F OCUSONTHE G ASPÉ :AR ICH H ISTORYTO D ISCOVER $5

VOL 5, NO. 7 JAN-FEB 2010 HeritageNews

Mi’kmaq Gifts First Nation heritage embraces sharing, respect and tradition Anglo-Normans on the Coast , chaloupes and the perils of the truck system Outpost of Empire Early French attempts at year-round settlement QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Quebec CONTENTS eritageNews H DITOR E Word from the Vice-President 3 ROD MACLEOD Gaspé in the off season Sandra Stock PRODUCTION DAN PINESE Safe Harbours 5 PUBLISHER Two centuries of English presence on the Coast David J McDougall THE QUEBEC ANGLOPHONE HERITAGE NETWORK Mi’kmaq Gifts 10 400-257 QUEEN STREET Sharing and respect in First Nation heritage Cynthia Dow SHERBROOKE (LENNOXVILLE) QUEBEC Outpost of Empire 12 J1M 1K7 Early French attempts at year-round settlement David Lee PHONE 1-877-964-0409 Stamp of their Bailiwick 16 (819) 564-9595 The Channel Islands link to ’s east coast Yves Frenette FAX (819) 564-6872 CORRESPONDENCE Owe my soul 19 [email protected] Reflections on the truck system Yves Frenette WEBSITE David J MacDougall WWW.QAHN.ORG King of Cod 20 Netting year-round settlers was merchant’s legacy Betty LeMaistre PRESIDENT KEVIN O’DONNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Barques, Brigantines and Brigs 23 DWANE WILKIN Shipbuilding in the Gaspé Kim Harrison HERITAGE PORTAL COORDINATOR MATTHEW FARFAN OFFICE MANAGER Sea Birds 25 KATHY TEASDALE Gaspé schooners in the age of sail Kevin O’Donnell

Doctor Commander 27 Quebec Heritage Magazine is produced six Remembering William Wakeham Andrew J Gilker times yearly by the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN) with the support of The Department of Canadian Heritage Knots in the Network 29 and Quebec’s Ministere de la Culture et History and culture take a back seat to nature Pierre Rastoul des Communications. QAHN is a non-profit and non-partisan umbrella organization whose mission is to help Events Listings 31 advance knowledge of the history and culture of English-speaking society in Quebec. Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement Number 405610004. ISSN 17707-2670

Cover: “Dry dock at the National Historic Site,” April 2008 Photo: Rod MacLeod

2 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

VICE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Gaspé in the off season by Sandra Stock

pril is supposed to be spring, almost empty train. ities. The local architecture has been or at least mainly spring-like, On the second day of our stay, a maintained as vernacular, east in eastern Canada. However, few of us traveled by rented van to see coast―a good blend of local Québé- this certainly isn’t always The Rock – as in Percé Rock – the cois and New England. High moun- true as we are more likely to go directly iconic symbol of the whole area and tains are seen in the background, be- fromA winter experiences―ice, sleet, one of the best known images of Que- hind the village of Percé. Bonaventure snowflakes, cold, very cold and ex- bec and eastern Canada as a whole, in Island with its enormous bird colonies tremely cold―to suddenly hot and a tourist promotions and information rises from the sea less than a mile be- lot of mud. On the positive side, the materials about Gaspé. It was cold yond the Rock. days are longer and there may be a bit late spring with still patchy snow cov- Percé Rock is classified geologi- of sunshine that actually feels warm. er on the rather bleak landscape. The cally as a limestone stack. It is one of Two Aprils ago, I travelled to the Atlantic was really blue under an in- the largest and most spectacular natu- Gaspé peninsula in late ral arches in the world. It April. From , it is 433 metres (1420 feet) is a fourteen hour, long, 90 metres (296 feet) overnight journey to New wide and 88 metres (289 Carlisle by train. This is feet) at its highest point. when I realized that Que- The name of course bec is extremely big and comes from the large, 15 our distances give a metre (50 foot) arch whole meaning to the (hole?) near its seaward word “far.” Not being an end. There used to be two easy sleeper, I saw Ri- arches, but one collapsed mouski at two in the on June 17, 1845. This morning and saw the sun was a result of natural rise at Matapedia. There erosion. Probably, in long were mainly conifers on geologic time, the present bleak hillsides to the left arch will also collapse and a vast rather flat Bay of Chaleur tense blue sky with the strong north- and possibly new arches will form. to the right. There aren’t many signs ern light of the coast. Although we Eventually―and this is in the Very of human habitation even after leaving passed through several small towns Big Picture―it will all erode away, the outskirts of Montreal and passing and stopped at a few interesting spots leaving a reddish limestone beach. away from the agricultural zone near like Paspébiac, still a lobster fishing At low tide, it is possible to walk the St Lawrence. It’s still an empty centre, it seemed a landscape curious- right up to the Rock along a sand spit world out there, just full of wild na- ly devoid of people. The Off Season connected to the shore. However, no- ture. for sure – no real tourists, and nearly one is allowed to climb the Rock. In As this was definitely the low, or everything commercial that caters to the early nineteenth century, local “off” season for tourism, our small them, shut. This quiet and somewhat farmers grew hay on the top of the party of about eleven people had the lonely atmosphere perhaps empha- Rock but after someone fell off to his train to ourselves, especially after sized the dramatic appearance (finally, death, access to the top was no longer Rivière du Loup. No-one got on after around a headland) of The Rock. Not permitted. Quebec City and there hadn’t been many natural wonders require capital There is an element of danger many of us starting from Montreal letters, but Percé Rock certainly mer- around these kind of formations, even anyway. The food was surprising good its them. Unlike so many manmade in recent times. In 1990, at London and the railway staff really friendly and natural “attractions,” either his- Arch, Port Campbell, Victoria, a simi- and helpful – easy enough when there toric or natural, Percé Rock doesn’t lar sea stack in Australia, the collapse were so few passengers! Most of my disappoint and, at least to me, was of one of two arches, led to this for- fellow travellers slept (not me) but, in much more impressive than I had ex- mation no longer being attached to the my favour, neither did I suffer from pected. The area around it has been shore. Two tourists were stranded on the slight motion sickness that many kept open and only has a few, discrete the top and had to be rescued by heli- felt, as we were rattling around on an tourist information or restaurant facil- copter.

