A Girl, a Galley, and an Unwelcome Bargain

Long before she was a wife, a mother, or my great-grandmother, Emma Jane Attwood stood on the deck of a salt-scarred schooner. She was just thirteen, the Skipper’s daughter, and the cook for a crew of cod fishermen chasing fortune up the Labrador coast. It was a hard life, but it was hers—and after three summers onboard the schooner, she could expertly handle a swaying stove, salted fish, and the sharp tongue of any deck-hand. What she couldn’t have prepared for was the day an unexpected visitor tried to trade for her. The year was somewhere around 1905. This is a story passed down through salt and silence, stitched into the fabric of our family, as real as the sea itself.

Emma was born in 1889 in Safe Harbour, Bonavista Bay, a rugged outport carved into the Newfoundland coastline. The Atlantic shaped everything there—weather, work, and will. Her father, “Skipper” Tom Attwood, captained the schooner “Parallel” that made the annual voyage north to the Labrador fishing grounds. Each summer, fleets of wooden boats left their home coves for the cold, rich waters where cod ran thick and the days stretched long. It was dangerous, relentless work.

Skipper Tom brought his young daughter aboard not as a novelty, but as the ship’s cook—a vital role. The galley was cramped, the stove barely steady in rough water, and the ingredients few. Emma cooked for men who hauled nets, salted fish, and patched sails day after day, far from home and comfort. She was a girl in a man’s world, and she earned her place with quiet grit and capable hands.

For three summers she sailed with her father and the crew, charting Labrador’s fog-laced coast. But everything changed the season an Inuk man paddled out to the anchored schooner.

He had seen Emma during an earlier visit, and, intrigued by her presence, asked about her. One of the crewmen—perhaps trying to be clever—joked that the girl could be “bought” for twelve dozen handmade moccasins.

The visitor left without a word. The crewman likely forgot his comment before the next tide turned.

Weeks later, the same man returned, his canoe heavy with beautifully crafted moccasins. Without ceremony, he tossed the footwear up onto the deck, piece by piece. Then he climbed aboard and calmly laid claim to the captain’s daughter.

Skipper Tom was stunned. In that moment, the line between cultures, customs, and intentions hung heavy in the air. He managed, through explanation and gesture, to return the moccasins and make it clear that his daughter was not for sale. The situation defused, but the damage—unspoken, unmeasured—was done.

That very night, under cover of darkness, the schooner slipped out of harbour and sailed on. Emma never again returned to the Labrador coast.

She would go on to live a remarkably long life—eventually settling in Ontario and passing away in 1993 at the age of 104. But that chapter of her youth, brief as it was, stayed in the family’s memory. A girl with salt in her hair and fire in her belly, doing a man’s work in a world that didn’t expect her there—and leaving behind a story as sharp and strange as the sea itself.

Emma Jane never sailed to Labrador again. Whatever words were exchanged between her father and the man who made the offer—or between Skipper Tom and the crewman who set it all in motion—have long since been swallowed by time and tide. But the story remains, worn smooth like sea glass, passed from tongue to tongue, generation to generation. In it, we find not just a glimpse of Emma’s youth, but the grit and grace of the women who came before us—women who knew the weight of salt air, the strength it takes to stand your ground, and the quiet power of slipping anchor and sailing on.

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Personal details and descendants of Emma Jane Attwood Davis (my great-grandmother)

Born: 27 January 1889, Safe Harbour, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, to Thomas Attwood (1864-1944) and Jochebed Rideout (1867-1944)

Marriage: 26 December 1907 to John Gill Davis(1882-1967) at Safe Harbour, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland

Children with John Gill Davis:

• Josephine Dot Davis {Dorothy}, 1911-1988; m. Percy Samson {Pearce}, 1903-1988 (my grandparents)
• Minnie Bertha Davis, 1915-1916
• Thomas Attwood Davis, 1920-2016; m. Margaret Penner, b. 1923
• Kenneth Charles Davis, 1923-2017; m. Esther Hobden, 1922-2008
• Edward Gladstone Davis, 1926-2018; m. Ann Kathleen O’Connor, 1920-2014
• Ethel Irene Davis, 1929-2023; m. George Arthur Town, 1923-2011

Died: 19 February 1993 at Whitney, Ontario, Canada

Burial: 22 February 1993 at Union Cemetery in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada