In the Canadian police drama “Hudson & Rex,” a detective and his canine partner solve crimes in and around picturesque St. John’s, capital of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Through six seasons (including 2024), their police work took them to all corners of Newfoundland, the world’s 16th-largest island, to adjacent Labrador, a sparsely populated fragment of the North American mainland. They even ventured to the French territory of St. Pierre et Miquélon, anchored just off the coast of  Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean. The Real Newfoundland Not surprisingly, the authentic Newfoundland is vastly different than the one you might see on your TV screen. Locals affectionately call it “The Rock” and pronounce its name as “Noof’n-lund.” It’s larger than many nations, including the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The maritime province is constantly windy. A quarter of the island’s population (about 110,000 people) lives in greater St. John’s. Built along the shore like most island settlements, it can be a long way by road from St. John’s to other towns. As a result, the original European-descended colonists found they preferred boats for getting around. Choosing the Sea Traveling by sea was my choice as well. One rare, sunny October day, when the wind was barely blowing, I boarded the MS Ocean Endeavour for a two-week expedition cruise around the island of Newfoundland. I couldn’t imagine a better way to explore. We departed from and returned to St. John’s. On board were 167 guests (80 percent of them Canadians), 103 crew, and 39 expedition team members who served as our adventure guides. They were mostly Canadian High Arctic experts from Toronto-based Adventure Canada, who also meandered the Northwest Passage on other High Arctic small-ship expeditions. We followed in the footsteps of earlier explorers like Leif Erikson, who, 500 years before Columbus, led a Norse-Icelandic journey to far eastern Canada. Seeing massive rocks but no grass, they concluded the land would be useless for agriculture. When Italian John Cabot arrived in 1497, he noted the abundance of cod and the ease of casting baskets into the sea to harvest the salty fish. That inspired fishing settlements. By the early 1800s, a forestry industry was thriving. Many locals today have ancestors who worked in island sawmills. Our expedition lecturers shared background like this each morning and again before dinner each evening. “You’re in for a real treat,” Endeavour leader Scott McDougall told us on the first day. “Few places can boast the stark, wild beauty and warm hospitality found in Newfoundland.” In a province built on fishing, people still live in villages by the sea. Photo: Nicholas Kontis Lessons from Ship Educators Our host for the journey was Newfoundland native Dennis Minty, an Eco guide, photographer and naturalist since 2002. Tony Oxford, another native son, served as “cultural educator,” the onetime mayor of tiny Cox’s Cove composed his own music for nightly jam sessions and enthralled us with daily talks on dozens of subjects. An example was his description of the island’s [...]