Startseite A History of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic to 1818
A History of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic to 1818Shannon Ryan
The waters off Newfoundland, in the North Atlantic, held the world’s most abundant supply of codfish, which, when discovered, was in great demand. Unlike the fur trade—the other major early commercial activity in what is now mainland Canada—the production of codfish did not require year-round residence. It did, however, require numerous men, young and old, for the fishing season, which ran from spring to early fall.
This successful English-Newfoundland migratory fishery evolved into an exclusively shore-based, but still migratory, fishery that led to the formation of a formal colony by 1818. Shannon Ryan offers this general history as an introduction to early Newfoundland. The economy and social, military, and political issues are dealt with in a straightforward narrative that will appeal to general readers as well as students of Newfoundland and Labrador history.
Finalist for the 2013 Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing
Finalist for the 2013 Heritage and History Award
This successful English-Newfoundland migratory fishery evolved into an exclusively shore-based, but still migratory, fishery that led to the formation of a formal colony by 1818. Shannon Ryan offers this general history as an introduction to early Newfoundland. The economy and social, military, and political issues are dealt with in a straightforward narrative that will appeal to general readers as well as students of Newfoundland and Labrador history.
Finalist for the 2013 Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing
Finalist for the 2013 Heritage and History Award
Most frequetly terms
CHAPTER 5 COLONY CONFIRMED: 1793-1818 By 1792, the British-Newfoundland migratory fishery had settled into a pattern that looked permanent—a strong British bank fishery operating from St. John’s and the Southern Shore and a strong planter fishery established in most harbours from Harbour Breton on the south coast to Fogo-Twillingate in Notre Dame Bay. The annual supply of fishermen, equipment, and provisions were carried to Newfoundland by mercantile ships from the West Country. Most fishermen came from the West Country as well as most equipment, but most provisions, including live cattle, came from southern Ireland and Canada with sugar, molasses, and rum from the West Indies. Salt, various citrus products and wine were brought from southern European and the Mediterranean fish markets. This arrangement seemed permanent. Everything changed, however, with the outbreak of war with France in early 1793. In this chapter I will explain these changes under three time periods and topics: 1793 to the Treaty of Amiens in 1802; 1803 to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815; and the immediate post-war period of 1815 to 1818. The central theme of this, the last chapter, is, why did the annual transportation of fishermen back and forth across the Atlantic cease? Why were fishing servants able to bring out their wives and families and establish permanent homes? In other words, why did the fishing station become a colony after 300 years of being primarily a migratory fishery? In addition to the usual sources, much of the first two sections of this chapter draws heavily from my paper “Fishery to Colony.” (Tables 6 to 14 in the Appendix provides substantial statistical information for this chapter.) Britain had been left humiliated by the successful American Revolutionary War, and there were doubts in various European quarters of its continued strength. The French, on the other hand, had gained prestige from their role in the American Revolution and looked, to the casual observer at least, like they could challenge Britain on the high seas once again. The Spanish navy also felt more confident. As Rodger points out, the French, Spanish, and Dutch navies had grown and had been improved in the 1780s to the point where their combined fleets exceeded that of Britain in number and total tunnage. Moreover, the British had been left with the problem of convincing Newfoundland fishing merchants and West Indies sugar producers to thrive without the benefit of American trade. This was proving to be difficult if not impossible—at least for the immediate future. The Royal Navy was faced with the expenses of keeping pace with the continental navies while trying to meet the demands of the fisheries and the sugar industry (and other overseas issues). These obligations were compounded by the outbreak of war with France in 1793. Revolutionary France declared war on Britain on 1 February 1793. France had been in a state of turmoil since 1789 and was already engaged in wars with Austria and Prussia. Britain expected to become involved and was not surprised by France’s declaration. At the local Newfoundland level, this meant that the Newfoundland cod fishery on the French Shore and at St. Pierre ceased. We will return later to that subject. As already seen, the migratory British fishery had become consolidated by 1790. Bank ships, planters, and sack ships had become integrated into a single operation. Planters depended upon migratory servants, including a proportion of single, young, inexperienced men. Thus, Britain’s naval manpower requirements were sufficiently met; fish for the British West Indies sugar plantations was supplied in plenty; and the fish trade prospered. Beginning in 1793 the migratory fisheries felt the effects of the new war. In 1789-92 the British bank fleet averaged 171 ships annually; in 1793 the number dropped to sixty-three and for the first time nineteen bank ships operated from Newfoundland ports. By 1795 the number of British bankers had declined to fifty-three, and the number of Island-based bankers had risen to sixty-two. Meanwhile, the governor established a defensive force in St. John’s, the Newfoundland Fencibles, in 1794. Former soldiers from the Nova Scotia regiment were brought to Newfoundland to train the Fencibles and a block house was built on top of Signal Hill and cannons hoisted up the cliffs to provide some defence. The Fencibles became the Newfoundland Regiment, the forts were strengthened, and Royal naval ships gathered in St. John’s harbour. In the summer of 1796, the French Admiral de Richery, with about ten warships, arrived on the Grand Banks and the British-Newfoundland bank fishery ceased altogether. In September, de Richery approached St. John’s but Governor Wallace had taken precautions, including raising the chain boom across the Narrows (the entrance to St. John’s harbour). The French warships stood off St. John’s for several days and then proceeded to Bay Bulls. The French landed there and, as the inhabitants fled, their settlement was looted and burned. Prowse quotes a local poet: Burnt their stores and houses, Took their fish and oil, The hard-earned produce, Of their yearly toil. (371) The French fleet continued on to St. Pierre and around to the Straits of Belle Isle where they burned more fishing rooms. However, the immediate danger was over and in 1797 the bank fisheries recovered and it was reported that thirty-four British and seventy-eight Newfoundland ships fished offshore. In the meantime, we must look at the population numbers. In 1792, according to the statistical reports there were just under 2,000 masters (planters), about 1,600 mistresses, and 5,300 children. By 1795, these figures were 2,042, 1,896, and 7,250 respectively. Furthermore, although fish prices were 14/ to 16/ per quintal in 1792, the prices in 1795 ranged from 13/ to 17/6. One could analyze these statistics further by examining the cost of imports; for our purposes it is sufficient to point out that production was fairly stable at about 500,000 quintals during the first half of the 1790s. In 1796 two developments affected production and exports: The first—the threat from Admiral Richery—has been discussed; the second, the closure of Spanish markets to British saltfish, needs elaboration. Spain’s king, Charles IV, was a weak ruler and his queen’s favourite, Godoy, actually ran the government. Although Spain felt compelled to join the First Coalition against France after the execution of Louis XVI, by 1795 the French Revolutionary Armies had defeated the Coalition on all fronts and Godoy decided he had no choice but to align Spain with France by treaty in October 1796. Therefore, Spain declared war on Britain. Spain’s navy of twenty-seven ships was defeated off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, in early 1797, by a Royal Navy fleet of fifteen ships under Admiral Jervis. During this victory Horatio Nelson distinguished himself by capturing two Spanish warships; Nelson was created rear admiral, Jervis was elevated to earl. The Spanish ports were then blockaded until the treaty of 1802. During 1796 the French government decided their commanding general was not aggressive enough and replaced him with Napoleon Bonaparte. After their success at Cape St. Vincent the British fleet entered the Mediterranean and followed Napoleon and his fleet to Egypt where, at the Battle of the Nile, in August 1798, Nelson defeated the French fleet. Napoleon’s flagship L’Orient, at 2,000 tons and with 120 guns—one of the largest warships afloat—caught fire and exploded. (This was one of the largest explosions in Maritime warfare during this period.) Although he had lost his naval support, Napoleon went on to capture Egypt but was forced to return to France because of political developments; in the following year, 1799, he became First Consul. The Second Coalition against France was put together in 1799, but it had a brief existence. Events on land proved more favourable to the French and Spanish as Portugal