats – letters, song lyrics, interviews. What do these choices bring to the narrative?
Often is heard, “show, don’t tell” when writing techniques are discussed. It is effective. I also like to have readers engage with formats to extend the reading experience beyond the page. Reading a letter in the voice of the person who wrote it, perusing lyrics to a song after the singer speaks to its significance, or examining photographs that have no explanation makes the reading experience somewhat akin to the research behind the story. I use a model sailing ship in the story which is riddled with secrets that can only be unravelled through the character physically examining them. In the same way, through the use of different formats, I want the reader to feel as if they are a part of unravelling the story as well. In my mind it brings more immediacy. These documents relate back to characters the reader encountered earlier in the book. In a way it brings the characters alive as active entities who created those things themselves. Besides that, it’s a fun thing to do.

What’s your next project?
The early history of the south coast of Newfoundland is not well-documented. There are scant historical records prior to 1800. That opens the door to creatively imagining the past, to pose what-if questions and to imagine what might have happened. My next book is set in the late 1600 and early 1700s when governance existed in name only. There was great conflict between the English and French and our shores were repeatedly visited by buccaneers and pirates. The lead character is a young fisher-woman from Cornwall, England, who gets pressed into service on a pirate ship and taken across the Atlantic to Newfoundland. Through strength, determination, and navigation knowledge she perseveres and eventually establishes herself as an entrepreneur that straddles the legal and illegal. In a story that moves from Europe to the New World and between Newfoundland, St Pierre, and Bermuda we see life in its rawest and noblest forms. It’s a story of adventure, love, relationships, smuggling, and survival played out along the south coast in the shadows of nations.

Whispered Secrets ($24.95) is published by Flanker Press.

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Posted by: alexhickey | June 3, 2026

A Buoy* and a Boy

Alex Hickey June 2026

How often do we look at a photograph and hastily conclude that we know what it’s about? More often than not, I suggest. A short while ago I received a message from an acquaintance telling me of how a friend of his had been looking at a photograph on my Blog and had a few questions for me. He put us in touch. What followed was a delightful exchange of information and conversations, one of many I’ve had with readers since starting the Blog, All Things St. Jacques, in 2013.

The photo this gentlemen was inquiring about was in a post I had written in 2023, titled, The Iron Buoy. It was about a buoy that generations of St. Jacques mariners used for anchorage and maneuvering sailing schooners far enough from shore to capture the wind in their sails.  The image showed a small seaplane secured to the buoy sometime in the 1940’s. Very little was remembered about the event beyond that it happened. One elderly lady recalled for me that it was somehow connected to a local airman, Harry Young who once lived in the community. I was curious about that and attempted further research but wasn’t able to find any more information. For three years the photograph was looked at, commented on and marveled at by viewers. During that time, no new information emerged. My curiosity around the plane didn’t abate. I wanted to know where it came from, why it was there, who owned it, where it flew when it left, how long was it there, who was on the plane, and who the pilot was, yet, the questions all remained unanswered.

Norseman Seaplane St. Jacques Newfoundland 1944

Keep in mind that the primary reason for posting the image was to show the buoy. All other questions were secondary at that time. However, all that changed when I contacted the gentleman who had inquired about the photograph. Sean Gilmore, born in 1934, suggested to me that the man who flew that plane, was his father, Joe Gilmore, who was stationed in Gander with the Royal Air Force. The plane was a Norseman, manufactured in Montreal. Sean thinks this one had been nicknamed the Flying Caribou to honour the S. S. Caribou and the many lives that were lost when it was torpedoed and sunk while crossing the strait between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on October 14th 1942, by a German submarine.