Percé Rock in spring: Photo by Sandra Stock 3 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

Percé Rock was formed in the De- vonian period of the Paleozoic era, 416 to 359 million years ago. It was built up from trillions of ancient sea creatures that died to become calcium based sediments. There are fossils of trilobites and other animals embedded in the Rock. It was the Devonian peri- od when fish-like creatures first strug- gled up on to the land and developed lungs and legs. So the Rock is really, really old and has been buffeted about through plate tectonics, continental drift, ices ages and so on. It has the air of an ancient sea creature that has en- dured, and still marks the boundary between sea and land.

Sandra Stock is the past president of Morin Heights Historical Association whereas here your youth would be wast- pretty penny. I hope you will be more and a current Vice President of the ed. There isn’t a cent to be made, and we prudent than that. You have my counsel Quebec Anglophone Heritage Net- are continually harassed. Furthermore, always before your eyes. Don’t forget it work.(QAHN). you would undoubtedly have had to run then. Keep in the best of company al- for your life. How often would you re- ways. You will be better for it. Do not gret not having taken my advice. That is mix with vulgar people and do not tire *************** why I urge you to take it; and as long as of helping Mr. Day on a Sunday, as has there is money to be earned over there, been your habit. You will be better for it. do not return home unless we are at Remember me to Mr François Gal- Beware those nasty girls peace, of which there is no sign. I my- lie. He is a good man He would do well to self would like to be well-paid in Cana- marry over there. He would be better off than Translated from the original “Jerry” da. I wouldn’t return here. No need to in Jersey, a thousand times. To Mr Jacques language, this letter is from the family tell anyone this. Keep it a secret. Ahier, as well. If you see Mr. LeMaistre, do archives of New Carlisle resident Lyn- I am not sending you anything. Per- not fail to greet him for me. Captain Robin, den Béchervaise. sonal effects are much the same here and Mr Day and all in general – French and Eng- there. Where you are, take good care of lish. I may be able to go to Gaspe during the Jersey, April 26, 1808 your possessions, as I have always year. I have been asked to do so, but I am not taught you to do; otherwise, what is the yet sure of going. If I decide to go, I will let My Son, point of earning if you do not econo- you know. All your relatives and friends are mize. You are now earning your own well. Your Grandmother is still active. I received your letter through Cap- money; you are making good wages. I She certainly would like to see you, and tain LeFeuvre last fall. You are no better am satisfied with what you are getting. your cousin Marguerite and all of them. at writing, although letters are written to You would be twenty years in Jersey be- Your uncles are all well. I do not think you. I thought you would send me some fore you would make the money you do your uncle Samuel will be going to fish at the same time, in return for past now in a year. Now you can put away Gaspe this year. They certainly all would favours; but anyhow if you are able to £900 a year, and when peace comes you like to see you, but still they would do so later on, do so. Mr Mauger would may find employment with some fine rather see you stay where you are, less have taken care of a small package of person in Jersey, or elsewhere; but here you be trapped here. I see by your letter fish had you had some to send. If you is my advice to you: Beware of those that you received £1.5d on my account. could get me a barrel of cod liver oil on nasty Paspebiac girls, who are libertines Make good use of it and be careful not old debts (a small one or a almost all of them; they would lead you to waste your money, which will not large) that would suit me fine. Several astray. Avoid them; do not associate with happen if always avoid bad company. people still owe me. Louis Roussy owes them. I was told that you are courting I am, with all the tenderness of a me a hundredweight of Marie-Pierre Du Jean P’s young daughter. I don’t believe father, my son, your dear father, Guet Jr, 4%. Take from anyone anything it. I hope you won’t be led astray by you can get. I am quite satisfied with that. I would never want to see you Philip Béchervaise your staying there this winter. If I were again. I hope to leave you some proper- in your shoes, I would remain another ty, but you would not get a cent if you My regards to Mr, James Robin and all ten years rather than return in wartime. contracted such a union. You have a fine the Captains. You are where money is to be earned; example before you in Jean himself. Those children of his have cost him a Pierre-Charles Canot, after Hervey Smith, Vue de l'île 4 Percé. Musée national des beaux arts du Quebec JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