was invaded in 1801 and forced to close its ports to the British. However, the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802 brought temporary peace. In 1796, when Spain joined the French coalition, it closed its markets to British-Newfoundland fish and at the same time cut off the supply of salt to this fishery. This latter factor, combined with unusually wet weather during the summer of 1797, resulted in the production of poor quality fish. Governor Waldegrave wrote in August 1797 that vast quantities of fish had been caught and that the scarcity of salt and the bad weather had caused much of it to spoil. It was reported that this was the worst fishery since the American Revolution, with only about 370,000 quintals exported, with a top price of 13/6 per quintal. The following year was similarly poor because Portugal could not take the fish and prices collapsed to about 10/2-11/ per quintal. In the fall of that year, 1798, Governor Waldegrave reported a serious threat of starvation. He computed the expenses of an average planter with four fishermen and two shoremen: [image: ] He pointed out that in 1798 the average catch for this crew was about 280 quintals, at an average price of 9/ per quintal. This would mean that the voyage was worth only £126, leaving the planter with a loss of £87. Salt was not included in the cost of the outfit, for, as Waldegrave explained, the train (cod) oil produced generally covered the price of the salt. Although, as he added, the price of salt was rising, but the price of oil remained the same. To add to the misery, there was a partial potato failure in 1798 ( “Fishery to Colony, ” 24; quoted from CO/194/40,fols. 135-37). In an effort to relieve this distress, Waldegrave requested £1,000 worth of copper coins from the British Treasury, which was provided and put into circulation. Almost immediately, loaves of bread went on the market at one and two pence each instead of at the minimum six pence (silver), the former price. This importation of copper coins from the British Treasury became a common practice during the ensuing years. The British government had already given Waldegrave permission to allow imports of bread, flour, and other food from the United States in order to keep prices down and prevent famine. (This permission was renewed annually until the Americans imposed an embargo in 1807, but by then the European scene had changed.) In response to complaints from merchants that crimes were being committed against their property during the winter by impoverished fishermen, the British government ordered, in 1798, that the chief justice remain in Newfoundland on a full-time basis. However, Waldegrave concluded that the power, influence, and wealth of the merchants were considerable and he had little sympathy for their complaints. His reaction to their petition for government assistance and their calls for more judicial protection was expressed in a dispatch to the Colonial Office in 1799: I must ... observe that in all the dealings I have had with the Merchants of St. John’s on account of Government I have ever found them the most illiberal and rapacious body of Men I ever before met with, and for this I fear there is no remedy: a circumstance they but too well know themselves. ( “Fishery, ” 25; quoted from CO/194/42, fol. 37) Meanwhile, the nature of the fishery was changing fast, as we have already seen, and Captain Crofton of HMS Pluto reported to Waldegrave in 1798: “in a few years an extensive fishery may be carried on there by the Inhabitants alone without ... Men from England and Ireland as here to fore ...” ( “Fishery, ” 26; quoted from CO/194/40, fol. 31) The opening of the 1799 season was as inauspicious as the beginning of the former year. The glut in Portugal of top-quality fish pushed the second quality (Madeira) into the West Indies, leaving the poor-quality West India fish without a market. In 1799 exports exceeded 450,000 quintals, but there was much poor-quality fish. Whether this was caused by a lack of salt, poor weather conditions, or the low prices is not clear, but we can assume that the first and third factors were involved. In that year Waldegrave was even more concerned about the plight of the fisherman: ... unless these poor wretches emigrate they must starve, for how can it be otherwise whilst the Merchant has the power of setting his own price on the supplies issued to the Fishermen, and on the Fish which these men catch for them. Thus we see a set of unfortunate beings working like Slaves, and even hazarding their lives, when at the expiration of their term (however successful their exertions) they find themselves not only without gain, but so deeply indebted, as to force them to emigrate, or drive them to despair. ( “Fishery, ” 26; quoted from CO/194/42, fols. 112-13) The high proportion of poor-quality fish probably accounts for the price of top-quality fish rising to 14/ per quintal in St. John’s. During this year, there were many bankruptcies and several forced property sales by fairly well-established names in the fishery, including Harris and Roope, Thomas Stokes, and William Henley. In 1800 and 1802 exports of saltfish amounted to 517,348 and 461,144 quintals, respectively, and prices rose steadily from a high of 15/ to 27/ per quintal for the top-quality product in St. John’s. Governor James Gambier reported that in 1802 prices of supplies were: bread - 18/ to 28/ per quintal pork - £5/15 to £6 per barrel flour - £2 to £3 per barrel butter - 9d. to l/1 per pound rum - 3/3 to 4/ per gallon molasses - 2/ to 2/6 per gallon salt (Portugal) - 15/ to 21/ per hogshead salt (England) - 9/ to 15/ per hogshead codfish (merchantable) - 22/5 to 27/ per quintal salmon - £3/15 per tierce seal oil - £24 per tun train oil - £24 per tun According to Gambier, wages for seamen and fishermen ranged from £30 to £50 per season ( “Fishery, ” 27; quoted from CO/194/43, fol. 122). Peace was agreed upon in 1802 by the Treaty of Amiens, and the war ended. For the most part, the fishery had suffered from the war but had made some adjustments, especially in becoming more sedentary. As Lieutenant Governor Robert Barton wrote in January 1802: During the War the Fishery of the Island has been in a great degree sedentary, very few passengers have arrived from His Majesty’s European Dominions during the period but it may be expected that great numbers will come out next year. ( “Fishery, ” 28; quoted from CO/194/43, fols. 24-28) This brings us to the end of the French Revolutionary War period and its implications for Newfoundland. Meanwhile, the American fishing interests had not been idle. During the 1790s they employed 4,000 to 5,000 men annually, and during the ten-year period ending in 1800 they exported an annual average of 396,781 quintals of saltfish. For the three-year period from 1798 to 1800, their exports to the West Indies averaged 175,897 quintals; the bulk of the remainder went to southern Europe, partially filling the gap in the markets resulting from the ending of the French fishery and the decline in the British migratory fishery. Much of this fish was produced on the Labrador coast, with as many as 1,500 American vessels involved (as in 1805), each carrying twelve to fourteen men. One 1804 report described the American fishery more fully. In that year, according to this report, about 1,360 American ships fished at Labrador and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and employed about 10,600 men. To summarize the Newfoundland situation during the late 1790s, and the beginning of the 1800s: the population declined from about 18,000 to about 14,000, and the number of passengers coming to Newfoundland annually declined to about 200. But except for 1796, Newfoundland was not directly affected by the war. Before taking up the next phase of this long war, which restarted in 1803, two major developments directly affecting Ireland and indirectly affecting Newfoundland must be discussed. Irish Roman Catholic priests were being trained on the continent, especially in France. The British government knew this and were aware that these priests would return to Ireland with ideas from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. At the same time, the papacy was aware that these priests were being trained in France, where Jansenism was strong. Jansenism was associated with Gallicanism, a strong force in France. The Gallicans believed in the limited authority of the pope in temporal matters, in the appointment of bishops and abbots for example. Gallicanism was opposed by the papacy where the philosophy of ultramontanism prevailed—the pope having total control of all matters concerning the church. The papacy did not want Gallicanism to become established in Ireland. Furthermore, Jansenism contained questionable teachings that, some church authorities thought, were too close to Calvinism. Jansenists emphasized the importance of original sin and redemption by the grace of God to an extent that some felt bordered on predestination. Thus, the place of good works in one’s redemption was downplayed. To keep seminarians from being tainted with Jansenism, both Rome and Britain had reasons to confine the training of priests to Ireland and in 1795 a seminary was founded at Maynooth by an Act of the Irish Parliament in Belfast. The subject of this Irish Parliament in Belfast takes us to the second issue that must be discussed. After King William’s victory over James II in Ireland in 1691, the Protestant Ascendency, a select group of Church of England/ Ireland leaders, was given an Irish Parliament in Belfast. By the late 1780s Protestant liberals in Belfast, including Presbyterians and Methodists, in addition to some Roman Catholics, became influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions. They