It got even more interesting rather quickly for Sean then told me that this photo was taken either upon arrival or departure in the summer of 1943 or 1944 and he was one of the passengers on that plane. His supposition was that it was most likely a departure image given the small boat which was likely delivering him to the plane. It turned out that Sean’s father was a good friend of an aircraft mechanic from St. Jacques, by the name of Harry Young. They worked together at the airbase in Gander. Sean, who was about 10 years old at the time, had just spent the summer in St. Jacques with Harry’s parents, John and Isabelle Young. In Sean’s words, “My dad had flown me to St Jacques in ‘43 or ‘44, when I was 9 or 10 years old. Harry Young was an aircraft mechanic with the Royal Airforce Transportation Command (RAFTC), my dad was chief engineer RAFTC. I really have no idea or the details of the arrangements or how it came to be that I was to spend my summer in St Jacques, and to be fortunate enough to spend that time with the Young family. I recall the buoy and tying up to it, being rowed to the wharf, and feeling very much at home the whole time while there. St Jacques in many ways reminded me of our home, a coastal town named Ardglass in County Down, Northern Ireland.”

My initial contact, which led me to finding this information, was with author Darrell Hillier of Gander, whose book, North Atlantic Crossroads: The Royal Air Force Ferry Command Gander Unit, 1940–1946 was published in 2021. I had met Darrel previously and his book was in my library, however, I had not gotten around to reading it. You can surmise what happened then. I soon found a comprehensive accounting of the role Sean’s father played in Gander during WW II.

Darrell is an avid historian as well and this story was new to him. He set about finding out more. He messaged me with the following:

“The RAF Ferry Command at Gander kept two flight logs, one external for overseas flights, and the other internal for local flights and those incoming (mostly bombers) from Dorval in Montreal. Fortunately, these logs survived the war. I checked the internal logs and found one relevant entry: On 23 July 1944, Captain Joe Gilmore flew to St. Jacques and return in Norseman FR405. This was the only entry I could find referencing St. Jacques. Perhaps Sean was on this flight!”

Indeed he was. I sent Sean 1945 Census information for St. Jacques and asked him about his recollections of that summer.

“One of the first things I did after reading your posting was to look up the census data exactly for that reason. Making friends was easy, unfortunately I do not recall names and only some of the many adventures we shared. My memory is just not that good, and frankly last names were really not that  important when you’re 9 or 10 years old There was one of my friends who was very proud of his family name.  Time has played its tricks.  I thought it was Freeman or something similar but I could not find anything close to that in any census I read. What I do remember was that his home was on what I think would be the Western curve of the harbour. If my memory is even close I would say, for reference sake, the Young home was on the Northern side. That’s about as close as I can get to names of those I met. One other thing that comes to mind was having to go by boat to Belleoram for a haircut. There was no barber in St. Jacques.”

I asked Sean to share more of his recollections of that summer visit. This is what he wrote.

“I recall my first taste of dried caplin. We, I mean my friends and I, would carry pockets full and snack on them during our adventures around and outside of the bay. The Young family had bins of caplin in their attic. I’m guessing that everyone in St Jacques had similar arrangements.

On one occasion, Mr. Young showed me his sidearm.  It was a Luger in an unusual wood holster. The holster served a dual purpose, via a rail-like system, the firearm could be mounted to the holster and used as a rifle. He told me he carried it, particularly when sailing to the Labrador coast, and once was obliged to shoot a sled dog that had attacked him. It’s not unusual for a kid to remember a story like that. I also have a recollection that he had owned and operated 11 schooners, and lost them to storms. The number comes from memory and may not be exact. I remember too, the wharf resident Sculpin. I watched it many times herd smaller fish, what I think folks called Connors, into a sunken 45 gallon drum, then follow them in, and the only thing to exit would be a Sculpin with tails sticking out of its mouth.”

The Young Brothers, John, Sam and Randall, were members of a merchant family who operated a fishing business in St. Jacques for nearly a century. During that time they owned and lost many vessels.

During our conversations Sean mentioned something quite similar to a story my grandmother told me about when she lived on St. Jacques island during WW II where my grandfather was the lightkeeper.  She recounted of living in fear of Germans coming ashore on the island and attacking them.  At night, she said, they could hear the submarines surface and run their generators to charge their batteries under the cover of darkness. At times they could hear their voices on the wind.  Sean recalled, stories he had been told while in St. Jacques that summer of “German submarines, on occasion, tying up to the buoy during the night, running their diesels to charge batteries and hearing crew member walking and talking while on the deck. Those that told the story had absolutely no doubt that the subs were indeed German and could point to sub identification silhouette posters hung on the wall in what served as the post office. I have no idea if the stories are in fact true. I was certainly convinced.”