SAFE HARBOURS Two centuries of English presence on Quebec’s Gaspé Coast by David J. McDougall Adapted from the author’s “Two Cen- who fished for cod. In the very early arrive were merchants, fishermen and turies of Settlement of the Gaspé Coast eighteenth century the French were somewhat surprisingly, a small number by English Speaking People,” (circa joined by French Canadians who also re- of men called bailiffs who today would 1985) and first published electronically turned to their homes along the St. be called policemen. In those days, on the website of the Douglastown Com- Lawrence River above Kamouraska many French-Canadian fishermen munity Centre. when the fishing season was over. The owned small sailing vessels called fishermen lived for the summer in tem- chaloupes (“shallops” in local English ecause of the mountainous na- porary shacks on the beaches and only parlance) which they used for summer ture of the central part of the ventured far enough inland to cut trees fishing, while the majority of the British peninsula most Gaspesians to construct the flakes (low platforms) and some of the Americans came from have always lived near the on which they dried their fish. the vicinity of Quebec City by schooner, shore and there is still virtually no settle- The first viable and permanent com- a somewhat larger vessel, to fish for mentB in the interior except for the min- munities in Gaspé during the French Quebec City merchants. Some Ameri- ing town of Murdochville, which was regime were centered in Gaspé Bay and cans also came by sea from New Eng- established in the 1950s. in the Pabos, Grand-Rivière area, but land in schooners and sloops to fish for The written story of Gaspé began in these were destroyed in 1758 by com- cod and whales. 1534 when Jacques Cartier reported hav- bined British army and Navy raids on The mixture of languages and the ing claimed the land for the French King French settlements around the Gulf of rough, quarrelsome nature and disregard Francis I when he landed at Gaspé Bay St. Lawrence. Thus the year 1762 can be for any laws by many of the fishermen to take shelter from a storm. For about a taken as the starting point of continuous resulted in a general state of disorder. In century and a half after Cartier’s brief settlement of both English-speaking 1763, the British government was ad- stay, sailing ships from France made people at Gaspé Bay and Percé and of vised that there was an urgent need for Gaspé Bay their point of arrival and de- French-speaking at Bonaven- some means of administering justice in parture for trans-Atlantic crossings. ture and Carleton, then called Tracadiac. later fishing seasons. Some brought fishermen from France The first English-speaking people to Between 1768 and 1771, bailiffs

