Chesley Sanger grew up in Newfoundland, where life was geared to the rhythms of the sea. He gained a PhD in the Origins of the Scottish Northern Whale Fishery from the University of Dundee. He has published a number of books, including Twentieth-Century Shore-Station Whaling in Newfoundland and Labrador, 2006 (with A.B. Dickinson), which received the Canadian Nautical Research Society Award for Best Book. He is an Emeritus Professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.