If you look closely at the photograph of the Norseman plane, you’ll notice a rowboat on its Port side. It looks quite similar to the ‘Humming Top,’ which was was owned by John Young, Sean’s hosts for that summer visit. The image below shows John, his wife Isabelle and two other women in the boat.

Humming Top Rowboat Owned by John Young, St. Jacques c. 1944

I sent Sean several photographs from that time period to assist with memories, including one of John Young’s family taken on the roadway outside their home during WW II. All of his children were adults by that time. Seated on the ground at the bottom of the image was a little boy whose identity always befuddled me. Through the years I’d asked various descendants who the child might be. None knew for certain. I was hopeful that Sean might recall the child. He sent me a message soon after receiving the images. He said of the group picture in particular, “I think, so far, the only one I recognize is Harry Young. I feel that I remember the younger women.  It’s been a long time, and I am 92 – that’s an acquired excuse! For a while I thought the boy pictured sitting in the group photo might even be me. I have no idea how that would be possible without a date for the photograph.”

In a follow-up message he said, “Alex, is there a date on this photo? I am reasonably certain that I am the guy sitting, knees up, near Mr. Young. If I am correct it would have been taken shortly before I left. I remember we had a special meal, I think it was goat, and it was delicious, a special meal for a special occasion, though I have no idea now just what the occasion may have been.”

The occasion seems to have been a family gathering with their son Harry and their daughters having returned home for a visit. Of note, John and Belle’s daughter Mollie had married a British airman, Harry Rymer, who is also in the picture. That may have been the reason to celebrate.

Young Family St. Jacques 1944

Sean added, “You know, I may have seen this picture before, many years ago. I’m really grateful to you for resurrecting it, not sure that’s the right word, but you know what I mean.”

At the end of that message he added: “PS. I checked with my wife. It’s official. She thinks it’s me!”

Now that you’ve met Sean Gilmore through his memories as a child visiting St. Jacques let’s explore who he grew up to become as an adult.

Sean Gilmore’s father’s life ended in tragedy. On May 15, 1945, while en route to Montreal, the Norseman crashed near Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Both Joe and his passenger were killed. His body was brought back to Gander for interment at the Gander Commonwealth Graves Cemetery, Row 14, Grave 11.

After his father’s death Sean and the rest of his family moved to Canada aboard a B24 Bomber. In the workforce he worked as tool and die maker with Northern Electric for eleven years while studying at McGill and Concordia in Montreal. In 1966 he promoted to Human Resources (HR) Manager, then in 1968 became head of Selection and Placement. In 1971 he was appointed Director of the Transmission Division. In 1975 he moved on from that company to join Union Carbide as their Human Resource Director of their Metals Division. Within a few years he was HR for all of Union Carbide in Quebec responsible for all employee relations including negotiating collective agreements. Come 1979 he assumed HR responsibilities for the company Canada-wide. He left Union Carbide in 1984 to join another company, Twinpak, in a similar role, from which he retired in 1991.

In 1982 Sean acquired his pilot’s license.  After retirement he bought and refurbished an older Piper Cherokee 140 plane. During those years of flying he met his present wife and in 1990 they established a Flight Training School which they ran for eleven years. Before selling that enterprise they bought the design and manufacturing rights to an aircraft building kit called the Bush Caddy. They designed and built new and larger aircraft ranging from two to four seaters and sold them world-wide. In 2010 they sold the business and retired. He and Marlene married in 2011.

Sean Gilmore, as you’ve seen, has had a busy career, but there’s more. He’s been a SCUBA diver since 1953 and in his early days designed and produced SCUBA related products. In 1964, along with another diver, he convinced Parks Canada of the importance of underwater archaeology. They did trial projects in the Richelieu River and later in Lake Huron. There, they recovered a fur trade bateau. This led Parks Canada to conduct further underwater archaeology which has included recovery of much of the French ship Michaud, the Red Bay Basque Whaling ship in Labrador and explorer Franklin’s ship the HMS Erebus, which Sean points out, ironically occurred fifty years almost to the day after they found the first fur trade bateau which convinced Parks Canada that underwater archaeology was worthwhile.