founded the Society of United Irishmen in 1791. They demanded democratic reforms and Catholic emancipation, and when war broke out with France, they became more radical and demanded independence. In 1796, the leader, Wolfe Tone, managed to persuade France to become directly involved, and he personally accompanied a French convoy carrying 15,000 troops to invade Ireland. For various reasons the convoy did not land. In March 1797, the British authorities reacted vengefully, persecuting the United Irish membership, especially Presbyterians and Roman Catholics, in Ulster. On another front, the government encouraged the formation of the Orange Order in 1795 and worked to turn the reform movement into a sectarian affair: thus the Irish Rebellion of 1798. In that year, on 22 August, a French force of about 1,000 soldiers landed at County Mayo, won several engagements with the help of the Irish and established themselves at Castlebar. By September 22 they had been defeated and had surrendered. The French were treated as prisoners of war; the Irish were regarded as traitors and massacred. In 1798, the Catholic Irish populations around Dublin and in Kilkenny, Wexford, Tipperary, Meath, and Kildare rose in rebellion—actually, some describe it as a civil war (Elliot, 7 December 2007). These rebels were also defeated by the British; the captured were treated as traitors, burned alive, tortured to death, or hanged, drawn, and quartered. Small groups of rebels continued to operate until 1803-04 and its most prominent leader during this phase, Robert Emmet, was captured and received the traitor’s death sentence in 1803. News of the rebellion reached Newfoundland, where a plot by some Irish in the Newfoundland Regiment and on the Southern Shore was put down with the assistance of Bishop O’Donel. The harshness of the aftermath of the Irish rebellion would have an impact on Irish emigration to Newfoundland and will be discussed later. Finally, like O’Donel, the papacy refused to support the United Irishmen. Nor did it object to the union of Ireland and England in 1801. After all, the success of its seminary in Maynooth was too important to be placed in jeopardy. These developments on the periphery of the European wars were to impact Newfoundland when war resumed in 1803. When the conflict began, the Newfoundland fishery could better deal with the situation than it had ten years earlier. Gibraltar began importing large quantities of saltfish for re-exportation; some was smuggled into southern Spain. This naval base took 75,000 quintals in 1804 and about 100,000 quintals in 1805. The British government granted permission for Newfoundland to import provisions from the United States, which helped to depress food prices and wages. The demand for servants increased as the number of passengers from the British Isles declined: Over 6,000 had come annually in 1787-88; 3,588 in 1800; about 1,900 in 1802; and about 2,700 in 1803, during peace. Then numbers dropped rapidly: 646 in 1804; 755 in 1805; and 600 in 1806. In 1804, Governor Erasmus Gower reported that the fishery was carried out almost exclusively by residents. He also reported that British fishermen still used Newfoundland as a stepping stone to the North American continent and that without a large annual influx of servants wages would rise too high and profits would remain low. Gower wrote of St. John’s in 1805: ... this Harbour is no longer a mere fishing station, built round with temporary Flakes, Stages, and Huts of trifling value, but ... it is a port of extensive Commerce ... importing near two-thirds of supplies for the whole Island, and furnished with extensive Store-Houses and Wharves for trade, containing a quantity of Provisions, Stores for the Fishery, British Manufacturers and West Indian Produce, as well as Fish and Oil ready for exportation, which together with the Buildings is computed to be worth more than half a million sterling. ( “Fishery, ” 30; quoted from CO/194/44, fols. 115-17) Gower also pointed out that food prices had risen: bread cost £2/2 to £2/10 per quintal and flour £3/10 per barrel (196 pounds). The fishery continued to be moderately productive although prices suffered from the use of the convoy system, which created market gluts, before the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) and for other reasons suggested by Gower: It is remarkable that it [the price] varies greatly from year to year. Within these four years [including 1805] the price of the merchantable quality has fallen from twenty seven shillings to 14/6. The price is less affected by the demand for it abroad than by purchases in the Island. A custom prevails in St. John’s for the merchants to meet together and settle the price of fish and oil, which is termed ‘breaking the price.’ This is done about the beginning of August, after having received advice from Europe and ascertained the price of the markets etc.... ( “Fishery, ” 31; quoted from CO/194/45, fols. 20-38) Gower’s reports, which are among the most comprehensive of any sent by Newfoundland’s governors, provide a complete summary of prices and wages (see Tables in the Appendix). He also pointed out that the cost of a fisherman’s passage from Ireland to Newfoundland was £6-£7 in 1804, the return passage £5. He also explained that many resident fishermen worked on shares as opposed to wages and sharemen were usually the most expert fishermen. According to Gower, thirty-six cargoes of saltfish were sent to Portugal in convoy, with another convoy leaving later in the fall. Prices and wages remained stable due largely to the continuing importation of provisions from the United States and, as Gower explained, the fishery was wholly sedentary and yet supplied all the available markets. He was concerned for the future of the migratory fishery. Similarly, local shipbuilding was becoming firmly established to support the newly established resident seal fishery. In this connection Gower reported that 149 ships, all Newfoundland built, prosecuted the seal fishery in 1804. However, Portugal’s markets became glutted with saltfish repeatedly during this period, and to compensate for this to some degree Britain prohibited Barbados, St. Vincent, and Grenada from purchasing fish from the United States. Newfoundland’s exports to the Caribbean thus rose from about 50,000 quintals annually before 1805 to 81,000 in that year and to 101,000 in 1806. In addition, American traders had been buying some of Newfoundland’s merchantable fish for export to Spain and the amount thus purchased rose to 100,000 quintals in 1806. In 1806, exports of saltfish totalled over 770,000 quintals, with top prices at 14/ per quintal. In 1807, about 675,000 quintals were exported: 13/6 was the top price. Once again, Newfoundland had settled into a comfortable operation with moderately good catches and moderately high prices and wages. The markets had adjusted to compensate for the closure of the Spanish and Mediterranean ports. Gibraltar’s imports reached 130,000 quintals by 1807, the British West Indies imported over 100,000 quintals, and the United States over 155,000 quintals. The Americans re-exported their Newfoundland-purchased saltfish directly to southern Spain, but saltfish re-exported from Gibraltar to Spain took clandestine routes. However, the American saltfish trade was about to cease. In an effort to force Britain and France to stop interfering with American trade, the US government passed the American Embargo Act in 1807, which ordered all American mercantile ships to remain in port. Thus, the Americans reduced their imports of Newfoundland fish to about one-third in 1808 as a French invasion of Portugal closed off the Portugese ports completely. Before I resume my discussion of the Newfoundland fishery I must return to the broader subject of the war between the United Kingdom and France, which resumed on 18 May 1803. (Although the use of “United Kingdom” is technically correct, beginning with the union of Ireland and Great Britain in 1801, most literature tends to use “England” and “Britain”—and I will do the same.) Britain declared war on France in 1803 when the latter refused to withdraw from Dutch territory. Very little of a military nature happened immediately as Napoleon busied himself reorganizing the German Free States and cities. In May 1804 he arranged to be proclaimed emperor of the French and in the following year, 1805, he became king of Italy. He thus became an absolute monarch, and he established a new court and a new aristocracy. The Second Coalition had expired with the treaty of 1802 and in 1805 a Third Coalition against France was formed by Britain, Austria, Russia, and Sweden. Spain sided with France. Napoleon, who had been contemplating an invasion of England from the port of Boulogne, immediately sent his armies against the Coalition. His attack succeeded and Russia withdrew, and Austria and Prussia made peace. In the meantime, Napoleon was stymied because England controlled the seas. He had already sold the Louisiana territory to America in 1803 and he had seen Haiti become independent. He realized that France could not expand beyond Europe as long as England remained undefeated. His fleets contained many ships, but they were blockaded in the Atlantic ports by the Royal Navy. He combined the Spanish and French fleets at Cadiz in the Mediterranean in order to use them to carry his troops across the English Channel. With 1.5 million men under arms, compared with Britain’s 220,000, he knew that if he could get his troops to England, victory would be his. Therefore, he ordered his Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve, to sail into the Atlantic and northward. This fleet totalled thirty-three ships-of-the-line (best warships) and waiting for them off Trafalgar was