October 1940
Given up for Dead
You’ve heard of men in Newfoundland who made their own coffin or ordered them to be made for them, but here’s a case of a man now living who can say that he was once given up for dead while in that condition had had a coffin made for him. The story comes from Mr. Earle Adams, of Sunnyside, Trinity Bay, and concerns a man of that place by the name of
George Drodge.
George Drodge was born at Grate’s Cove, the son of Albert Drodge, and when he was ten years old he fell down over a steep cliff a distance of eighty-seven feet He was picked up and carried home, being apparently not only unconscious but dead. He was seriously injured, with numerous cuts and bruises and three of his ribs broken.
His parents abandoned hope for him, and ordered the coffin to be made. They were just about to place him in the coffin when, about twenty-two hours after they’d found him at the foot of the cliff, he showed the first faint signs of returning consciousness and life, ‘Twas a pretty narrow escape. That was forty-eight years ago, and, and since then George Drodge has, worked all his life aboard schooners, in the lumberwoods, and at any other work he could get to do.
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Transcribed by Wanda Garrett, October 2026
These transcriptions may contain human errors. As always, confirm these as you would any other source material.