Sean Gilmore and Walter Zacarchuk Recovering a Bateau
Sean Gilmore Recovering a Cannon

It is often in the ordinary moments of life that we find the most extraordinary things. In the many times I looked at that photograph of the Norseman plane tethered to the Iron Buoy in St. Jacques harbour I never wondered who was sitting in that rowboat on the plane’s port side. Yet, in the many time I looked at the photograph of the Young family I did wonder who the child was in the foreground. The photographs were taken by different people for different purposes. A seaplane was a novelty, and during wartime, a significant curiosity for everyone. The family portrait held significance to those in the picture, who would soon disperse, as a record of their gathering. Over the years I’ve met many of the descendants of that family including the grandson of Mollie and Harry Rymer, the daughters of their son John Jr. who wasn’t in the picture. Never did I imagine I would make a connection between the two photographs, not until Darrel Hillier put me in touch with Sean Gilmore.

There is always so much more to be seen in a photograph than we first surmise, so much more than the image is intended to capture. In a world saturated with visual imagery and technological innovations that can fuel a false sense of knowing we could do well to treasure those images from our past. They offer more than nostalgia, more than they intended at the time. For eighty-two years those photographs of the mooring Buoy and the Young Family have existed and carried forward, seen by many eyes, reflected upon by many minds, then along comes a key to unlock their connection, to tell the world a story.

I’ll leave the last word of this posting to Sean. “Thanks again, Alex, for bringing back through your posting, memories of some of the best years of my life, in particular my time in St. Jacques.”

*The word buoy is frequently pronounced with a silent ‘u’ in traditional Newfoundland English. That pronunciations may plausibly derive from Middle or Old European languages which were brought to the island by early settlers and have survived intact for centuries.

Links to Explore

Canadian Heritage War Museum – Norseman

Joe Gilmore MBE

John Joseph “Joe” Gilmore

Franklin’s Lost Ships

Archaeology of a Sixteenth-Century Basque Whaling Boat

The Iron Buoy

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Posted by: alexhickey | January 21, 2026

Kate and Abe: A Newfoundland Love Story

Book cocer showing a sailing schooner approaching a rocky shoreline during a storm . The vessel is set against a heavily tinged red sky and a dark foreground. Its title is Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Schooner Hesperia. Written by Alex Hickey.

Life, love, and longing all flow through the pages of Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Schooner Hesperia.  Open the covers to meet sea captain, Abe Skinner and Kate Emberley, his wife of thirty-one years, as they navigate through a crisis that brings the course of their lives into sharp focus.  Along the way, you’ll see them as young lovers who sit by the ocean and plan their wedding.  Experience the joy of owning the world as they sail into a life that will deliver three daughters, a son, and a grandchild whose presence fills their later years.

Travel back in time to experience life in a small outport on the coast of Newfoundland during World War I, a time when conflict on the world stage affects even the smallest of children, challenges relationships, and tests the limits of a couple’s bonds.  Witness the strength of extended family, the support of neighbours and the shared anguish of a community. Meet the crew of the Hesperia and the women in their lives as they meet one challenge after another.

See the relationship of Kate and Abe through each other’s eyes, their reflections and fears. Learn about their daughters, the men they married and the twists and turns their lives have taken as they move into worlds seemingly far away from that of their parents. Empathize with the love of a mother for her only son as she anxiously awaits his next letter and combs the newspapers seeking anything about the fate of her soldier fighting in France.

Kate was twenty-one when she married twenty-nine-year-old Abe.  Their life together emerges as the story unfolds to test the resolve of even the strongest relationship. In a world fraught with harsh realities, danger, unpredictable forces of nature and an event that changes the course of their lives forever, Kate finds enormous strength to carry on.

Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Schooner Hesperia is published by Flanker Press Ltd, Paradise, NL sales@flankerpress.com . Pick up your copy at any Coles/Indigo bookstores and at various other locations throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, or online at those and other vendors such as Amazon.ca.