the British fleet with twenty-seven ships under Lord Nelson. Nelson had already discussed his battle plan with his captains. The plan was to break his fleet into two groups, one led by him and the second by Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood and to charge the enemy line and split it into three smaller sections. This was an unorthodox tactic because, while charging the line, his ships would be vulnerable to broadside cannon fire from the French and the Spanish and unable to return broadsides. However, morale was high in the Royal Navy and everybody involved was exceptionally well trained. For example, these ships and men had been engaged for years in blockade activities, which had provided considerable training. A ship engaged in blockade activities must constantly move back and forth offshore, tacking about, wearing about, raising and lowering sails, and taking the opportunity to practice cannon fire. Ships and men on the receiving end of a blockade, however, experience the opposite. There is no sailing experience, no cannon experience, and morale sinks. In addition, Villeneuve had felt beaten before he even left port, especially when he heard that Napoleon was in the process of sending out a messenger to have him replaced. He was forced to deal in two languages and the Spanish admirals resented his authority. Consequently, when Nelson attacked, he successfully split the Franco-Spanish fleet, sinking or capturing twenty-two ships without any British losses. Although Nelson was killed in the battle, the Royal Navy had control of the seas. The Royal Navy used its superiority at sea to keep close surveillance on shipping to and from the European continent, including stopping and searching neutral ships. The following year, 1806, Napoleon retaliated with his Berlin Decree, which created his Continental System. This Decree forbade European countries under Napoleon’s control from trading with Britain and threatened with seizure any neutral (read: American) ships that entered a continental port after visiting an English port. As pointed out, the Americans, in exasperation, decided to keep their ships in port. They concluded that, because they were engaged in transporting much of the North Atlantic trade, including Newfoundland fish, both Britain and France would be forced to relax their restrictions and the Americans would become the major (and wealthy) neutral traders to both nations. They therefore passed the Embargo Act in 1807. Meanwhile, the Continental System was showing leakage. The principal gap was in Portugal, which refused to implement it and soon was trading in fish and wine with Britain and also importing industrial England’s products. The fish and industrial goods were then traded into Spain. In November 1807, Napoleon sent an army under General Junot to occupy Portugal. In the nick of time the Royal Navy rescued the Portuguese royal family and government ministers and took them to Rio de Janeiro, which then became the seat of government for the Portuguese empire and a new market for Newfoundland saltfish. Napoleon had also become impatient with Spain because that country provided a conduit for British goods. In addition, he knew that the Spanish royal family and government ministers were incompetent. In December 1807, Napoleon issued his Milan Decree, banning all European ports from trading with Britain. In March 1808 he sent an army of 100,000 men into Spain on the pretense of guarding the Spanish coastline from the British. After the passage of the American Embargo Act of 1807 (repealed in 1809, but it continued to prohibit American trade with England and France), the North Atlantic fish trade was transformed and this transformation was extended with the events of 1808. In the first place, Newfoundland practically monopolized this trade. With the exception of small quantities of Nova Scotian fish, which were sold in the West Indies, and equally small quantities of Quebec (Chaleur Bay) fish sold in Europe, Newfoundland fish dominated the markets. Furthermore, Iceland and Norway were both under the Danish Crown and, since Denmark was allied with Napoleon, these two northern saltfish producers were blockaded by the Royal Navy and unable to trade—and, in fact, faced starvation. France’s fishery had long since ceased and now the American fishery and fish trade also stopped completely. This further encouraged saltfish production in Newfoundland. From the marketing end of the fish trade, other unusual developments also occurred. The French invasion of Spain and Portugal in 1808 had created a seller’s dream situation. Some Spanish leaders fled Madrid as the French arrived and formed a junta in Cadiz. They asked Britain for help, a difficult decision given the history of both nations. As mentioned, the British had just rescued the Portuguese royal family and driven the French out of Portugal. After initial stumbles, Britain sent Arthur Wellesley with an army into Spain: thus the beginning of the Peninsular War, 1808-14. Wellesley, later known as the Duke of Wellington, led the campaign against the French invasion force. He was ably assisted by irregular Spanish forces that engaged in guerrilla warfare. ( “Guerrilla” is taken from the Spanish language and means little wars. This word likely entered the English language at this point.) In gratitude for Britain’s help the junta allowed into Spain all British products at preferential and low tariff rates, although ports of entry depended on the presence of French troops. Meanwhile, Cadiz, although besieged by the French, was never captured. It is located on the southern tip of a peninsula and was supplied by the Royal Navy. The Portugese government was also grateful for British assistance and allowed into Portugal all British goods at low tariff rates also. In addition, Portugal was forced to restructure its trading policy. Prior to 1808, Portugal used its old imperial trading operation. Like Britain before the American Revolution, Portugal had required that goods destined for Brazil be transshipped through Lisbon. Now with Rio de Janeiro the capital of the Portuguese empire, British goods could be sent directly to Brazil. Thus began the Newfoundland-Brazilian saltfish trade, which was to become enormously important during the 1800s and for much of the 1900s. While the overall news was good and prospects for trade excellent, there were problems in Newfoundland with the supply of imports now that the American Embargo Act was in force. After 1808 Newfoundland enjoyed a seller’s market, but there were shortages of imports and manpower. Both problems, however, were soon resolved. Newfoundland saltfish exports to Portugal and Gibraltar rose to almost 620,000 quintals in 1809 and 133,000 quintals were sent to the British West Indies. Of course, the United States bought hardly any. The top price was a moderate 13/6 per quintal. The importation of supplies became a problem. Governor Holloway wrote: ... from the uncertain State of affairs with the United States of America and no supplies being received from thence this year, and Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island not allowing any Stock to be exported, this Island is totally destitute of Beef for the Supply of His Majesty’s Ships and the Inhabitants are deprived of it; I may therefore be under the necessity of allowing the Importation of Livestock, Grain and Fruit from the Azores or Western Islands, which I trust will meet your Lordship’s Approbation. ( “Fishery, ” 37; quoted from CO/194/48, fol. 23) Similarly, in September Holloway complained about the lack of salt, that fish had to be thrown away because of this lack. Although saltfish could be shipped into Spain via Gibraltar, obtaining salt from Cadiz was a hit-or-miss activity, but Newfoundland did obtain some salt from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Carribean and from southern Portugal. Until the French retreated from southern Spain, supplies of salt remained a problem. Furthermore, Holloway pointed out, the winter of 1808-09 had been severe due to a shortage of provisions, but the American fishery on the Labrador coast had ceased. Despite unsettled market conditions and the scarcity of salt and provisions, Newfoundland’s saltfish exports exceeded 810,000 quintals in 1809, with most going to Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar; in 1810 over 880,000 quintals were exported and the top price rose to 14/6. By this time exporters had adjusted to the new trade patterns; they had increased their exports to the British West Indies, displaced much of the American trade to southern Spain (because of the lower import tariff), and continued to dominate the trade to Portugal. Meanwhile, both wages and prices had risen since 1804, as can be seen below ( “Fishery, ” 38; quoted from CO/194/48, fols. 51-129, and see also Table 10): [image: ] In 1811, Spain and Portugal imported the enormous quantity of 611,960 quintals of Newfoundland saltfish, with an additional 140,000 quintals going to Gibraltar and 152,000 to the British West Indies, for a grand total of 920,000 quintals. By this time the large British banking fleet had completely disappeared and Newfoundland residents produced the entire catch. The year 1812 brought with it another war, this time closer to home, as the Anglo-American War broke out. Security, not trade or statistics, became the governor’s top priority, and consequently records for 1812 are incomplete. There were a few isolated American raids against Newfoundland, Cartwright’s business at Labrador was plundered, and three sealing schooners were captured. The Royal Navy provided three ships-of-the-line, twenty-one frigates, and thirty-seven sloops, brigs, and schooners of war to St. John’s alone. This fleet provided protection for the