Fire Down on the Labrador, 1980

The Brock Street Gallery, Kingston Private Collection, Kingston

Sean T. Cadigan, Black Ice: David Blackwood, Prints of Newfoundland, Toronto, 2011, page 75 Leah Sandals, “Black Ice: Q&A with David Blackwood”, National Post, March 7, 2011 William Gough, David Blackwood, Master Printmaker, Vancouver/Toronto, 2001, page 104

David Blackwood's most acclaimed etching “Fire Down on the Labrador” depicts a dramatic scene of fishermen, gathered in a lifeboat, and fleeing a ship that is engulfed in flames. A large whale lurks underwater beneath the action, visible to only the viewer, and not the crew. Blackwood’s exquisitely detailed whale etchings such as this one and “Loss of Flora Nickerson” remind us that the ocean is ruled by these large mammals, and not by humans. Author Michael Crummy comments on this theme of 'man versus nature', writing that “in ‘Fire Down on the Labrador’ the human disasters are happening in the wings, barely registering against the vastness of the North Atlantic and its creatures.” The narrative in this etching is rooted in a grease fire in the gallery of a schooner, which is the only fear these men would have had. In an interview, Blackwood remarks that “The wind, the ice, the tide - all seemed to be manageable. But you would never go to sleep at night until you'd made sure that there were no glowing embers in the stove.” The artist, a Newfoundland native, was raised in a seafaring family in which his father and grandfather were both ship captains. As such, Blackwood is completely aware of this fear ingrained in every mariner's conscience. He describes how this catastrophe would unfold for the crew in a 2010 interview with Gary Michael Dault: “…And then you’d be facing the worst possible scenario, the thing that was the greatest fear of all – to be caught in the Labrador Sea all alone, and having to abandon… So in my print “Fire Down on the Labrador”, it’s the ultimate disaster that I’m depicting – to be caught in that environment, and having to abandon ship.”