Section from Joseph Bouchette's 1815 map of Lower Canada showing the Gaspé coast 5 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS were appointed to act as policemen at There was one Catholic church at pointed five army officers to serve as Tracadiac (Carleton), Bonaventure, Bonaventure and no schools anywhere. Lieutenant Governors in remote parts of Paspébiac, Port Daniel, Pabos, Grande Merchants like Felix O’Hara could send the former French territories in North Rivière, Gaspé Bay, Rivière de la Mag- their children to school at Quebec City America. The first of the Lieutenant dalene, Mont-Louis and Cap Chat. From during the winter but the children of Governors of Gaspé under the British Tracadiac to Port Daniel, the Bailiffs most families could only learn what regime was Major Nicolas Cox of the were French-speaking and from Pabos to their parents could teach them, which in 47th Regiment of Foot, who had been Cap Chat, the bailiffs were English- most cases was little more than how to with his regiment in Nova Scotia before speaking. Of the English-speaking fish, hunt, cut wood, cook or sew. 1758 and at the British capture of Louis- bailiffs, some are know to have settled About the middle of the 1770s war bourg and Quebec. Due to the invasion permanently on the Gaspé coast, and between the British and their American of Canada by the Americans in the fall many of their descendants are still living colonies led to attacks on Gaspé settle- of 1775 he was not immediately able to in Gaspé today. Several merchants ac- ments by armed American sailing ves- take up his post in Gaspé, which he fi- quired land at Gaspé Bay, Paspébiac and sels called privateers. As a result, many nally reached in 1777. Much of what is Bonaventure in the 1760s, but known of the living conditions only a few of them actually on the Gaspé coast during the became settlers. American Revolution and for some years afterwards is in he best known, of his letters and reports to Gov- course, was the Jer- ernor Haldimand, successor to seyman Charles Carleton, and in his corre- Robin who arrived at spondence with Felix O’Hara Paspébiac in 1788 and over at Gaspé Bay, as well as theT years developed the O’Hara’s correspondence with Gaspé’s most successful fish- Governor Haldimand. ing business. Another was Fe- In 1777, Lieutenant Gov- lix O’Hara from Ireland who ernor Cox recorded 631 Euro- settled at Gaspé Bay about peans settled on the south 1762 and lived there until he shore of the Gaspé and 575 died in 1805. fishermen who were there on- British soldiers who had ly for the summer fishing sea- taken their discharge in Cana- son. He organized a militia as da were entitled to grants of a defence against American land and in 1765 and 1766, at privateers and obtained can- least 70 English, Scottish and non to help defend Percé. In American men asked for land 1782, despite the militia’s ef- on the bays of Gaspé and forts, the crew of an American Chaleur. Almost exactly half privateer captured and carried of them had been in the 78th off the smaller cannon and Regiment of Foot (Fraser’s pushed a large one over a cliff Highlanders), which had been after “spiking” it to make it raised in Argyleshire, Scot- unusable. The British Navy land in 1755. The remainder were from of the small number of English-speaking had too few vessels to be much help several other British regiments. settlers left the Gaspé for the supposed against the privateers and the threat of By the 1770s the nucleus of the safety of Quebec City. In 1777, about capture kept many merchant ships from English-speaking population between the middle of the war, there were at least coming to Gaspé with supplies. The Gaspé Bay and Percé was living in a 150 English-speaking people including Acadians along Chaleur Bay, who both small number of tiny hamlets. There about 40 children, living at Gaspé Bay, fished and farmed, were not seriously in- were no roads except trails through the Mal Bay and Percé and a few more at convenienced by the lack of supplies but forest and along the beaches. There were Bonaventure. Along Chaleur Bay at many of the families between Gaspé no doctors or nurses, so anyone who was Bonaventure, Tracadiac and Res- Bay and Percé who did little farming sick was probably treated with remedies tigouche, which had first been settled were threatened with starvation. made form herbs which could be gath- about 1762, there were about 450 men, The war with the Americans ended ered in the forest. There were no stores women and children almost all of whom in 1783 and in the summer of that year a except for the buildings where the fish were French-speaking Acadians and Loyalist named Justus Sherwood was merchants kept their supplies, and any- French-Canadians. appointed by Governor Haldimand to thing that a family could not manufac- In 1775, just before the start of the survey the potential for settling refugee ture, grow or catch had to come by sail- American Revolution, Sir Guy Carleton, Loyalists on the Gaspé coast. Sherwood ing ship during the summer. the Governor-General of Quebec had ap- estimated that about 1,500 families