Newfoundland fishery and engaged American warships in the western Atlantic. Many American prizes of war (captured at sea) were brought into St. John’s by Royal Navy ships and these often contained valuable cargoes. The war profited St. John’s, if not the outports. In the fall of 1812, large cargoes of bread and flour arrived from Quebec; this was repeated regularly for the duration of the war. As the Appendix illustrates, Newfoundland exports to Spain and Portugal (and to a smaller extent, Italy) were strong during these final war years, 1812-15. Meanwhile, prices for top-quality fish reached 32/ per quintal in 1811 and 22/6 in 1812. The demand in Europe was so strong that the British West Indies were short of supplies of saltfish. In addition, the growth of the resident fishery concerned Governor Duckworth: There is a general concurrence in one respect only; - that the Fisheries of Newfoundland are now decidedly sedentary, and that the war has been protracted so long as to make it very uncertain whether any change of system would be produced by the return of peace. ... that the resident population of the Island has now become so extensive that every attempt to lessen it, or even to check the rapidity of its increase, must be completely vain: - that this population must be subsisted, and that it has no other resource than in the Fishery; and that therefore the quantity of Fish caught by the resident Inhabitants must be so great as to leave but little opening for Adventurers who might fit out Ships from His Majesty’s Dominions in Europe, if they should be disposed by the return of Peace to make the trial. ( “Fishery, ” 41; quoted from CO/194/53, fols. 3-8) Duckworth recommended that all the ancient impediments imposed upon the resident fishery be removed and the British government accept the reality of a local Newfoundland fishery. In 1813 the fishery was again unusually productive and 912,183 quintals of saltfish were exported. However, the weather for drying the fish was poor and, consequently, there was a lower proportion of merchantable fish. This, no doubt, helps to explain why the best fish sold for 32/ to 42/ per quintal, which were unheard-of prices. Of course, there was general inflation as wages and the cost of living were also rising (see below for prices in 1813, “Fishery, ” quoted from CO/194/54, fols. 55-74): [image: ] It was also reported that servants were being paid an average of £70 per season. Supplies, plentiful in the fall of 1813, were brought mostly from Great Britain. Governor Richard Keats continued the practice begun by Gambier in 1803 of granting small plots of land to fishermen to enable them to better support themselves and their families. Keats, like Gower, commented on the changes occurring in Newfoundland, especially in St. John’s: St. John’s became the Emporium of the Island in consequence of this extended war, with a population of nearly 10,000 inhabitants, seems to have grown out of its character from a Fishery to a large Commercial Town, and for a considerable time past has offered such advantages to the Farmer and Gardener as to surmount in a great degree all the restraints which Nature or the Policy of Government has laid on the Cultivation of a Soil, certainly less sterile than has generally been considered. But this character which it has latterly assumed, it is very doubtful if it will be able to support of the return of Peace. ( “Fishery, ” 44; quoted from CO/194/54, fols. 159-74) Like Duckworth, Keats recognized that the Newfoundland fishery had changed but, unlike Duckworth, he was not perceptive enough to conclude that the changes were becoming irreversible—not only because of the residents’ control over the cod fishery but also because of the newly developed seal fishery (see below). Meanwhile, Russia was not enforcing Napoleon’s Continental System. Russia was the producer of primary products including vast quantities of tallow for the British candle industry and it needed Britain’s industrial goods. Napoleon decided to teach Russia a lesson: in June 1812 he invaded that nation. The Russians resisted his advance, but the French army entered Moscow on 14 September. The tsar, residing in the Russian capital, St. Petersburg, did not agree to negotiate and ordered that Moscow be burned. After five weeks, with no available supplies of food, Napoleon began his retreat on 19 October. The Russians followed, inflicting many casualties, and the Russian winter compounded this military tragedy. Finally, Napoleon left his army and returned to Paris. Fewer than 100,000 soldiers out of the 600,000-man invasion force made it home. The year 1813 was a difficult one for Napoleon. He managed a few victories but the armies of Austria, Prussia, and the various German states won by attrition. The allies entered Paris on 31 March and on 11 April Napoleon abdicated. He was exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean, and given an income; both he and his wife retained their imperial titles. The Congress of Vienna, made up of negotiators representing the victorious nations (and France), met in September 1814 but had difficulty coming to an agreement. The Congress was interrupted when Napoleon left Elba and organized an army of about 200,000 experienced soldiers and prepared for battle. After several impressive victories, he was defeated on 18 June 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo by the Prussians and British under General Blücher and Wellington respectively and exiled to the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic. Peace was concluded in Europe and between Britain and the United States in 1814-15 and, once again, exports of saltfish rose, this time to 947,811 quintals in 1814, of which 768,010 went to Spain, Portugal, and into the Mediterranean. The price received for this fish has been disputed. The governor’s reports indicate it had declined to 24/6 per quintal for the merchantable quality, but Prowse maintains that it was sold at £2 per quintal. This was probably the most prosperous and pleasant year of the whole period, with plenty of supplies from Great Britain and more from the United States. Wages were high; ordinary fishermen received from £60 to £70 per season, and splitters were paid £90-£140. There were no dangers from privateers and no signs yet of the violent looting and arson, which marred the immediate post-war, depressed years. There was full employment, high wages, a large catch, and almost insatiable markets. Only Chief Justice Cæsar Colclough, a nervous pessimist, saw, or imagined he saw, a gloomy picture. Writing to Keats in March 1814, he pointed out that high wages had encouraged greater dissipation among the inhabitants than ususal. Then, foreseeing unemployment as a result of peace in Europe, he added that if low wages and unemployment ever returned, the ignorant people would find consolation, or at least refuge, in the bottle. Newfoundland changed rapidly during this period. In 1795, Governor James Wallace complained that merchants were staying behind in St. John’s and elsewhere and encouraging their men to do likewise. This was a normal occurrence in wartime, especially during the eighteenth century. One year later, it was noted that the population had increased so rapidly that very soon the inhabitants would carry on the fishery without any servants from England and Ireland. In 1804, Gower reported that the fishery in Newfoundland was carried out “almost wholly” by residents. This was not unusual because it had occurred during previous wars. In 1805, Gower reported that St. John’s was “no longer a mere fishing station but a port of extensive commerce.” Because St. John’s had been the centre for the British bank fishery and because that had been disrupted by the war, the port could not remain a fishing station and still prosper. Furthermore, St. John’s was the most secure port on the Island and had always been the naval governors’ headquarters. In 1806 Gower reported again that the fishery was “almost wholly sedentary.” A few months later, he pointed out that the increase in the sedentary fishery and in the population was “likely to create a necessity for a resident Governor.” Governor Holloway’s time was spent dealing with the American embargo and with the prosperity which followed the opening of the Spanish markets after 1808, but in 1812 Governor Duckworth made it clear that “the Fisheries of Newfoundland are now decidedly sedentary” and would remain so. As already pointed out, Governor Keats in 1813 reported that St. John’s had become the “general Emporium of the Island in consequence of this protracted war with a population of nearly 10,000 inhabitants....” In the meantime, Dr. William Carson, a Scotsman living in St. John’s, attacked the system of naval government prevailing in Newfoundland, writing in 1811: A naval commander accustomed to receive obedience, whether his orders are dictated by justice or injustice, by reason or false prejudice, cannot be expected to brook with temper any opposition to his will. The man whose duty calls upon him to defend his rights, and the just interest of his family, in opposition to the opinion and passions of such a Governor, will have but a small chance of success. An act of independence would be arraigned as an act of mutiny. All the influence of his office, all the arts of his satellites would be marshalled to effect his overthrow. Accustomed to use of force to knock down opposition - force being the power he knows best how to direct - the toils of investigation, deliberation, and judgement, are seldom had resource to by a Naval Governor. ( “Fishery, ” 47; quoted from Prowse, 397) In 1813 Carson in a second tract not only attacked the existing system of government but also advocated a system of representative government and