author
Frederick William Wallace
1886–1958
Drawn to the sea and the people who worked it, this Canadian writer turned firsthand experience into vivid books about fishing fleets, sailing ships, and maritime life. He is best known for Wooden Ships and Iron Men, a classic account of the last days of sail in Maritime Canada.
1 Audiobook
The Viking Blood: A Story of Seafaring
by Frederick William Wallace
About the author
Born in Glasgow on December 11, 1886, and later active in Canada, Frederick William Wallace built an unusually wide-ranging career as a journalist, photographer, historian, and novelist. His work grew out of close contact with the fishing industry and life at sea, which gave his writing a strong sense of lived detail.
He is best remembered for Wooden Ships and Iron Men (1924), a book that helped preserve the history of Maritime Canada’s square-rigged sailing vessels and the culture around them. Across his career, he wrote not only history but also fiction and memoir, bringing together reporting, storytelling, and a deep interest in Canada’s maritime past.
Wallace died on July 15, 1958. Today he is remembered as one of the writers who captured the final era of working sail in Atlantic Canada and recorded a world that was already beginning to disappear.