I suppose I probably read The Dog that Wouldn’t Be first but as I aged I worked my way along, most memorably, to The Boat that Wouldn’t Float, Serpant’s Coil, and Grey Seas Under.
SANDRA MARTIN
The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, May. 07 2014, 12:34 PM EDT
Last updated Wednesday, May. 07 2014, 2:26 PM EDT
Farley Mowat, one of the elder statesmen of Canadian literature, has died five days short of his 93rd birthday, a publishing industry source confirmed.Mr. Mowat was a trickster, a ferocious imp with a silver pen, an ardent environmentalist who opened up the idea of the North to curious southerners, a public clown who hid his shyness behind flamboyant rum-swigging and kilt-flipping, and a passionate polemicist who blurred the lines between fiction and facts to dramatize his cause. Above all, he was a bestselling and prolific writer who kept generations of children (and their parents) spellbound by tales of adventures with wolves that were friendlier than people, whales in need of rescue, dogs who refused to cower, owls roosting in the rafters and boats that wouldn’t float.
As much as I admired his writings there is the sad reality that Mr. Mowat was a very big supporter of my phavorite phat phraud Paul Watson and in fact, Watson’s vessel previous to the STEVE IRWIN was named after the author.
I wonder what Mowat thought of the ugly spectacle that Sea Shepard Society had become before he died?
[QUOTE=c.captain;137242]As much as I admired his writings there is the sad reality that Mr. Mowat was a very big supporter of my phavorite phat phraud Paul Watson and in fact, Watson’s vessel previous to the STEVE IRWIN was named after the author.
I wonder what Mowat thought of the ugly spectacle that Sea Shepard Society had become before he died?
.[/QUOTE]
Farley was a great fiction writer, but not a mariner. Like most artists, he was extremely left wing. He was also somewhat anti-American, or at least very anti-American Policy. However, wanting to save the whales is not a bad thing. Being anti-Japanese whaler is not a bad thing. I’m not sure that Farley fully recovered after he pranced around Siberia wearing a kilt and freezing his balls off. Farley probably didn’t know any better about Sea Shepard. Nor are there any other viable alternatives for the celebrity Save the Whales crowd.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;137258]Farley was a great fiction writer, but not a mariner. Like most artists, he was extremely left wing. He was also somewhat anti-American, or at least very anti-American Policy. However, wanting to save the whales is not a bad thing. Being anti-Japanese whaler is not a bad thing. I’m not sure that Farley fully recovered after he pranced around Siberia wearing a kilt and freezing his balls off. Farley probably didn’t know any better about Sea Shepard. Nor are there any other viable alternatives for the celebrity Save the Whales crowd.[/QUOTE]
and so it is, but Watson remains a fugitive from international justice. His day of reckoning with come sure enough
[QUOTE=c.captain;137259]and so it is, but Watson remains a fugitive from international justice. His day of reckoning with come sure enough[/QUOTE]
I doubt it. He has enough money and public support behind him to avoid extradition to Costa Rica. Also, Costa Rica has a new government with plenty of bigger problems to worry about. They are broke. Costa Rica ought to worry about a drop off in ecotourism if they go after Watson for saving the sharks along with the whales. Shark finning isn’t much more popular than whaling. As long as the Yakusa doesn’t send their ninjas after him, I don’t think Watson much to worry about, except how to handle all those celebrity babes that are throwing themselves at him.
[QUOTE=tugsailor;137260]I doubt it. He has enough money and public support behind him to avoid extradition to Costa Rica. Also, Costa Rica has a new government with plenty of bigger problems to worry about. They are broke. Costa Rica ought to worry about a drop off in ecotourism if they go after Watson for saving the sharks along with the whales. Shark finning isn’t much more popular than whaling. As long as the Yakusa doesn’t send their ninjas after him, I don’t think Watson much to worry about, except how to handle all those celebrity babes that are throwing themselves at him.[/QUOTE]
But he jumped bail in Germany and that makes him an international fugitive. Hopefully, INTERPOL still has him on their wanted list.
Besides, I would love it is the Yakuza sought him out and flensed his phat carcass!
Throw im in the try-works and boil im for oil I say!
“The Grey Seas Under”…a title that fascinated me as a boy. Then I read it completely, cover to cover over night.
Read almost everything Mowatt wrote after that. Later, I found out one of life’s simpler pleasures was being aboard one tug or another, in my bunk reading a Mowatt book before getting some shut eye.