the encouragement of agriculture: I am far, very far indeed, from wishing to impugn the motives of the Governors. I am even disposed to allow, that they have been, for the most part, actuated by the best intentions. It is the habits of Naval Commanders, generating a fondness for arbitrary rule, and thereby requiring a passive submission to their will, utterly unfitting them to preside at the head of a Government not possessing the usual necessary restraints. It is the undertaking a high situation, with the duties of which they cannot be acquainted, that I wish to expose and deride, as inconsistent with just moral conduct, derogatory to the character, and hostile to the privileges of Britons. (Prowse, 398) He also advocated “civil Government, consisting of a resident Governor, a Senate House and House of Assembly” (Prowse, 398). Basically, this was a copy of the governments of the early English colonies. Carson was correct in pointing out that the system of government then in Newfoundland could no longer meet the needs of the Island. He was not the first to advocate representative government. In 1803, Governor Gambier, who was familiar with local government in Nova Scotia, wrote to his superior recommending the establishment of a “Legislative power… , similar to that which has been found necessary to the prosperity and good government of other parts of H. M. foreign dominions” (Prowse, 377). Although it extends beyond the period under discussion, it is important to note that the main impetus for a local government system under the control of local people and able to impose taxes for the improvement of St. John’s came from resident merchants in the 1820s. Since the migratory British fishery was bound to suffer in any major war, no real excitement was generated by its decline immediately after 1793. Similarly, the usual growth in population at the same time elicited the usual perfunctory statements from the naval governors. During the war period, however, this situation changed, as has been seen, and it became generally accepted, if not always appreciated, that Newfoundland’s status as a fishing station could no longer be justified. The general evolution of the migratory cod fishery into a resident fishery was a factor. The length of the war, however, and the general prosperity that it created encouraged the influx of large numbers of Irish. Rapid population growth combined with the growth of a new industry—the spring seal fishery—would make the migratory fishery redundant and ensure the survival of the colony with a broader economic base. Irish Roman Catholics had had some connections with Newfoundland since Lord Falkland’s settlement attempts in the early seventeenth century. They had continued to come to Newfoundland in limited numbers on English fishing ships, which called at Waterford and other Irish ports on their spring voyages for supplies of salt beef, pork, butter, cheese, and porter for the fishery. Immediately after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, relatively large numbers of Irish settled in Placentia Bay and St. Mary’s Bay—areas which became vacant due to the expulsion of the French. Others settled in St. John’s and its vicinity. For the most part, these Irish became integrated into the primitive resident fishing society that existed. The settlement pattern of the Irish who arrived during the Napoleonic war period was different because of the speed with which immigration took place. Three factors determined the process. First, the British Passenger Act of 1803 set stringent regulations on the transportation of British emigrants to North America. These regulations included food, water, medical aid, and sleeping accommodations and stipulated the number of passengers per ton of burthen. There had been horror stories about the fate of overcrowded passenger ships, under-supplied with food and water, en route to the United States. This Passenger Act (the term emigrant was rarely used at that time) was intended to make crossing the Atlantic safer for emigrants, and Britain was probably trying to slow the transportation of its subjects to America because of the manpower needs of the Royal Navy and the army. For obvious reasons, fishing ships proceeding to the Newfoundland fishery were excluded from the Act, an exclusion which reduced the cost of transportation for Irish emigrants to North America via Newfoundland, and the Island became a conduit for a movement of dissatisfied Irish people. Second, as has already been explained, the Irish were under persecution by 1803. Their uprising or revolt had failed; many were being treated as traitors and suffered the consequences. Even as late as 1803 Robert Emmett and others were being prosecuted and persecuted. Thus, some Irish had to get away. Finally, the demands for labour increased in Newfoundland as market prospects improved and wages became attractive. These factors encouraged Irish emigrants to travel to the Island, often under inhuman (but inexpensive) conditions, sleeping on deck or on top of bales of cargo. These Irish, with no fishing experience and little, if any, capital, were fortunate to find plenty of employment on the Island. They became servants for established shipowners and benefited from the high wages. These shipowners, planter-fishermen, and new local entrepreneurs invested heavily in the fishery during these years of prosperity because the price of saltfish rose to extraordinary levels. They even began sending ships and crews to the northern part of the Island (North Shore, or Petit Nord), where the French had fished, in relative peace, before the wars. Furthermore, they discovered that seals could be harvested by the thousands in early spring and fishing vessels sought out cargoes of these sea mammals on the ice floes. This seal fishery, which involved activity from February to May, provided a welcome supplement to the summer cod fishery and could be prosecuted only by residents. A comment by an official, Bathurst, to the Newfoundland governor in 1812 summed up the situation: There can be no question that the present situation of that [Newfoundland cod] fishery from the long continuation of the War, and the great change which the recent introduction of the Seal Fishery must necessarily have occasioned, even if the War were now to terminate, will require a revision of the Laws and Instructions at present in existence. ( “Fishery, ” 51; quoted from CO/195/16, fols. 323-26) Consequently, by the time the war ended, Newfoundland had its broader economic base—although the seal fishery was as yet in its infancy—and a substantial population. The movement towards a resident fishery was accelerated during the war period by the extraordinary demand for Newfoundland’s saltfish. The resulting near-monopoly situation encouraged local investment in the fishery and in necessary infrastructure, especially shipbuilding. The expansion of the St. John’s and Conception Bay fishing industry to the northern part of the Island resulted in the creation of a fishing fleet which was also able to participate in the harvest of the newly discovered, extensive seal herds. Meanwhile, developments in Newfoundland’s infrastructure and its society was evidence that a settled society was being recognized internally. Nor was Dr. Carson the only force seeking change and improvement of infrastructure and services. Other leading personalities made an effort to view English Newfoundland, or at least St. John’s, as a Colony during the 1793-1814 war periods. A grammar school was opened in St. John’s in 1799 and, although it did not survive long, it was replaced under Gambier’s leadership during 1802-04 by two charity schools—one for Roman Catholics and one for Protestants. In 1805, the first post office was installed in the town, and in 1806, a newspaper, the Royal Gazette, was established by John Ryan, an American loyalist. In 1806, the Benevolent Irish Society was founded as a non-sectarian society to provide support to poor Irish—including orphans, widows, and the helpless—regardless of religion, and was totally dependent on donations. (A branch was later founded in Harbour Grace in 1814; it lasted until the beginning of the 1900s.) Meanwhile, I must return to the unfortunate Beothuk: There were reports of occasional meetings and confrontations between Beothuk and Europeans, and between Beothuk and Mi’kmaq during the latter 1700s (Marshall). Gambier was presented with a female Beothuk captive but he really had no idea what to do with her. She spent some time in St. John’s and was returned to William Cull, her captor, who was instructed to return her to her people with gifts. This he failed to do immediately because, he said, his men feared to go into the interior. However, after some months he reported that he had left her where she had been captured. In the fall and winter of 1809-10, Governor Holloway engaged Cull to seek out the Beothuk and start trading with them. They found a deserted Beothuk settlement, but nothing came of the trip. Governor Duckworth, in 1810, sent Lieutenant David Buchan to find the Beothuk during the winter of 1810-11. Buchan found them and left two marines with them while he went back to get presents to distribute. Four Beothuk accompanied his little party, but three fled along the way. After obtaining the presents the party returned to the Beothuk, only to find that his two men had been killed and beheaded; the remaining Beothuk fled. (In 1828, the Beothuk captive, a female known as Shanawdithit, explained that at that time her people numbered about seventy-two individuals in the area around Red Indian Lake. She reported that her people had thought that Buchan was going back to get more men and intended to capture them all upon his return.) The following few years up to the end of this