Dick and Jack's Adventures on Sable Island

Freemen Ashley published Dick and Jack’s Adventures on Sable Island in 1895. This lively story is back in print, with an introduction by South Shore historian Danielle Robertson about the book and its connection to real events and people of 1840s Nova Scotia. 

Robertson writes:
Names, nationalities and numbers of children are all accurate for his characters at Black Point. It became clear that the author must have actually met the people who appear in this novel, and been in their homes and community to have so accurately known these minute details. Even all the landmarks and local place names, such as Darling Rock and Little Hope Lighthouse, are accurate.
   Through months and years of research, scouring a wide variety of sources, I came to piece together the background of the author and how he came to know this much about the scattered inhabitants living on the headland between the harbours of Port Joli and Port Mouton all those years ago.
   In a recent breakthrough, I realized that the author knew every landmark, every place name, every settler and every nuance of my community because he had actually lived here with his family for a time. The Deed Registry office verified that the author’s father, Reverend William Ashley, purchased the land at Black Point in 1838.