SEAFARING ARTIST

The MV Jessie Cull was built in 1939 and was purchased by Ted Drover, who registered the vessel in 1943 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Drover and a friend refitted the forty-seven-foot-long vessel for use as a charter boat. It was operated for almost two decades and, like other similar vessels, provided an essential service to communities on the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. But Drover was also a trained artist who studied at the Ontario College of Art, including under Group of Seven member J.E.H. MacDonald. Drover, who died in 1980, had a great love for the sea and planned to publish a book about “seagoing crafts engaged in the fishery and general commerce of the island of Newfoundland and Labrador from about 1850 to 1950.” The new book Ted Drover: Ships Artist (Flanker Press, 208 pages, $21.95), by his daughter-in-law, Sheilah Mackinnon Drover, presents dozens of Drover’s charcoal drawings along with the stories of the vessels he portrayed.