period, 1818, were noted for acts of violence against the remaining Beothuk, who disappeared from the scene. (Some people like to believe that the remaining members of these people crossed the Straits of Belle Isle because there were reports of unknown Indians seen in southern Labrador in the 1840s—but this would appear unlikely.) To return to the Newfoundland economy: By December 1815, the first cracks had begun to appear in the economic edifice as fish prices began to decline and information was received that the French fishery was recovering at St. Pierre and Miquelon and on the Grand Banks, though not as yet on the French Shore. American and Norwegian fish entered the European markets and Spain tried to get its finances in order and raised import tariffs on saltfish both for the revenue and to encourage its own local coastal fisheries. Governor Keats’s officials reported that mercantile debts were piling up as merchants could not get the payments owed and there had been about forty declarations of insolvency. Saltfish exports exceeded 1 million quintals again in 1816, but the prices declined to between 9/ and 15/ per quintal, lower prices being the norm. The winters of 1815-16, 1816-17, and 1817-18 were difficult for St. John’s and the outports, but it is the former that we know most about. Prowse writes that starvation prevailed through Newfoundland during 1815-16, yet at the same time immigrants were arriving in large numbers, unaware that prosperous times were over; 5,838 Irish arrived in 1815—the largest number ever. In 1816-17 the situation worsened as famine became a threat. Captain Buchan, who was in charge, was forced to put his naval men on short rations to stave off the famine in St. John’s. The winter of 1817-18 was even worse; fires burned down businesses and about 300 houses. Homeless, hungry men roamed the streets of St. John’s, looting and seeking out and eating burned raw fish from the warehouses. They even sought some warmth from the ashes, which were all that was left of many buildings. This has been referred to as the Winter of the Rals (rowdies). Prowse, with his knowledge of the Greek classics, reported that famine, frost, and fire like the three avenging furies scourged the unfortunate Island. (However, Prowse’s analogy is not completely correct because the Three Furies usually took out their anger and their vengeance on those who commit injustice.) The elderly naval governor, Admiral Pickmore, was ordered to remain in Newfoundland throughout the winter of 1817-18. He complained about the drafty building that had only ever been intended for a summer residence, but to no avail; he died on 24 February. It took two weeks to cut a channel through the ice that covered St. John’s harbour to allow a small vessel to be despatched to England with his remains. During that winter Newfoundland received some assistance; Britain sent £10,000, Halifax assisted, and Boston sent 174 barrels of flour, 11 tierces of rice, 125 barrels of meal, and 27 barrels and 963 bags of hard bread (Prowse, 407). However, things turned around in the spring: In the spring of 1818 this period of calamity came to an end. The seal fishery was unusually productive, in less than a fortnight scores of little vessels returned, loaded to the scuppers with fat; hope revived, the fisheries were good, the markets improved, and the poor old Colony again began to lift up her head. (Prowse, 406) This brings us to the subject of the seal fishery and its maritime economic partner, the Labrador cod fishery. Let us take the Labrador cod fishery first. As the demand for cod increased, the planter fishery came under pressure to produce. By the early 1800s the bank fishery had declined. Furthermore, the best harbours with the most developed infrastructure were mostly in Conception Bay. (Although St. John’s was the overall best harbour, most of its shoreline was taken up by shipping, warehouses, and naval forces and prizes of war.) Therefore, many passengers on fishing ships headed to Harbour Grace, Carbonear, Brigus, Bay Roberts, and other smaller harbours in Conception Bay in large numbers. In the meantime, French fishermen had been forced to withdraw from the French Shore, leaving the North Shore (or Petit Nord) vacant. Conception Bay merchants (and those of Trinity Bay to a lesser extent, because that Bay had fewer people and proportionately a larger shore fishery) sent their planters to the North Shore in small vessels carrying crews. In the harbours and coves along the east side of the Great Northern Peninsula the fishery was carried out by these vessels. Our first record of Vessels on the North Shore show up in the governor’s correspondence in 1803 when it was reported that forty-seven ships carrying 435 men fished there (Abstract). These numbers had risen to 129 vessels and 1,101 men in 1814. In 1818 there were 153 vessels; in 1819 and 1820 there were 214 and 263 respectively, and men numbered 950, 1,832, and 2,838 during these three years. French fishing ships returned to Newfoundland for good after the Treaty of 1815 (and some briefly after the earlier Treaty of 1814) and the Vessels on the North Shore in the governor’s reports refers to Vessels on the Labrador coast. The English vessels were forced further north and on to the Labrador coast because French privileges on the French Shore were re-established after 1815. The ships referred to as being on the North Shore in 1818-20 were definitely fishing on the Labrador coast. Two kinds of fishery developed on the Labrador—the local term used for this activity. The stationers took their menservants, a woman or girl to cook (usually a family member or neighbour), supplies, equipment, including a fishing boat, and set up a fishing room on the Labrador coast. Thus the Labrador stationer fishery operated as the old bye-boat fishery—but with female cooks. The other Labrador fishery was referred to as the floater fishery: the vessels that carried the stationers to their fishing rooms also carried on a fishery. They moved from harbour to harbour seeking out the best fishing grounds and salted their fish in the holds of their ships. As they usually brought their fish back to Newfoundland to be dried, they were also called greenfish catchers. Some floaters, like my great-grandfather Shanahan, established fishing rooms on the Labrador as well and could dry their fish before returning home. The Labrador cod fishery could support a large number of fishermen, and in Harbour Grace, for example, they did not have to live on the coast, on the landwash, as we say, in order to make a living as fishermen—thus the growth of fishing towns like Harbour Grace, Bay Roberts, Brigus, and Carbonear. However, the Labrador fishery could not support a year-round permanent population of working families any more than the old shore fishery could. What clinched the success of permanent settlement for working families was the utilization of another resource, the seal herds, which led to the development of a spring seal fishery. (Like whaling, sealing was generally referred to as a fishery.) The Beothuk and the Inuit had always harvested seals for meat, oil, and skins as had the early European settlers. Migratory fishermen did not do so because the seals (mostly harp seals in huge herds) spent the winter months feeding on the Grand Banks and in February began their journey back to the High Arctic. By May, as the migratory ships arrived, the seals would be gone, although at times fishermen on the ships observed some swimming north. Late in February, the herds met the Arctic ice floes drifting south, southeast, and southwest. The seals crawled upon the ice and about the end of February the females gave birth and nursed the young for a few weeks as the ice continued its southerly drift. Sometimes the ice floes drifted against the land and inhabitants could walk onto the ice and club or shoot the seals. These early inhabitants also set nets to capture seals between islands when they passed by going south in November-December. To reiterate, early settlers in Trinity, Bonavista, and points farther north had the advantage of finding seals close to shore. They were taken for their meat, oil, and furs/skins as the Indians had been doing. Skins provided boots and harness leather for horses and dogs; the meat was eaten—the only fresh meat available in any quantity for most people at that time of the year. (Moose were not introduced to Newfoundland until the early 1900s.) Seals were highly valued for their fat or blubber, which could be rendered into oil for crude outdoor oil lamps, for lubrication, and for leather currying. Whale oil, rapeseed oil (our canola oil), and seal oil could all be used for these purposes, but lighting created the biggest demand for these traditional oils. Lighting was a crucial factor in the development of the industrial modern European world, beginning c.1600. Churches used beeswax candles, as did the wealthiest people. These were expensive and outside the reach of most customers, so candles from sheep and cattle tallow were used. Householders had begun to use large numbers of candles in the 1500s as they retired to bed later. Candles were portable and could be used separately and individually to read, write, repair harness, or mend clothing. A remarkable print from the 1770s shows David Garrick, the most famous English actor up to his age and beyond, on stage in one of his productions. A large chandelier is suspended over the stage and two over the audience, burning tallow candles—no doubt. Tallow candles must be snuffed periodically, that is, the burned dead wick must be clipped off so it will not bend over and melt the side of the candle and create a sputtering distraction. Consequently, chandeliers were lowered every few minutes to allow attendants to