Stories of Trains, Boats, and Airplanes in Newfoundland
From the "Newfie Bullet" to the SS Kyle to Amelia Earhart, Getting Around the Rock is a fascinating history of the transportation sector, largely in pre-Confederation Newfoundland and Labrador. These recollections were passed on to the author by his father, Raymond Lahey, and his uncle, Bill Lahey, who spent their working lives as telegraph operators in the changing times of transportation in the province.
Stories include:
How "The Bullet" Came to Newfoundland
Family Connections: The Reid Newfoundland Company
Wireless Telegraphy
The Newfoundland Coastal Steamers
Aviation History and the Newfoundland Connection
The Botwood Seaplane Base
Newfoundland Airport (Gander)

Leonard Lahey was born in St. John’s in 1942. Educated at St. Bonaventure’s College and the College of the North Atlantic, he completed a master’s degree and earned an interprovincial journeyman’s electrical licence. In his younger days he worked for both Canadian National Railway in St. John’s and for his uncle Bill Lahey in the airport town of Gander, from which came his lively interest in Newfoundland transportation. Leonard’s experience led him to the successful establishment, with his wife, Linda, of Rainbow Trout Farm Limited in Hopeall, Trinity Bay, the province’s first commercial finfish hatchery. He went on to become an industrial technologist, a curriculum assistant, and a facility supervisor at the Centre of Aquaculture and Seafood Development of the Marine Institute of Memorial University. He retired in 2002.Leonard has been secretary-treasurer and director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association and a member of the University Advisory Committee on Aquaculture. He also served as director of the Upper Trinity South Development Association, representing South Dildo, and chairman of that community’s Local Service District Committee. As president of the South Dildo Development Association, he oversaw the initial development of the local whaling and sealing museum. Leonard’s association with Trinity Bay goes back to 1947, when he and his family began spending summers in South Dildo, birthplace of his father and grandmother, and home of his great-grandparents. He is married to Linda Lahey (née Reid) of South Dildo. They have three sons, Craig, Kurt, and Keith, and now reside in Vernon, British Columbia, home to two of their sons and four grandchildren. While Leonard has lived in places as diverse as Ireland, Thailand, France, and Switzerland, he considers Trinity Bay his home.Apart from his interest in transportation, Leonard Lahey is an avid genealogist, amateur photographer, and a Newfoundland history enthusiast.

Leonard Lahey's profile page