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Fish were taken off the fishing boats and dried by hand
© Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage
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Fish and ships |
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In the 17th Century the English were relative newcomers to colonisation, unlike the Spanish, who had prosperous Hispanic cities and territories to exploit in the Southern-Americas. Instead, English merchants had to be inventive, and source desirable commodities with which to trade on American soil. This, in turn, would sustain their newly established coastal settlements, so fishing the New World waters became an attractive option.
Added to that, fishing in home waters around Britain was becoming unpredictable; catches were fluctuating, and financial reward was becoming irregular, so fishermen were only too happy to search out new, more plentiful waters. Boat owners needed consistency in supply in order to feed the British appetite for this relatively cheap source of food
Devonian fishermen quickly recognised that the exploitation of the vast natural resources of fish was strategically important if they were to be able to successfully colonise on the eastern seaboard of America. 
Fishermen were a tough breed of men
© Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage |
The New England coastline was perfect with its abundant supplies of fish, which would prove invaluable for trading in the region.
Waters new
English fishermen had been fishing for herring, cod, hake and ling in Irish waters, from at least the 15th Century. In the 1530’s a huge fleet of Devon boats regularly returned to Plymouth with considerable quantities of Irish hake. In 1600, Devonians were still fishing the Irish coastal waters with as many as 2,000 English migrant workers fishing in the Munster fisheries on the south west coast of Ireland.
These fishermen also had a long tradition of fishing off the Icelandic coast, but during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), fishing in this area steadily declined for political and economic reasons. Iceland was a state of Denmark [something that changed only in 1944, when Denmark formally terminated its hold on Iceland] and was disputing the right of English fishermen to fish the Icelandic waters. They made it plain that the British fleets were not welcome. However, this political fracas came at the same time as the British were finding the economics of fishing there less attractive than in the waters of the Newfoundland coast, where larger catches of fish could be found.
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