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Spoken Introduction:
This song's dedicated to the men and woman who served on the MV
Christmas Seal. Captain Peter Troake for twenty years guided the
Christmas Seal around the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador,
carrying doctors, nurses, and an x-ray machine to thirteen-hundred
isolated communities, helping approximate eighty-thousand people
in their fight against the dreaded disease known as tuberculosis.
She was an angel on the water for the sons and the daughters,
Fathers and mothers held out their hand;
Peter Troake at the wheel would guide the Christmas Seal,
Bringing hope to the people 'round the coast of Newfoundland.
In nineteen-fifty a killer disease,
All over the country ran wild;
Tuberculosis it was known, and it favored no one,
It took the life of the healthiest child.
Communication was slow, the outports had no roads,
They were left with their dead to mourn;
Their only hope would have to come by boat,
That's how the Christmas Seal was born.
She was an angel on the water for the sons and the daughters,
Fathers and mothers held out their hand;
Peter Troake at the wheel would guide the Christmas Seal,
Bringing hope to the people 'round the coast of Newfoundland.
All around the rocky shore to the coast of Labrador,
She carried the x-ray machine;
No place too small, they visit them all,
Doing tests and administering vaccine.
So many lives they saved and hope they gave,
Even to the ones that would die;
Although she is gone, her memory lives on,
As she sails away in the sky.
She was an angel on the water for the sons and the daughters,
Fathers and mothers held out their hand;
Peter Troake at the wheel would guide the Christmas Seal,
Bringing hope to the people 'round the coast of Newfoundland.
Peter Troake at the wheel would guide the Christmas Seal,
Bringing hope to the people 'round the coast of Newfoundland.
From: The Newfoundland and Labrador Lung Association - From 1950-1970, in the fight against Tuberculosis, Captain Peter Troake guided the MV Christmas Seal around hundreds of Newfoundland and Labrador communities. At the helm of this activity, he did so much more than merely navigate the ship of hope. It was his sincere ability to communicate and reach local people that won their trust and brought them on board for the feared but vital x-rays. Captain Troake was recognized for his outstanding contribution in the field of health by being named to the Order of Canada in 1987. In 1997, shortly before his death, he received The Lung Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.