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Posted by: alexhickey | December 14, 2025

Christmas Tree Decorations

December social media posts are decorated with images of Christmas Trees. There’s no contest for best tree, best decorated tree, most innovative tree or silliest tree, yet their proliferation suggests otherwise. There was a time, and may still be in some homes, when neighbours and friends were invited to ‘drop over to see our tree.’ That invitation wasn’t an offer to come, stand and gawk at the evergreen standing in the corner of the living room, but to come socialize, to enjoy each other’s company during the Season.  That seems to have changed a bit with the arrival of Facebook, Instagram and the like. Now, it seems it is about ‘seeing the tree.’

Don’t get me wrong. Seeing the tree is always a visual delight. It is astounding how a simple, often gangly, otherwise mundane object is transformed by human hands into such a beauteous installation in the midst of someone’s home — to stands in stark contrast to everyday life.  In my memory, it has always been so, whether the tree came from the nearby forest or out of a box. I don’t recall ever seeing two decorated trees looking alike for most of my lifetime. I have seen them in recent years, as promoters and designers vie to create attention with their suggestion of, ‘how to decorate your tree.’

There are ribbon trees, upside-down trees, white trees, themed trees, huge bows, burlap, fibre-optic, and single-colour decorated trees.  You’ve seen them too. There have been years when there seems to be an attempt to decorate a tree to look like everyone else’s.  Go figure. I am not suggesting that when the invitation to drop by to see the tree was accepted that there weren’t subjective and aesthetic judgements made about how well or how badly the neighbours tree was decorated, for there certainly were.  I’ve seen Christmas trees that were more oval than triangular, their branches extending well into the room, squeezing you back to the doorway. Others were skinny and sparse, prompting me to wonder what the person was thinking when that tree was chosen among a forest full of choices. I must confess I’ve had to turn one side of a tree to the wall to hide its sparse branches or disguise the thin spots with artificial greenery, a time or two, myself.

The perfect Christmas tree is not what someone tells us it should be. It’s not a formula to follow or a kit to assemble with directions that lose meaning in translation. If not, what is it? I believe it’s the tree that tells a story of the family or person who decorates it. It’s the tree that bends its branches under the weight of souvenirs of vacations, family visits, favourite places, people remembered, and commemorations. That Christmas tree also proudly displays handmade baubles and bows from children’s creative hands; boldly shows off items from Christmases past, from trees of childhood or those of family members whose hands no longer decorate. Such a tree stands tall in my eyes with its worn top that’s withered over time and offers its welcoming branches as a place to share precious memories.

Resting on its sweetly scented needles or hanging below their canopy are miniature, framed photographs of special people, lovingly painted odd coloured walnut husks, crocheted stars and balls starched to perfection, and bells from the collars of family pets. In between them hang twirling ballerinas, team emblazoned hockey sticks, hand-written scrolls, fifteen-year-old letters to Santa, colourful plastic childhood cartoon characters and special, never-to-be-forgotten cards. And, if you like, toss a few strands of tinsel here and there in remembrance of aunts and grandmothers whose love of that shiny, stringy material still haunts your memory.

That’s the story of Christmas told in the charms and treasures of those who are in it, a stage to gaze upon when the lights are dim, think about in quiet moments, and shed a joyful tear at having been part of that incredible plot.  

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Posted by: alexhickey | December 13, 2025

Alex Hickey on the Fisheries Broadcast

Last week, I had the privilege of visiting the studio of CBC Radio in St. John’s for an interview with Paula Gale of the Fisheries Broadcast. The Broadcast has been on the air at CBC since 1951, bringing Newfoundland and Labrador residents stories of life at the edge of the great Atlantic Ocean. The host was most welcoming, resulting in a very comfortable conversation. The interview was broadcast on December 8th, 2025. We discussed both Misfortune Bay and Evening Star, research practices, the writing process and my upcoming books for 2026.

Click on the screenshot below to access the Interview.

Here is another way to access the interview. Click or copy and paste into your browser.