Nicholas Cox, Lieutenant-Governor of Gaspé, 1774-94. 6 Image: National Archives of Canada JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

could be settled between Nouvelle and as a town site on the south side of Gaspé when the French Revolution began, Pabos and another 200 families between Bay late in the summer of 1784. Britain was again at war with France and Percé and Gaspé Bay, but it is probable In 1786, Lieutenant-Governor Cox this reduced fishing activity on account that not more than about 500 to 600 ever reported that 130 Loyalists had settled of the danger of sailing vessels being came. between New Carlisle and Port Daniel. captured by French warships. The first contingent of 315 men, Others had established themselves near Censuses and estimates made before women and children sailed from Quebec the mouth of the , no- and after the 1790s show a slow, steady City on June 9, 1784, most of them in tably the Mann family who had been population growth over a little more four small sailing vessels and some granted a large block of land near than half century before 1819. The pop- (probably the younger, unmarried men) Pointe-à-la-Croix (Cross Point). Another ulation about the middle of the 1790s in still smaller, open whale boats. By large property which bordered the head- was probably 2,300 people. A rough about the end of August their numbers waters of Chaleur Bay a little to the west count made by a local judge, indicated had increased to 435 of which 172 were of the Manns was the last seigneury that they were possibly as many as 500 children. The total increased by 24 more granted in Canada. It had been given to families along the south coast of the people before the sailing season ended. the Schoolbred family of London, Eng- Gaspé peninsula in 1794 of which two- However, not all of these new settlers land as compensation for losses to their thirds or more were French-speaking. were refugee Loyalists from the Ameri- Chaleur Bay fisheries during the Ameri- The most reasonable guess that can be can colonies. Some who came had left can Revolution. Practically the only in- made form his not very precise data is Gaspé a few years earlier when Ameri- habitants of the seigneury in the 1780s that the English-speaking population at can privateers were raiding the coastal were some Acadians and the Scottish that time was probably between 800 to settlements and were now returning merchant named Mathew Stewart. 1,000 men, women and children, most of home. The Loyalists who settled along whom lived in the stretch of coast from Chaleur Bay between the Restigouche Percé to Gaspé Bay. hese settlers first landed at River and Hopetown were mainly farm- In the very early 1800s (probably Paspébiac and then moved to a ers who had first to build their homes 1804) some of the English-speaking new town site which had been and barns and clear the land of the forest families began producing whale oil from laid out for them at New before they could begin to raise crops. A whales which they captured along the Carlisle. Shortly after they reached New substantial number of settlers who had north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence CarlisleT they had drawings for lots of come to New Carlisle in the 1780s left and in the Straits of Belle Isle. At that land with a single man getting a 100- the coast almost immediately or after a time, before kerosene or electric lights acre lot and a family getting 100 acres few years. Some were unhappy trying to had been invented, whale oil was in plus 50 acres for reach child. Sergeants make a living as fishermen or farmers; great demand as both a lubricant and as got 200 acres and commissioned officers others moved to where they had friends the fuel for lamps. The Gaspé Bay still larger amounts depending on their or relatives in Nova Scotia, Upper Cana- whalers used strongly built schooners, rank. One group of settlers moved al- da, the United States and to newly sur- from which they launched small whale most immediately to New Richmond veyed lands in the Eastern Townships boats equipped with oars. These were and others moved to a third location at and along the Ottawa River. Another used to pursue and harpoon whales in Douglastown, which had been laid out probable contributing factor was that very much the same way that the New H Beldon, Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, 1881. McCord Museum of Canadian History - M987.253.44 7 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

