West St. Modeste
Once a common sight, fish flakes are disappearing along outport shorelines.
West St. Modeste is one of two communities at Pinware Bay. It was originally a small Basque whaling station, west of a much larger establishment at Red Bay. The current community name comes from the early 18th century French concession holder, Pierre Constantin, who called the harbour after his Breton home, St. Modet. Like the other Labrador Straits harbours, West. St. Modeste was used by fishermen affiliated with Constantin’s trading post and sealing station and with migratory cod fishing ships from France. The West St. Modeste area was also frequented by Inuit hunters at this time who came to trade and hunt seals. When French control of the territory ended in 1763, the English mercantile firms that took control were primarily interested in using West St. Modeste as a sealing station.In the 1800s i8ndependent fishermen from Newfoundland and England conducted the local cod fishery and formed the base of permanent settlement. Schooners from the south also stopped at West St. Modeste, some on their way to the Labrador floater fishery.
When Dr. Wilfred Grenfell started his medical mission for fishermen on the Coast, he also looked for ways to diversify the local economy of the outports. Following the success of the Co-op he established in Red Bay, he built a second one in West St. Modeste in 1903. He hoped that the locally owned co-ops would return a better price for fish, with the fishermen reaping more profits without a large mercantile overlord.
West St. Modeste continued as a small fishing outport through the 20th century. The Cod Moratorium of 1992 created an end to the historic cod fishery and a consolidation of other fisheries to larger boats, fewer crew and centralized processing. With a diminishing population, communities like West St. Modeste have been scrambling ever since to remain economically sustainable.
West St. Modeste Photos : ( Click each for full size )
In spring, seal hunters pole their boats through a dangerous maze of ice, slush and open water.
West St. Modeste : Picturing the Early European Fishermen
In the early days of the European fishery along the Strait of Belle Isle and its harbours, the life of the fishermen and trappers was taken up with long hours of toil. The cod fishery was almost a 24 hour business to get as much fish caught and processsed before the short summer season gave way to ice and snow. It was certainly no place for artists who might have given us a picture of what those early fishermen looked like, what they wore and how they lived. The images that come to us prior to the invention of photography in 1839 are rarely made by eye-witnesses. Although the aboriginal people were the most inaccurately drawn of all the people who frequented the region, European fishermen appear in unrealistically neat clothing without the dirt and holes that most likely decorated their costumes. Here are several fanciful depictions of fishermen and native people.
Photos : ( Click each for full size )
A 17th century French fisherman's attire from a 19th century costume book.
Many depictions of aboriginal people give them European features like the man in this 19th century engraving.