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-122-the-broadcast/clip/16186530-why-ffaw-wants-map-fishing-areas-nflds-south

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Posted by: alexhickey | September 17, 2025

A Living Thing

Alex Hickey, 2025-09-17

Book cocer showing a sailing schooner approaching a rocky shoreline during a storm . The vessel is set against a heavily tinged red sky and a dark foreground. Its title is Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Schooner Hesperia. Written by Alex Hickey.

On the eve of releasing my book, Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Schooner Hesperia, I had the profound experience of walking the deck of another schooner built around the same time as the Hesperia. After several years of reading, researching and writing about schooners that first step onto the deck of the Ernestina Morrissey in Brigus, NL, was like entering a time travel portal. When my foot made contact with that worn deck moving with the motion of the sea, the visceral response was beyond words. In an instant, the forces of the universe that cause tides and the great oceans of the world to exist in a continuous state of movement were shared with me through that vessel.

I have often heard sailors, and those familiar with the sea, remark that schooners are living things. I am doubtful that anyone has ever been able to fully explain what is meant by that. Yet, when you look around the deck of one, at the masts, the ropes, rigging and sails, the shape of the hull and the manner in which it sits atop the water, there’s a suggestion that it is waiting for someone to make the first move. Even at dockside, with the subtle rise and fall of waves, it keeps alive its symbiotic relationship with the sea. The motion never ends as it awaits the casting off of a hawser, the raising of a sail, a swing of the boom and a hand at the helm.

When I was writing Evening Star, an imagined account of an actual event that took place in 1916 off the south coast of Newfoundland, I stood in the boots of Captain Abe Skinner of the Hesperia and imagined the experience of sailing between St. Jacques in Fortune Bay and Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, thence to St. Pierre and Miquelon in December. I read about life at sea at that time, talked to sailors and consulted experts. I studied marine charts, the language and lore of the sea, the origin, actions and consequences of storms, and the events of that time period on the east coast of North America.  It was all informative and helped with recounting that voyage.

The sea is no stranger to me. I’ve seen it from above and below its surface, moved across it in vessels that ranged from small dories to a Canadian Navy ship, and vicariously lived on it through the storytelling of those who did so in all seasons and under all conditions. I know about it, but I don’t truly know it as do those whose lives have been spent upon and under it. There is one thing, though, that we all have in common. That is the rhythm of the ocean felt through the ship itself. It is a feeling of knowing that defies description. You can look at someone experiencing it with you, and smile, for they know what you are feeling. There’s no need to speak. That’s where the living ship comes in. Its communication is elemental, profound, and primordial.

When the deck of the Morrissey rose to meet the sole of my foot I was once again standing in the boots of Captain Abe Skinner.

Evening Star: The Final Voyage of the Hesperia, is published by Flanker Press and available online and in bookstores as of October, 2025.  

Black schooner, Ernestina Morrissey at dockside in Brigus, Newfoundland.
Coiled rope hanging on the bulwark of a sailing schooner.
Wheel used to steer a sailing ship.
A windlass used to winch the anchor aboard a sailing ship.
Name plate of schooner Ernestina Morrissey.
A block used to control and direct lines on a ship when hoisting a sail.

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Posted by: alexhickey | July 26, 2025

109th Anniversary of the Loss of the Albatross

Alex Hickey – 26-07-2025

The Albatross

The end of July 2025 marks the 109th anniversary of the collision off Belleoram Back Cove in Fortune Bay which sent the Albatross to the bottom, taking with it the body of Isaac Burke, lightkeeper from St. Jacques Island, who likely died on impact when the bow of the S.S. Hump sliced through the mid-section of the twenty-seven foot medical schooner of Dr. Conrad Fitz-Gerald. Like most unexpected events their world changed in a fraction of a second. Alec Tibbo and his brother George, both of St. Jacques, were tossed into the dark night water along with Fitz-Gerald. Fortunately the three survived, but not without facing great peril.

The Albatross was conducting a search for the yacht, Caribou, owned and captained by Phillip Ryan, telegraph relay operator from Long Harbour, Fortune Bay which Burke had witnessed capsize several hours earlier. The Caribou had been transporting Customs and Welfare Officer, Harry Clinton of St. Jacques, around the Bay to visit clients. No sign of the two men or the Caribou was ever found.

