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The Newfoundland Salt Fisheries: 450 Years of Making FishWhat's New? ]This exhibit explores aspects of the long and complex history of how cod was processed in Newfoundland from the 1500s to the 1950s, the everyday work that was required, and the livings that were eked out by many generations of fishing men, women, and children in Newfoundland's and Labrador's many communities and fishing stations. With images, maps, charts, audio, video, and text, we hope to introduce viewers to a world and to ways of life that dominated here into the 1950s. You can browse through galleries of Newfoundland and Labrador outports -- some of the most beautiful images housed in the Provincial Archives' still and moving images collection. Many of these places are known but a good many are not and these are housed in the exhibit's "Mystery Gallery." We hope you will be able to help identify these.
In the "Slide Shows" section, you may view presentations on different themes, including women's role in the fishery and fishing techniques (we plan to dedicate an entire site to this latter topic in the future). In our audio clips section you can listen to excerpts of interviews with some of the men and women who lived and worked in the salt fish era. The video library contains footage of a 1948 film that captures every aspect of the work of making fish. In our "Significant Documents" section read the words of a St. John's planter written in 1676 describing catching and processing (or "making")fish. Then consider the transcripts of his recent counterparts 260 years later testifying before a Commission of Enquiry in 1936 on the Seafisheries of Newfoundland. Examine some of the earliest known photographs of Newfoundland and the hydrographic charts of mid-19th century, French Shore fishing stations of the same era. Finally acquaint yourself with the everyday working world of making fish -- from the moment it was landed on the stage head to the moment the finished product was shipped to the merchant premises in the segment "Hard Racket for a Living."
This project developed initially from research on the Newfoundland salt fisheries carried out by Dr. Gerald Pocius of the Centre for Material Culture Studies (CMCS) at Memorial University of Newfoundland. His work on the salt fisheries, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), highlighted the existence of a large and remarkable collection of fisheries related materials at the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador (PANL). He and CMCS Research Fellow, Mark Ferguson, then collaborated with the Archives to develop this digital exhibit. Many other individuals and institutions have supported this project in many different ways -- please view the sponsors page for complete details. The Patterns of FishingFor thousands of years the coves along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador have been "prime berths" for cod-fish. Until very recently, Gadus morhua was definitely "king" in Newfoundland and Labrador. Known here in Newfoundland simply as "fish," cod was the main reason Europeans came to the island in the first place. Only scant years after John Cabot landed at Bonavista in 1497 European fishing and mercantile interests from France, Portugal, the Basque country, and England began exploiting the remarkably rich fishing Banks and waters off Newfoundland's and Labrador's coasts. Salt cod was a cheap, nutritious (and lucrative) product that both transported and kept well in the warm climates of southern Europe. Initially fishing crews were seasonal, returning to Europe each fall, but over the next two centuries, year-round settlement took hold.
The Europeans' main goal was to catch and process as much cod-fish as possible, and ship the product back to Europe for sale and consumption. The modes of processing and preserving cod remained remarkably stable from the Middle Ages right up to 1950s. After the fish were landed at a stage it was quickly "cleaned" (gutted, headed, split and then usually washed) and then salted for a number of days or weeks depending on the product being made. These two phases were followed by an involved drying phase that took place out of doors on raised wooden platforms called flake . Taken from salting puncheon or pounds , fish was washed cleaned, drained and taken out of doors to dry. Over a period of days and sometimes weeks, fish was spread, piled, respread, etc. until it received the proper curing. This work was known in Newfoundland as "making fish." Fishing crews and families then shipped their season's catch (known as a "voyage") to the merchant in exchange for goods. The salt fish mercantile firm in turn transported it to various markets in southern Europe and the Caribbean.
By the 1600s the migratory fishermen from England's West Country and from various ports in France arrived each spring to the island's many coves and harbours and competed with one another and with the year-round planters for the best rooms . By the mid-1700s the migratory shore fishery was in decline and permanent settlement was firmly established. From then on the salt fishery dominated life for the majority of Newfoundland women and men through to the 1950s. Living in small tight-knit outports and fishing on a bountiful though often unforgiving sea has forged their values, shaped their world view, their stories and songs, and made them famous for their hospitality -- a rich and distinctive cultural heritage. After the 1950s the salt fishery went into a steep and final decline. Newfoundland's outports changed dramatically or disappeared completely (many with the resettlement program of the 1960s and early 1970s). The fisheries architecture and community landscape of stages, flakes, store , paths and homes, gardens and meadows, fell into disuse with the advent of fish plants, roads, automobiles, grocery stores, and bungalows. This web exhibit will evoke the landscapes and work of that vanished way of life.
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