I had dreamed about sailing on a banking schooner ever since I could remember, and now here I was in the fall of 1937, standing by the forward starboard rigging with the wind blowing in my hair." So begins the story of James Major - Jimmy to everyone who knows him - a young man from a small fishing community on Newfoundland's southwest coast. Author Kenneth Ball, himself from the abandoned community of Rencontre West, then unfolds the tale of a sixteen-year-old who grows into a man making a living as a fisherman, first on a banking schooner and later as a skipper of his own vessel. The story of Jimmy Major is a wonderful read that will make you laugh and cry and cheer as you followin him along his path. The author dedicated his book to fisherman, past and present, who fished in schooners, trawlers, skiffs, snapper boats, long liners and dories.