Aboard the S.S. Hump was a crew of men from the Fortune Bay area, primarily St. Jacques and Belleoram. One of them, the Purser, was Isaac Burke’s son, Charles. Another, was Barry Lynch, a close family friend of the Burkes. Harry Clinton was Isaac Burke’s brother-in-law. These would have been relatively common, unnoticed relationships in any community. However, in a small town of several hundred people, these relationships become quite pronounced when tragedy strikes.

Clinton and Ryan had two daughters each, while Burke had eight children. The immensity of how this event affected people of the community is hard to fathom these many years later; yet, from experiences in our own lives, we can project and empathize. Beyond the loss of human life, the community’s revered Doctor lost his mobile medical clinic which he sailed throughout Fortune Bay to tend to the sick. Aboard the Hump was a crew who knew these men; some knew their families. All of them served the people who lived along that section of the south coast of Newfoundland.  The shock waves reverberated through all of those communities.

Author – Alex Hickey

My book, Misfortune Bay: The Loss of the Albatross, is a humble effort to share that story, to keep its impact alive in current memory, and to introduce younger generations to those events. The South Coast is often referred to as ‘the forgotten coast.’ It isn’t so much forgotten as under-told. We have stories, heritage, history and a strong living culture. Unlike other parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, many of our stories have remained local. In this book I hope I have contributed to shedding a little light on Fortune Bay. If you haven’t read it yet, it is available at Public Libraries across the Province, local bookstores, many Gas Stations and online at your favourite booksellers. If none of these are accessible to you, get in touch with me through my Blog, All Things St. Jacques and we will work something out.

 

 

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Posted by: alexhickey | May 7, 2025

The Women of Misfortune Bay

When we read, write, take photographs, explore the environment, and think about world events or family matters, we do so with a point of view, a way of viewing things.  It’s the standpoint or position from which we look at things. If the thing before us is complex we may look at it from multiple points of view to achieve a better understanding.   When I was writing Misfortune Bay: The Loss of the Albatross, I spent a lot of time thinking about the main characters and the people who loved them and who they loved in turn. Tragic events such as the one that befell the men in this story didn’t happen in isolation from their wives, mothers or children.

Keturah Fitz-Gerald, wife of Conrad, is away visiting her family in the hometown of her parents in Cape Breton at the time of the incident. Her presence is felt through her formal flower garden, Conrad’s reflections about where she sat at the table, and flashbacks and memories of the narrator and other events such as having one of her sons overseas fighting in WWI. We see her in earlier times and get to know her before the tragedy takes place. That way, as readers, we can infer her response, consider how she might have felt, and think about how she might have reacted when the news reached her.  We place ourselves in her point of view.

The Tibbo brothers, Alec and George are married. We meet Elizabeth, Alec’s wife, through his recollection of her making his favourite meal of boiled salt-back pork and cabbage.  That recollection serves to bring her alive. We see her as a woman of humour who enjoys the repartee between them.  We also find out she is from Harbour Breton, where her experiences with food were different., Bridgette, married to George, is a more serious woman of Scottish ancestry, a midwife who has birthed many of the children of her community. When we meet her she is attending pregnant Monica Lynch, wife of Barry, engineer on the Hump, whose ship will come into conflict with the Albatross on which Bridgette’s husband is serving that night. She comes across as a bit austere, a hard worker, empathetic, intuitive and very competent.

Fanny Clinton is introduced to the reader at the point when she and her daughters find out that the vessel carrying her husband, Harry, has capsized. She finds confidence in putting on her husband’s cardigan and the warmth from her children’s bodies. We witness her biting down hard and retaining composure to give her daughters strength, and then turn to her religious beliefs to find solace and support.

Bess Burke was a Hearn who grew up in Harbour Breton. The events that unfold for her happen through her looking out the windows of her kitchen. She likes black tea, unlike other women in the community, sips it even when it gets cold and likes to think of where in the world the tea was grown. Most of what we learn about her is through her thoughts and actions. She has a large family, one of whom is Purser on the Hump. She is also revealed through her husband’s reflection of her presence with him, the light keeper on St. Jacques Island, who is a volunteer member of Fitz-Gerald’s crew searching for Clinton and Ryan.

