I'LL GO THE LENGTH OF MESELF

In this biography/memoir, a man recounts his father’s eventful life as a daring master mariner.

Eric Guy Earle was born in 1917 in Carbonear, Newfoundland, during the heyday of the schooner, a vessel that would come to be the centerpiece of his seafaring life. He inherited the love of the sea from his father, Art, and was a prodigious apprentice. He took over command of Art’s schooner when he was only 16 years old, and by 18, he was certified a master mariner. By the time he was 30, he took the reins of the family business, Earle Freighting Service, and eventually turned it into a dynastic empire. He was as talented as he was courageous—he set various speed records for his trips to the West Indies and navigated the Atlantic during World War II when it was dangerously infested with enemy submarines and U-boats. Philip Earle, Guy’s son, lovingly chronicles his father’s extraordinary exploits, painting a vivid picture of a larger-than-life man with a thirst for adventure: “You never knew what to expect from the skipper. He lived life to the fullest as he shared his fun, happiness, and success with everyone around him—even with strangers.” The author’s biography is also a memoir—he recounts his own youth under Guy’s tutelage, recalling his introduction to a mariner’s life at 8. Guy’s career was a truly memorable one, endearingly captured by his son, who also intelligently limns the end of a schooner era that was ultimately destroyed by government policy. But this affectionate homage is often fawning to the point of hagiography: “The Skipper always had a fast car and could handle it at top speed on gravel roads better than any race car driver.” Despite Guy’s undeniably remarkable exploits, this book, which largely relates a series of anecdotes and features personal photographs, is most likely to grab the attention of those who knew and loved him.

An intriguing but uneven account of a Newfoundland mariner’s impressive life.