England whalers did at that time. The Britain. Among the influx of new settlers the future provinces of Quebec and On- whalers were members of the Annett, were farmers and sailors who had been tario. One effect of this political merger Ascah, Coffin, Miller and Thompson discharged from military service. Many was to reduce but not eliminate what had families, most of whom had been living emigrated to North America because been called the “neglect of government” on the shores of Gaspé Bay for at least a they could not find a way to make a liv- for the Gaspé Peninsula. The new gov- generation. ing in Great Britain. In Gaspé this new ernment tried to improve daily life for Boys of these families, 14 to 16 group of settlers caused a sudden in- Gaspesians by introducing a better judi- years old, sailed with the whalers and crease in the population. By the early cial system, a militia which could act as part of their job was “trying out” the 1830s the Gaspesian population had a police force, an improved school sys- whale oil, by heating pieces of the blub- reached about 8,500 and it was estimat- tem, and registry offices for recording of ber in large iron pots. Whaling in the ed that equal numbers spoke English and land-ownership deeds. This last change Gulf of St. Lawrence had long been French. was an important one because, except practiced by Basques from the border re- One group of settlers came from the for the few small seigneuries and a very gion between France and . And Channel Islands, near the coast of small number of land grants that had from the beginning of the British regime France. Over the years the Channel Is- been made in 1760, almost no records in Canada to the start of the American landers tended to become English- existed of who had owned, bought or Revolution, large numbers of vessels speaking because they attended Protes- sold land. from New England Along with these were whaling in the government services Gulf of the St. came a continued Lawrence. A small growth of the popula- number of New Eng- tion and in the 1840s land whalers contin- and 50s a general ued to come to the growth of the fish- Gulf of St. Lawrence eries, ship-building until about the begin- whaling and lumber- ning of the 19th cen- ing industries, so that tury, but were no in many ways the pe- longer there when riod of the 1840s, 50s whaling began from and part of the 1860s Gaspé Bay. was Gaspé’s “Golden Age.” n the early years By 1860 the pop- of the nine- ulation of Gaspé had teenth century, increased to 24,000, life in Gaspé about 55 per cent of was still very much whom were French- ofI a frontier exis- speaking. Immigra- tence. For six months tion from Great of the year, ships form many parts of the tant schools and churches where English Britain had nearly ceased and most of world came into the Gaspesian harbours, was the usual language. At first, Channel the new settlers were French Canadians. but for the other six months the Gaspé Islanders came to the Gaspé only to fish These new settlers came to the older set- coast was almost completely isolated by for the summer or on two-year contracts tled districts on the south shore and be- the winter ice in the Gulf and St. as clerks (most of who were young boys gan to populate the north shore of the Lawrence River. The only schools were of 12 to 14 years of age). But by the peninsula which, prior to 1840 had only at New Carlisle and Gaspé Bay where 1820s there were several permanent set- two or three hamlets over a distance of the students were taught in English and tlements of Channel Island men, women nearly 200 miles. the only churches were at Carleton and and children, mainly at Grand Grève, A regular government steamship Bonaventure where there was a large Percé, and Paspébiac. Settlers from other service was begun in the 1850s and what settlement of Catholic French-speaking parts of Great Britain also came to the is now the Canadian Coast Guard had its Acadians. Protestant couples were either coast in the 1820s and 30s. To the New beginnings in the same decade married by a local Justice of the Peace Richmond area, for instance, came a The economy began to slow down (which at that time was technically ille- number of Scottish Highland families. in the middle of the 1860s and a world- gal) or travelled hundreds of miles to In 1842, the provinces of Lower wide depression that began in the early find a minister to marry them or to have Canada and Upper Canada were united 1870s affected the fisheries and lumber- a child baptized. under a single government into the ing which were the mainstay of employ- Following the end of the Napoleon- Province of Canada and the two old ment on the peninsula. It was serious ic Wars, English-speaking immigrants provinces were referred to as Canada enough that the Charles Robin Company came to Gaspé from all parts of Great East and Canada West ― the nuclei of eventually went bankrupt. In the 1880s

