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Fish and ships |
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Life on board was equally as hard as the work; the ships were generally over-manned and the living conditions below deck were miserable. However, if it was a good fishing season, it was a profitable business and cod sold well in Europe at the time. The Spanish, Portuguese and Italians were staunchly, even militantly, Catholic, with a strong demand for fish to consume on fast-days; they provided a captive market the English fleet were more than happy to capitalise on. This applied particularly to Spain whose fleet had all but been destroyed during the war with England during the late 1500s.
Devonian emigrants to Newfoundland were very isolated
© Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador
A10-71 |
New England
But during the early 1600’s, Devonians were looking even further afield to find fish stocks. According to one Plymouth maritime document of 1620, a Dartmouth vessel had explored the New England coast in 1597, five years earlier than any other known recorded journey in those waters. There were three main English expeditions to these New England waters from 1602 to 1608. The records and accounts of all these journeys were published in England, and fishermen became familiar with the area, at least on paper.
In June of 1606, King James I granted a royal charter to a group of London entrepreneurs, who were known as the Virginia Company, to establish a satellite English settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. It was this company that became instrumental in the colonisation of much of the eastern seaboard. 
Fishing Stage Used in the Newfoundland Migratory Fishery
© Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage |
In December of that year 108 settlers sailed from London and were instructed to settle in Virginia.
The Virginia Company rapidly introduced regulation to administer the area as there was considerable interest in colonisation. In 1606, the responsibility for more than 2,000 miles of coastline was divided between two halves of the Virginia Company. The southern area was run by the South Virginia Company, and the northern region, originally known as Norumbega, by the North Virginia Company. This northern half had its company base in Plymouth and was almost exclusively run by West Country men. It was under these auspices that the first settlement of New England was attempted.
In 1607, two Virginia Company ships set sail from Plymouth, England and endeavoured to establish a colony on the banks of the Sagadahoe River, in the north of the region. However with a particularly ferocious winter and the deaths of several prominent members of the settlement party, they were forced to return to Devon.
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