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| Masters, Mates & Pilots | |
|---|---|
| Name | Masters, Mates & Pilots |
| Author | Thomas H. Raddall |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short stories |
| Publisher | Ryerson Press |
| Pub date | 1947 |
| Media type | |
Masters, Mates & Pilots is a collection of nautical short stories by Thomas H. Raddall that explores maritime life through realistic sea narratives, regional settings, and character study. The work situates itself within Canadian literature and Atlantic historiography, engaging with themes common to writers such as L. M. Montgomery, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Herman Melville, and Joseph Conrad while reflecting social and economic conditions linked to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Maritime Provinces, Royal Canadian Navy, and Fishery Board of Canada.
The book comprises interlinked tales rooted in Nova Scotian ports, featuring professional seafarers, coastal communities, and episodic voyages similar in setting and concern to works by Katherine Anne Porter, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Norman Maclean, and Dashiell Hammett. Raddall's narrative voice recalls traditions associated with John Steinbeck, W. Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling, Graham Greene, and Alistair MacLean, using concrete detail about navigation, shipboard hierarchy, and economic life tied to institutions like the Canadian Pacific Railway, Hudson's Bay Company, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Charlottetown.
Raddall wrote during and after periods marked by the Second World War, the Great Depression, and the transformation of Atlantic fisheries after Confederation (1867), drawing on personal experience in Halifax and connections to mariners associated with the Royal Navy, British Admiralty, Canadian Merchant Navy, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the regional lore conserved by Nova Scotia Archives and Public Archives of Nova Scotia. Influences and contemporaries include Earle Birney, Irving Layton, F. R. Scott, E. J. Pratt, and international figures like T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and George Orwell.
Originally published in 1947 by Ryerson Press, the collection was reprinted in multiple Canadian and international editions, appearing in catalogues alongside titles from McClelland & Stewart, Penguin Books, Oxford University Press, HarperCollins, and Random House. Subsequent printings and archival holdings are preserved by institutions including the Library and Archives Canada, Dalhousie University Archives, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of King's College, and the National Library of Canada; bibliographic references appear in bibliographies maintained by Canadian Who's Who, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Modern Language Association, and regional bibliophiles such as John A. Williamson.
Stories examine rank, duty, and moral decision-making aboard schooners, trawlers, and steamships, evoking parallels with nautical narratives by Herman Melville, Joseph Conrad, Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Themes include professional identity, intergenerational conflict, and adaptation to technological change associated with steam power, diesel engines, navigation charts, lighthouse service, and institutions like the Coast Guard (Canada), International Maritime Organization, and regional bodies such as the Fishermen's Protective Union. Character types mirror archetypes found in works by Thomas Hardy, Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, and Émile Zola, while settings evoke landscapes comparable to those in the writings of Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, Dylan Thomas, and Seamus Heaney.
Critical response placed Raddall among leading Canadian storytellers alongside Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, Michael Ondaatje, Farley Mowat, and Joy Kogawa, earning attention from reviewers at outlets such as The Globe and Mail, Maclean's, The New York Times, The Times (London), and scholarly commentary from departments at Dalhousie University, University of Toronto, Queen's University, and McGill University. The collection influenced maritime historiography and regional literature programs, informing curricula associated with Canadian Studies, archives curated by Nova Scotia Historical Society, and exhibitions at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.
While not widely adapted for major film studios like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., or television networks such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and British Broadcasting Corporation, the stories have inspired radio dramatizations, stage productions in venues like Citadel Theatre, Neptune Theatre, and readings at festivals including the Halifax Pop Explosion and Word on the Street. Raddall's maritime realism continues to shape writers and scholars linked to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canadian Maritime Law Association, Canadian Nautical Research Society, and literary projects supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, The Writers' Trust of Canada, and the Governor General's Awards.
Category:Canadian short story collections Category:1947 books