Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-22dnz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T18:08:03.764Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The 19th century Newfoundland seal fishery and the influence of Scottish whalemen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Chesley W. Sanger
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The origins of the contemporary Newfoundland Harp and Hooded Seal fisheries can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries when ‘Biscainers’ (Spanish Basques) hunted whales, walrus and seals in the Gulf of St Lawrence and along the southern coast of Labrador (Prowse, 1895, p 43; Barkham, 1978). Throughout the next 400 years, as the seal fishery developed—both the landsmen and vessel operations—it became a major influence on the spread and character of settlement over a large area of Newfoundland and Labrador. By the middle of the 19th century, the large off-shore vessel operation had assumed the dominant role, and its contribution to the overall economic growth was second only to the cod fishery.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 20 , Issue 126 , September 1980 , pp. 231 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barkham, S. 1978. The Basques: filling a gap in our history between Jacques Cartier and Champlain. Canadian Geographical Journal, Vol 96, No 1, p 8–19.Google Scholar
Black, W. A. 1960. The Labrador floating fishery. Association of American Geographers. Annals, Vol 50, No 3, p 267–93.Google Scholar
Bonnycastle, R. H. 1842. Newfoundland in 1842: a sequel to the Canadas in 1841, Vol II. London, Henry Colburn.Google Scholar
Carroll, M. 1873. The seal and herring fishery of Newfoundland together with a condensed history of the island. Montreal, John Lovell.Google Scholar
de Jong, C. 1978. A short history of old Dutch whaling. Pretoria, University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser. 1858. Dundee Advertiser, 23 02 1858.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1860. Dundee Advertiser, 27 04 1860.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1861. Dundee Advertiser, 23 04 1861.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1862a. Dundee Advertiser, 17 01 1862.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1862b. Dundee Advertiser, 16 05 1862.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser, 1863a. Dundee Advertiser, 10 02 1863.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1863b. Dundee Advertiser, 19 05 1863.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1864. Dundee Advertiser, 29 04 1864.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1873. Dundee Advertiser, 7 02 1873.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1874a. Dundee Advertiser, 17 04 1874.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1874b. Dundee Advertiser, 20 04 1874.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1876a. Dundee Advertiser, 3 05 1876.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1876b. Dundee Advertiser, 12 12 1876.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1877a. Dundee Advertiser, 7 02 1877.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1877b. Dundee Advertiser, 27 04 1877.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1877C. Dundee Advertiser, 19 09 1877.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1878. Dundee Advertiser, 30 01 1878.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser, 1889. Dundee Advertiser, 10 05 1889.Google Scholar
Dundee Advertiser 1899. Dundee Advertiser, 28 10 1899.Google Scholar
Dundee Courier. 1863a. Dundee Courier, 23 01 1863.Google Scholar
Dundee Courier, 1863b. Dundee Courier, 13 11 1863.Google Scholar
Dundee Courier, 1864. Dundee Courier, 27 04 1864.Google Scholar
Dundee Courier, 1867. Dundee Courier, 1 05 1867.Google Scholar
Dundee Courier, 1875. Dundee Courier, 19 04 1875.Google Scholar
Fairweather, J. 1928. With the Scottish whalers: the study of a shipmaster's fifly-ttvo years at sea. Dundee. (Printed for private circulation.)Google Scholar
Head, C. G. 1976. Eighteenth century Newfoundland: a geographer's perspective. Toronto, McClelland and Stewart.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindsay, D. M. 1911. A voyage to the Arctic in the whaler Aurora. Boston, Massachusetts, Dana Estes.Google Scholar
Lubbock, B. 1937. The Arctic whalers. Glasgow, Brown, Son and Ferguson.Google Scholar
Lysaght, A. M. 1971. Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1766: his diary, manuscripts and collections. London, Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Mosdell, H. M., ed. 1923. Chafe's sealing book. A history of the Newfoundland seal fishery from the earliest available records down to and including the voyage of 1923. 3rd ed.St John's, Newfoundland, The Trade Printers and Publishers.Google Scholar
Pedley, C. 1863. The history of Newfoundland: from the earliest times to theyear 1860. London, Longman, Green, Roberts and Green.Google Scholar
Sentinel, Peterhead. 1876. Peterhead Sentinel, 19 04 1876.Google Scholar
Sentinel, Peterhead. 1877. Peterhead Sentinel, 13 06 1877.Google Scholar
Sentinel, Peterhead. 1889. Peterhead Sentinel, 11 01 1889.Google Scholar
Prowse, D. W. 1895. History of Newfoundland from the English colonial and foreign records. London, Macmillan.Google Scholar
Raynal, G. T. F. 1969. A philosophical and political history of settlements and trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies, 2nd ed. Vol V. New York, Negro University Press.Google Scholar
Ross, W. G. 1979. The annual catch of Greenland (Bowhead) Whales in water north of Canada 1719–1915: a preliminary compilation. Arctic, Vol 32, No 2, p 91–121.Google Scholar
Sanger, C. W. 1973. Technological and spatial adaptation in the Newfoundland seal fishery during the nineteenth century. St John's, Memorial University of Newfoundland. (Unpublished MA thesis.)Google Scholar
Sanger, C. W. 1978. The evolution of sealing and the spread of permanent settlement in northeastern Newfoundland. In: Mannion, J., ed. The peopling of Newfoundland: essays in historical geography. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, p 136–51.Google Scholar
Templeman, W. 1966. Marine resources of Newfoundland. Fisheries Research Board of Canada. Bulletin, No 154.Google Scholar
The Morning Chronicle. 1876a. The Morning Chronicle (St John's), 22 02 1876.Google Scholar
The Morning Chronicle 1876b. The Morning Chronicle (St John's), 30 05 1876.Google Scholar
The Morning Chronicle 1877a. The Morning Chronicle (St John's), 8 03 1877.Google Scholar
The Morning Chronicle 1877b. The Morning Chronicle (St John's), 2 06 1877.Google Scholar
The Morning Chronicle 1877C. The Morning Chronicle (St John's), 20 12 1877.Google Scholar
The Morning Chronicle 1878. The Morning Chronicle (St John's), 21 02 1878.Google Scholar
The Newfoundlander. 1862a. The Newfoundlander (St John's), 3 04 1862.Google Scholar
The Newfoundlander. 1862b. The Newfoundlander (St John's), 14 04 1862.Google Scholar
The Newfoundlander. 1876. The Newfoundlander (St John's), 11 02 1876.Google Scholar
The Newfoundland Express. 1863. The Newfoundland Express, 28 02 1863.Google Scholar
The St John's Daily News. 1861a. The St John's Daily News, 2 03 1861.Google Scholar
The St John's Daily News. 1861b. The St John's Daily News, 4 03 1861.Google Scholar
The St John's Daily News. 1861c. The St John's Daily News, 29 03 1861.Google Scholar
The St John's Daily News. 1862. The St John's Daily News, 2 04 1862.Google Scholar
The Times. 1865. The Times (St John's), 25 02 1865.Google Scholar
Thornton, P. 1978. The demographic and mercantile bases of initial settlement in the Strait of Belle Isle. In: Mannion, J., ed. The peopling of Newfoundland: essays in historical geography. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, p 152–83.Google Scholar
Wilson, W. 1866. Newfoundland and its missionaries. Halifax, Dakin and Metcalf.Google Scholar