snuff the candles. Therefore, old plays contained many scenes. Because of the limited lighting, most action in the play took place at the front of the stage. Outside lighting was also in growing demand during the 1600s and 1700s. Oil lamps using whale, seal, and rapeseed oils were inefficient. These oils were too viscous to be drawn up by a wick’s capillary action and the best that could be done was to use bits of rag on pans of oil; later a cruise lamp, which resembled a modern gravy dish was used (Ryan, Ice Hunters, 66). Still later the betty lamp, which resembled a small tea kettle with a piece of wick in the spout, was used. These lamps, sometimes enclosed in horn or glass, were used for street lighting, which began in the City of London in the mid-1600s and for lighting wharves and warehouses, but they were inadequate. In addition, lighthouses, which were becoming increasingly necessary as shipping increased, were forced to depend on candles and even wood and coal fires atop stone columns. One writer observed that the Industrial Revolution would have foundered without a spectacular advance in lighting. The revolution in oil lighting occurred in the 1780s when Argand, a Swiss inventor living in France, invented an oil lamp that could burn traditional oil efficiently and effectively without any mess. He placed the reservoir or oil container above the wick and off to the side. A small oil pipeline led from the reservoir to the wick and the weight of the oil forced it up and into the wick. The wick was circular and the centre of the wick-holder open so air could flow up through the centre, feeding oxygen to the flame while air also flowed up the outside of the wick. The airflow and oxygen feed were facilitated by the globe created for this lamp. Argand lamps became popular—in wealthy households, shops, theatres, better taverns, and lighthouses. The new Argand-lamp lighthouses made a considerable difference to shipping, and traditional oils were burned in them until electricity was introduced; because in England, at least, lighthouses were too isolated to use natural gas when it came on the market in the early 1800s. (In Newfoundland seal oil was used as lighthouse fuel until the 1880s.) The Argand lamp also revolutionized theatre lighting. Wall lamps lit the seating area; footlights and wing lights lit up the stage. The entire stage was then available for the action and its full depth could be utilized. The Argand lamp, then, was the biggest revolution in lighting for thousands of years—in fact the only revolution (see Ryan, Newfoundland Seal Fishery). Although Britain supported a large Arctic whale fishery (see Jackson), whaling was expensive and investment in a whaling voyage risky. Sealing investment, on the other hand, could be spread out over hundreds, later thousands, of individual fishermen. Furthermore, Conception Bay merchants discovered that they could use their North Shore (and later Labrador) vessels to hunt for seals in the spring before the summer fisheries began. This is what they did. Consequently, while the northern harbours continued to kill and process a few seals annually throughout the 1700s, Conception Bay ports and St. John’s engaged in a rapidly growing spring seal fishery throughout the Napoleonic Wars (and beyond), although the northern seal fishery did not end—indeed it continues in 2012— but it is now usually described as the landsmen’s seal fishery. In 1804, noted even at the time for its large spring seal fishery, exports of seal oil were worth almost £39,000. In that year, as already pointed out, Governor Gower reported that 149 Newfoundland-built ships had prosecuted the spring seal fishery, after which they would have gone to the North Shore for the cod fishery. This brings us to the realization that shipbuilding prospered during the Napoleonic wars as well (and remained an important industry until the 1840s, when Newfoundland’s seal hunt required larger ships and began to import them). Newfoundland’s ships were small and the timber for their construction readily available. Furthermore, shipbuilding kept a planter’s crew intact for the coming sealing/fishing seasons. Consequently, when Prowse stated that the prosperous sealing voyages of 1818 saved Newfoundland, he was not exaggerating. These 1818 voyages and those that followed did just that. Meanwhile, what did the North Shore fishery and the seal fishery mean for Newfoundland, especially Conception Bay? These two fisheries meant that fishermen could move away from the actual landwash, where their stages were built out over the water. They could move to places like Riverhead, Harbour Grace, or Irish Town, Carbonear. They became sealers and North Shore (later Labrador) fishermen. And because they could claim larger amounts of land, they became subsistence farmers as well, as the Ryans, Shanahans, and others did on Fisherman’s Road. Why this property in Riverhead was free for the taking c.1815 is easily explained by the fact that, except for few winter huts, the fishermen always lived and worked next to the beach and the water where the heart of Harbour Grace can be found even in 2012. The Labrador fishery, beginning after 1815, and the seal fishery from 1818 onwards, saved Newfoundland from becoming depopulated and reverting to its pre-1793 status. Newfoundland was a colony in 1818 but it would take a few years for the British government to acknowledge this. By the time the war had ended in 1815, Newfoundland’s history as a British migratory fishery had come to a close and it was about to be recognized as another, albeit unique, British Colony. Thus, Newfoundland, which had always been a fishery based around an island, had finally become a colony based on the cod and seal fisheries. CHAPTER 2 CHAOS: 1660-1713 Following the period ending c.1660, one of experimentation and diversity, the years from 1660 to 1713 were noted for transitional chaos. The passage of Cromwell’s navigation act in 1651 begins the period of trade ascendancy—also known as mercantilism—a political/economic philosophy which dictated that a nation must export more than it imports. Cromwell’s policy did not change with the restoration of Charles II. In fact, it was to be strengthened; in the year of his return, 1660, a new Navigation Act, that went much further than that of 1651, was passed. It was strengthened to protect English manufacturing from competition in the English colonies and to ensure that England was supplied with the raw materials it needed. Colonies were required to use English (including English-Colonial) ships for their import and export trades, and three out of four sailors employed on these ships were to be English or English-Colonial. Furthermore, sugar, tobacco, cotton, ginger, and indigo plants for dye (bluish velvet) could not be exported to any market except England or another English colony. Another act followed in 1664, which demanded that all European (i.e., non-English) goods destined for English colonies be landed in an English port before being brought to the colonies and governors of the colonies required to submit annual returns to England providing full information on incoming and departing trading ships. Further, the Act of 1672, which followed, required the colonies to charge duties on imports from other English colonies at the same rate as if brought from England. Saltfish was excluded from the goods listed above. England did not want imports of colonial saltfish from its Colonies on the Continent to compete with its own cod fishery in Newfoundland waters; grains, New England rum and lumber, and salted beef and pork were also excluded for similar reasons. This was a far cry from the laissez-faire conditions of pre-1651, and it is within the context and restraints of these Acts that English colonies operated and the inhabitant and migratory fisheries prosecuted. Even though they strengthened England’s economy, these Acts created a major and growing nuisance for the English colonies. The Restoration of Charles II in 1660 brought a rapid expansion of English colonization along the North American Atlantic seaboard. During his reign (to 1685), seven new colonies came into existence: North and South Carolinas; New Netherland was taken from the United Dutch Provinces and renamed New York, Delaware, and New Jersey; Pennsylvania was established; and the seventh, New Hampshire, was carved out of Massachusetts. Twelve out of the thirteen colonies were now established and, in 1670, a new trading company, the Hudson’s Bay Company, was granted a charter giving it a monopoly over the fur trade of the area draining into Hudson Bay. Thus England’s commitment to the mainland of North America increased considerably during Charles’s reign. Meanwhile, the Newfoundland fisheries were still troubled: by poor fishing seasons, pirates, privateers, and competition from New England. At the insistence of the fishing-ship operators a new version of the Western Charter was reissued in 1660-61 banning bye-boat fishermen from going to Newfoundland; this failed to stop them and the prohibition came to naught. This failure caused the major fishing-ship owners to turn their anger on the inhabitants and blame them for prevailing problems. However, before this issue came to a head, Anglo-Dutch antagonisms intervened. Without any declaration of war, England took trading posts from the Dutch West India Company, and England’s Royal African Company seized Dutch plantations near the Gambia in Africa. In 1663-64, an English fleet sailing under the orders of James, the Duke of York (later James II), captured New Netherland. New Amsterdam was renamed New York and Fort Orange was renamed Albany, both in honour of the Duke. War broke out and lasted from 1665 until 1667, with the Dutch faring better than England: the latter