William James Topley, Gaspe from railway dock, 1916. 8 Library and Archives Canada - PA-001331 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010 many families, the majority of whom world wars, Gaspé men volunteered for were English-speaking, left to go the service in the Navy, Army and Air Force Gaspé lumber larger cities of Quebec and Ontario and while others served in the merchant trade origins the northeastern United States where navy. Men from Gaspé were in the dis- uring the 1820 and 30s, a they could find work. Men who had astrous attempt to defend Hong Kong lumbering industry devel- been lumbering went to lumber camps against the Japanese, many others fought oped along the Baie des of the Ottawa River and the states of in Europe. The men in the merchant Chaleurs. Large trees were felled Wisconsin and Michigan. navy lived in constant danger of having D near the rivers and floated to the sea- During the later nineteenth century, their vessel torpedoed by German sub- coast where they were shipped in two projects were begun which looked marines. sailing vessels to markets, most of as though they might accomplish a great By about 1920, the English-speak- which were in Great Britain. In one deal for the economy of the Gaspé coast ing population had declined to about 25 way this was an extension of the but never lived up to their expectations. per cent of the total. Chaleur Bay fami- lumbering which had begun with the The first of these was the construction of lies engaged mainly in farming while growth of ship-building in Gaspé but a railway from Matapedia to Gaspé Bay, some established on the eastern end of in a much larger sense it was part of with one of the objectives being to make the peninsula continued to fish. Part of the trade in Canadian timber from the great natural harbour of Gaspé Bay the English-speaking population had a New Brunswick and rivers tributary into a major Canadian seaport. A gov- tradition of working on sailing vessels to the St. Lawrence in Quebec and ernment railway which was then called and many of these found work on steam- Ontario notably the Ottawa River. the and is now powered vessels as the use of sail power The Canadian timber trade to part of the Canadian National Railway ended. They went where jobs were Great Britain had gotten its start dur- system was completed from Halifax to available, some on deep sea vessels but ing the Napoleonic Wars when Great the south shore of the St. Lawrence Riv- probably most of them on vessels on the Britain was cut off from its tradition- er opposite Quebec City in the early Great Lakes. In order to see their fami- al source of wood from ports around 1870s. The Matapedia valley branch line lies more frequently, sailors began to the Baltic Sea. Most of the Canadian to Gaspé Bay was proposed in 1872, but move their homes to Montreal and such timber was shipped form either Que- no work was done until 1885 and only Great Lake ports as St Catharines, On- bec City of from several posts in the first 100 miles from Matapedia to tario. This out-migration was accelerated New Brunswick and at least part of Caplan had been completed by 1890. during the depression of the 1930s. the lumbering in Gaspé was really Almost exactly 40 years from its One of the important events in the part of the industry in northern New conception it was completed to Gaspé 1950s was the opening in 1955 of a Brunswick. Bay in 1912. Gaspé Bay never did be- large copper deposit by Noranda Mines The lumbering was at first along come a great seaport but the railway pro- at Murdochville in the middle of the the Restigouche and Cascapedia vided a means to bring in food and other peninsula. In addition to the mine, a cop- rivers and later form rivers flowing supplies during the winter and to ship per smelter and a modern town were into Mal Bay and Gaspé Bay at the out lumber and fish. Despite this most of built for the employees and their fami- eastern end of the peninsula. By the such shipments came and went by sea lies. The original discovery had been 1840s a hundred sailing ships a year until the 1940s. made by Alfred Miller of the Southwest were being loaded with timber at The railway also provided a means Arm of Gaspé Bay and although it took Restigouche, most of which was for Gaspesians to leave in relative com- about half a century form discovery to “squared” pine. This meant that after fort during the winter and for tourists of production, he lived to enjoy the fruits a large tree had been felled, it was moderate means to visit during the sum- of his discovery and died at the age of cut square with an adze, which made mer. Before the railway, tourists were al- 104 in 1983. it easier to stack in the hold of a most entirely wealthy individuals who Continuous out-migration of Gaspe- ship. came by steamer for salmon-fishing hol- sians reduced the English-speaking part Other wood was shipped as idays on the Restigouche, Matapedia of the population to about 12 per cent by “deals” which were pine or spruce and Cascapedia rivers near Chaleur Bay, 1960. Today, the region’s estimated that had been cut in a saw pit into as well as the Dartmouth, York and St. 8,100 anglophones account for less than planks about three inches thick; John rivers which flow into Gaspé Bay. 10 per cent of the total population, with “staves” which were used in the Thus the railway was the starting point most concentrated in the same areas first manufacture of wooden barrels, and for the tourist industry which has be- settled by their ancestors: in Gaspé Bay, “treenails” (sometimes written and come an important part of the Gaspesian New Carlisle, New Richmond and near pronounced “trunnels”) which were economy. the mouth of the Restigouche River. small, round lengths of wood which The two major wars in the first half were used instead of iron spikes to of the twentieth century took their toll David J McDougall, PhD (1920-2002) attach the planks of the hull of a sail- on the English-speaking population, in was one of the great historians of the ing vessel to the ribs of its frame. some cases because service men died Gaspé peninsula, author of countless and in others because ex-service men works on local history, often for The - David J. McDougall decided to live somewhere else. In both Spec newspaper.

