The Relationship between Portugal and Canada in regard to the capture and consumption of codfish, goes back more than five centuries

By Rui Bela for Revista Tuga – published with the expressed consent of Revista Tuga

When I visited the fantastic Museum of Toronto (Royal Ontario Museu) in 2016, in the company of the director of the Portuguese Navy Museum, we were not exactly caught by surprise, but we did hope to observe remnants of the Portuguese campaigns on the Canadian waters depicted in this space. However… unfortunately, there were no remnants of our historical achievements and odysseys in those waters located at the end of the known world back in those days. 

One of the museum’s associates told us that “the Portuguese are to blame because they never knew how to sell their accomplishments all over the world!”. Therefore, failing marks to the Portuguese and also to the museum, which should have been equipped with facts, documents and exhibits and, therefore, fill a gap in a space that, among many artifacts from the rest of the world, intends to document the history of North America. Even then, we are before a space that is a world reference.

In fact, we must admit the truth! We were never able to preserve, foster and promote our unparalleled capabilities, either with our adventures and accomplishments or in the areas of science such as shipbuilding, navigation, fishing techniques, fish processing, etc. We discovered new seas, new continents, and new people, we were the best shipbuilders and had one of the largest fishing fleets in the world, but we have preserved very little in comparison to all the achievements we have made.

It were the Basque, along with the Portuguese, the first to search in the waters of Terra Nova for a species that, due to climate change, would have disappeared from the coast of England, where the Portuguese also once fished. The Basque were more interested in the capture of whales; the Portuguese in the fishing of cod, who explored the English coast since the XIV century following the agreement signed in 1353 between D. Pedro I of Portugal and Edward II of England. The agreement allowed the Portuguese the right to fish on the shores of that kingdom for a period of fifty years.

THE BASQUE COUNTRY

There is some unanimity of opinion, especially among Basque scholars, that better knowledge of the area by the Portuguese may have contributed to a more frequent presence here (as a result of information collected from attempts to explore the location since the mid XV century). However, it was also because ships from the neighbouring country (Galicians and Basques) often arrived at Portuguese ports to stock up with salt (among other necessities) and even to charter ships, with Aveiro standing out as the port of excellence. This was the case with Gonzalo and Fernando, who came to Aveiro to “load 12 barrels of wine and rroçete (?) (…), four fishing boats (…) and sixty fishing lines and two hundred hooks and four vagueira boats and all the necessary tools to be used for fishing and ten thousand of white salt (…)”. In fact, there were mixed companies, Portuguese and Galician, given the constant and frequent contact between both peoples.

The first reference of a fishing ship in Terra Nova occurred at the port of Lequeitio, in 1532. However, the Basque fleet only expanded after 1540: in 1542, there were seven ships at Lequeitio and Saint Sebastian leaving for Terra Nova. In 1550, there were already twenty-five, a number that would increase in the same decade until it reached forty-two in 1560.

FISHING FOR COD IN THE ATLANTIC

The French joined these two groups that took the initiative after contacts with Basque fishermen, since they shared strong ties due to the free commerce of codfish between these two peoples.

The initial references show that, in 1508, the ship “Bonne Aventure”, from Breath, may have been prepared for fishing in Terra Nova. Loture recorded sightings of eleven French ships in 1527. During Cartier’s second expedition, he recognized, on June 5, 1535, off the islands of Saint Pierre, many ships both from France and Britain.

In 1548, there were one hundred and fifty ships leaving French ports for fishing trips with around 2,500 men. In 1578, the English explorer, Parkhurst, a merchant from Bristol, recorded that “… there were more than 100 Spanish ships, 50 Portuguese ships and 150 French and British fishing for cod…”, later adding fifty more to the English. However, two years prior, the proportions were: fifty Portuguese, thirty English and one hundred Spanish, without reference to the French.

From the XVI Century, the number of ships fishing for cod increased significantly, then with the clear and objective plan of capturing that fish species, essential to a Europe which, for religious reasons, observed, at the time, one hundred and fifty days of abstinence from meat.

Portugal accompanied this epic movement, leading to such economic relevance that, in 1506, D. Manuel implemented the collection of tax from the fishing of cod at the ports of Aveiro and Viana do Castelo, a measure that attributes extreme economic importance to the activity, meaning that, in those days, the capture of the faithful friend was fierce. These measures were later extended by King D. João III, in 1552, who passed on the power to his son in 1538, and confirmed by King D. Sebastião in 1576.

There are indications of the formation of the first colony on land, founded by the Portuguese, on the southwestern part of Terra Nova. There is, even in current times, some hesitation around exact dates of its creation: some believe that it was established in 1506 (to give you an idea, this would have been six years after the second expedition of Gaspar Corte Real) while others point to 1544 (Morison). Out of the entire world, it is believed that this was one of the first, if not the first, founded by a European country. This colony consisted of people from Aveiro and Viana do Castelo who, on the eve of the cod fishing saga, were always united.

Sixty ships would sail from Aveiro alone out of a total of one hundred and fifty sent by the country to Terra Nova during the last quarter of the XVI Century. If you consider that at that time (1548) France, a country much larger than Portugal, sent one hundred and fifty ships to fish, we are able to understand the importance of this activity for the country in those days. This colony that controled much of the coastline, preferred to salt and dry the cod in facilities, on land, supplied by the ships. It is understood that the colony continued to operate, as far as 1579, under the control of Vasqueanes (?) Corte Real.

Historical sources: “Os Últimos Terranovas Portugueses”

Documentary “Nos Mares da Memória”