Marcella Ryan is a mother of two girls, whom we meet through reference. Our knowledge of Marcella comes about indirectly through the story of her unfortunate death, its impact on her husband, Phillip and how that event affects the narrator and the guide, Stephen Bernard, who witnessed the incident. Although she comes to us through the point of view of these men, our true understanding of her as a mother and wife lies in the circumstances of where she lives. This pushed the reader to see her life from her point of view.

As we approach a day which for many celebrates the roles of mothers in our lives, it is important to remember the mothers of our past.

In Misfortune Bay I attempted to bring out the personalities and views of these women as wives, mothers and sisters. I didn’t invent them. They were real people who lived, loved and contributed to the lives of many, supported their community, worked for others and themselves, and saw the world through their own eyes. Based upon interviews, written recollections of them, and records of their lives and the lives of their peers, I re-imagined them. Are my characterizations completely accurate? Probably not! However, I have attempted to capture enough of them for you, the reader, to see them, to glimpse the lives they lived and to reflect on the story from their points of view.

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Posted by: alexhickey | April 15, 2025

Twenty Questions

The Telegram’s Nicholas Mercer conducted a Twenty-Question interview with me for the April 15th edition. It was a delightful activity and a most enjoyable interview with Nick. I’ve done interviews with him before, and every time it has been as professional as it gets. He brings to the conversation insight and genuine interest. Below is an image, a screenshot, of the lead to the story. At the bottom of the image is a direct link to the story.

https://www.saltwire.com/newfoundland-labrador/alex-hickey-20-questions

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Posted by: alexhickey | February 9, 2025

Ella Manuel on Dr. Conrad Fitz-Gerald and “The Albatross.”

Antony Berger published No Place for a Woman in 2020. This was a collection of writings by his mother, Ella Manuel. Later, he created a Podcast Series around that book, called Down to Sally’s Cove. One of these podcasts features a piece on Dr. Conrad Fitz-Gerald of St. Jacques. My book, Misfortune Bay: The Loss of the Albatross, from Flanker Press Ltd, tells one story of this man that took place in 1916.

Ella Manuel was born in Lewisporte. She left there in the 1920’s and eventually returned to Newfoundland in 1945 and settled in Bonne Bay. She wrote articles for newspapers and magazines as well as radio scripts. She worked the CBC from 1953 to 1969 and through radio became known across the country. Besides writing radio commentaries and pieces on social issues, she had several fictional works for young people appear in anthologies.

The Newfoundland Historical Society had this to say about the Down to Sally’s Cove Podcasts.

These are stories of remarkable men and women; travels on fishing vessels and coastal steamers; medics, missionaries, and military men who came from England in the late 1800’s; and many other tales that reflect the culture, tradition and language of Newfoundland.

Only one recording of her broadcasts still exists, so her stories are being read by Antony Berger.

In Episode 33 of this podcast series, Ella Manuel gives us a wonderful description of Conrad Fitz-Gerald as a man, a sailor and a doctor. She captures the spirit and dedication of this medical pioneer who unselfishly dedicated his life’s work to serving the people of Fortune Bay from his land-based clinic and from his thirty-foot custom-designed medical schooner, The Albatross, built for him by master builder John Cluett of Belleoram. From 1873 to 1900 he worked out of Hr. Breton. Upon retirement, he relocated to St. Jacques, a more central location that gave him better access to most communities around the bay. There, he built a three-story home and medical clinic and ministered to people until he died in 1939. Conrad, and his wife Keturah Partridge, are buried in a corner plot in the graveyard of St. Michael and All Angel’s Church in St. Jacques, Newfoundland.

Have a listen to Anthony Berger read this extraordinary piece of insight into this remarkable man.

Dr. Fitz of the Albatross Episode 33 – Dr. Fitz of “The Albatross”

Visit the link below to listen to all of the Podcasts in this series.

Down to Sally’s Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel

alexhickey

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