By Nicola Ryan
On May 8, 2025, at the 37th East Coast Music Awards Gala, one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s most beloved ballads, “Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s”, was officially inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Irish Descendants performed the evocatively beautiful song during the ceremony, honouring the man behind the lyrics, Otto Kelland.
“Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s” is a masterwork of Canadian songwriting,” said Nick Fedor, Executive Director of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. “Otto Kelland’s deeply poetic lyrics and haunting melody have become part of our national musical fabric, passed down through generations and resonating far beyond the Atlantic coast.”
The song vividly captures the identity, pride, and resilience of Newfoundland’s outport communities, and a way of life that has shaped generations.
Born in 1904 in Lamaline on the Burin peninsula, Otto was the youngest of five children. His father had served with the Terra Nova Constabulary before settling down on the south coast, where he bought a trap skiff and took young Otto out on the water. “Dad absolutely loved it,” recalls Otto’s daughter Jocelyn Kelland. “He worshipped his dad, so wherever his father went, that’s where he went. And I think that’s how he got the love of the sea.”
Otto was a lover of language, too. His mother, Hilda, an avid reader, regularly ordered books and magazines from England for the whole family. “So, Dad was a great reader from a very young age. We’re all like that,” Jocelyn says. “Even two generations down from dad, the whole family loves to read.”
After his father passed away when he was a teenager, Otto joined the crew of a cargo ship that sailed between St. John’s, Montreal, and Boston. He worked there for several years, until a longshoreman strike cut his sailing days short. “The captain let everyone go,” Jocelyn explains. “So, Dad walked up the hill and joined the Constabulary, just like his father.”
He was stationed in Corner Brook and Bay Roberts before accepting a position as Chief Warden at the penitentiary in St. John’s – a job that would offer him something rare: time. Often after supper, while Hilda washed the dishes, Otto would sit at the dining room table and write. “Behind every creative man, there’s a hard-working woman,” Jocelyn says with a laugh, adding that the couple raised ten children together. “If Mom didn’t do absolutely everything, how would he have had time to write?”
The story behind “Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s” began with a brief, unforgettable encounter with a desperately homesick Newfoundland fisherman on a wharf in Boston. Like so many others, the man had moved away seeking opportunity, but his heart was still at home.
“So when dad’s ship came into port, the young man asked could he pay his passage or work on the ship, but the captain said no, he had a full crew and it was against company rules. He said, ‘Sure, why do you want to leave? This is a great place, and there’s lots of opportunity.’ And the young man said, ‘I’d rather be home on my western boat, living on one meal a day, than eating ten meals a day in Boston.’ He just wanted to come home, like every other Newfoundlander.”
The moment stayed with Otto. They were about the same age – barely twenty – and the young man’s longing left a deep impression. Years later, in 1947, while working at the penitentiary, Otto transformed that memory into a poem. He captured not only the homesickness of that one fisherman but something more universal: a deep yearning for home, the call of the sea, and the beauty and danger of life on the sea. The lyrics are full of language any Newfoundlander would recognize: caplin, dories, combers, and seabirds. Terms like “Cape Ann” and “hag-downs” place listeners right in the boat with him, facing the fog and the cliffs on the edge of the Atlantic.
The song first spread locally through oral tradition. In 1951, folk music researcher Kenneth Peacock heard it while conducting fieldwork in Newfoundland. He passed his findings to Gerald S. Doyle, who published them in the 1955 edition of Old Time Songs and Poetry of Newfoundland. From there, the song travelled further, appearing in two influential collections: Alan Mills’ 1958 Favourite Songs of Newfoundland and the 1964 songbook The Folksinger’s Passport to Canada, which helped introduce the song to audiences beyond the province. The first known recording of the song was made on the 1962 LP Songs of the Anchor Watch, a collection of Otto’s compositions sung by Leonard Meehan.
Over the years, “Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s” has been recorded by a wide range of musicians. Dick Nolan released a country version in 1963. Actor Gordon Pinsent recorded it in 1968, followed by folk icon Harry Hibbs in 1971. The Irish Canadian folk band Ryan’s Fancy performed it on their 1977 television show, and Denis Ryan recorded a heart-wrenching solo version marked by traditional Irish ornamentation. Canadian songwriting legend Stan Rogers – himself an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame – recorded the ballad in 1983. More recently, Juno-nominated folk group Rum Ragged recorded the song with a beautiful video directed and filmed by Cecil Johnson of Tuckamore Productions, ensuring its continued relevance for a new generation. Now, “Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s” joins other cherished works like “Ode to Newfoundland” in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, securing its place in the canon of iconic Canadian music.
Otto passed away in 2004. So for his family, this recognition is a deeply personal musical honour.
“I was shocked. I was gobsmacked!” Jocelyn says. “Bruce, the manager of the Irish Descendants, called and told me there was a surprise, and I just couldn’t believe it. When I heard from Nick Fedor at the Hall of Fame, I couldn’t stop crying. We’re all so proud – his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren. Even two generations down the road, they’re amazed that they had this wonderful grandfather. We’re really, really proud.”
