Cook's Harbour
Cook's Harbour fishing fleet at the community commercial wharf.
The outport was named by the legendary Captain James Cook in 1764. Between 1763 and 1767, Cook conducted a cartographic survey of Newfoundland and southern Labrador for the British government. At the time there were increasing disputes over fishing rights and boundaries between the French and British fishermen. The location of Cook’s Harbour, on the southern edge of the Strait of Belle Isle, made it an excellent spot for hunting seals and as a way station for fishing schooners headed to Labrador. Like most of the larger harbours on the French Shore, Cook’s Harbour had a seasonal French cod fishing station. By the mid-1800s , many French Shore harbours began to experience permanent settlement, mostly by Newfoundland fishermen from southern ports. This caused additional problems about fishing rights, which were not resolved until the French gave up their rights as part of the Entente Cordiale of 1904. The community reached its largest population in the mid-1900s as it became a regional centre for cod fishing and a supply stopover for the Labrador schooner fishery. Today, it remains a fishing community in spite of the Cod Moratorium of 1992 and subsequent out-migration of many fishermen and plant workers.
Cook's Harbour Photos : ( Click each for full size )
Portrait of Captain James Cook made in the years after he had been in Newfoundland.
Cook's Harbour : Cape Norman
Not far down a dirt road from Cook's Harbour is the limestone headland of Cape Norman. Named by the French in the early 1700s, it is the most northerly point on the island of Newfoundland. In 1871 a lighthouse was completed at the cape. After a nearby shipwreck twenty years later, a foghorn was added. From Cape Norman you can easily see the Labrador outports of Red Bay and Henley Harbour.
Photos : ( Click each for full size )
Lighthouse at Cape Norman.