Tsunami: The Newfoundland Tidal Wave Disaster

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Member of the House of Assembly (MHA): elected representative of the Newfoundland legislature

Old hag: a particularly harrowing form of nightmare; nocturnal terrors associated with a range of cultural beliefs in Newfoundland

Quintal: a hundredweight (112 lbs.), used as a measure for dried salt cod

(Fishing) room: the waterfront property of a fisherman or merchant, including the stages, stores, flakes, etc.

Shore fishery: later called the inshore or small boat fishery

Stage: an onshore platform holding working tables and sheds where women and men processed fish

Store: place where supplies, gear, and dried or salted fish are kept

Token: a vision of an absent friend or relative indicating they will die within a year

Western boat: a fishing vessel of between fifteen and thirty tons

In 1929, Newfoundland was a self-governing Dominion, as were Canada, Australia, and other “white” countries within the British Empire. Newfoundland’s territory consisted of the seventh largest island in the world, positioned where the Labrador Sea meets the Gulf Stream in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, and the vast continental land mass of Aboriginal Labrador. The island had been settled by Europeans from the British Isles, the Channel Islands, France, the Iberian Peninsula, and elsewhere for hundreds of years—despite an early British ban on settlement. Some of the settlers married indigenous Mi’kmaq, a few, the Beothuck, members of a small nation that disappeared due to exposure to unfamiliar diseases, loss of access to the seals and fish on the coast, and conflict with those who now encroached on their land.

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