9 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

MI’KMAQ GIFTS First Nation heritage embraces sharing, respect and tradition by Cynthia Dow remember clearly the first time I was truly con- along Canada’s eastern shoreline many years before scious of my Mi’kmaq neighbours. I was about the “discoveries” of John Cabot and Jacques Cartier. five or six, and my father took me to what was But despite some 500 years of contact, colonization, then known as the Maria Reserve to order some and pressures to assimilate, the culture remains strong. snowshoes. We trudged along a well-worn path in the At , the aboriginal name for Maria, Ideep snow to Baptiste Condo’s workshop. As we there are still some fairly unilingual Mi’kmaq elders. neared the little grey-weathered building, we could There are people in their 50s and 60s who did not hear men talking, laughing, carrying on. But the mo- speak English or French until they went to school. To- ment we opened the door, all this came to an abrupt day more and more people are practising the old spiri- stop. My father, who could be somewhat shy, was even tual ways, smudging houses and meeting rooms with more timid than usual. He and Baptiste exchanged a sweet grass, carrying out sweat lodge ceremonies, and few words, but no one else offering tobacco after a suc- spoke. Then Dad and I cessful hunt to thank Moth- turned to leave. As soon as er Earth for her bounty. the door closed behind us, The language itself is the talking and laughter im- also hanging on, although mediately resumed. the thread appears to be I asked my father why thinning year after year. In all those men―there must Gesgapegiag and the nearby have been seven or eight in larger reserve of Listuguj 40 the workshop―had been so per cent of the people indi- quiet. He said perhaps they cate that Mi’gmaq is their were shy to speak their lan- mother tongue and about guage in front of strangers. one-third speak the lan- “What language?” I asked. I guage regularly at home. knew it was not French, But the proud history having heard that often of the Mi’kmaq people is enough. “Why, Micmac”, not known to all of those my father said. “That is who claim that heritage. Af- what the Indians speak.” ter all, for many decades What I knew of Indians now Mi’kmaq children have came from watching west- been students in the same erns and reading books. I school system as non-na- was intrigued, because the people who my Dad and I tives, hearing the same misinformation about their own just visited looked nothing like the skin-clad, feather- culture: that Indians were “savages” who scalped set- headdress-toting warriors that filled the television tlers, “primitive” people with no written language, “un- screen. As the years went by what I learned about civilised” nomads who lacked a proper religion. Canada’s First Nations in our history books also did Nothing could be further from the truth. The Mi’k- not seem to describe the people I knew: the high maq had a written system not unlike Egyptian hiero- school students I hung out with did not seem to have glyphs, a system later used by missionaries to teach come from a “primitive tribe”. One day I found a piece them prayers and hymns. Their highly descriptive lan- of ancient Mi’kmaq pottery near my favourite swim- guage is one of about 55 Canadian aboriginal tongues ming spot, and thus my interest grew even greater―to that belong to the Algonquian family of languages. The such an extent that I decided to study anthropology at ancient Mi’kmaq also left behind many petroglyphs McGill where I eventually wrote my thesis on aborigi- that give us some idea of their way of life before and nal Mi’kmaq culture. during the first contacts with Europeans. The Mi’kmaq are the First Nation in Canada with The Mi’kmaq were highly politicized. The nation the longest history of contact with Europeans that has was organized into seven districts, each with a regional survived to tell its tales (the Beothuk having been pur- chief, and headed by a national chief. One of the best posefully wiped out in Newfoundland). Basque, Por- known Grand Chiefs is Membertou, a wise leader who, tuguese and French fishermen started to visit them when he recognized the political power wielded by the

Mi’kmaq community of Listuguj. Image by Stephane Gauthier 10 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

Catholic Church in Acadia, signed a treaty with the Vatican in 1610. The Mi’kmaq also had extensive interna- tional relations, and were part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, which included the , Penobscot, Passamaquod- dy and Abenaki. They were also the first nation to sign a treaty with the fledging government of the United States in 1776. The Watertown Treaty still affords them special status today. Although some of their spiritual ceremonies were organized around the solstices and equinoxes, the Mi’kmaq people did not worship the sun but rather saw it as a symbol of life. They This brings me to yet another lesson we can learn believed in one god, Kji’niskam, and cherished legends from First Nations such as the Mi’kmaq: that heritage of heroes and prophets, helping to pass on the Mi’k- has an important role to play in maintaining a healthy maq values of honour, pride in who they are, respect, community. Michael Chandler, who has done some humility, sharing, responsibility and giving thanks. The fascinating research on First Nations in British Colum- early Christian missionaries turned their great prophet bia, has shown that the astoundingly high rate of sui- Glooscap into a “liar”, and they were told their word cide in some First Nations communities is directly cor- for soul, mendu, actually meant “devil”. That is one related with destruction of culture. His studies have led way the painful process of acculturation began. him to believe that “…preserving a sense of personal It is sobering, having been brought up reading our and cultural persistence is a recurring parameter of current history books, to go back to the original writ- self-understanding, perhaps common to all human cul- ings of the first settlers in the New World. I did this in tures.” preparing my thesis, and was stunned to discover that Rita Joe, the late poet laureate of the Mi’kmaq Na- the French fishermen and missionaries, far from under- tion, summed up the values of her culture best of all estimating the Mi’kmaq and devaluing their culture, when she wrote “The Solid Part of One’s Identity”: praised them highly. They admired their height and strength and stamina, quoted the eloquent speeches of In the expression of my tongue the chiefs at length, were only to happy to adopt many I say, Kesalin? Do you love me? aboriginal technologies such as canoes, snowshoes, I may say Kesalu’l, I love you. and toboggans, and were sincerely thankful for the Positive words are important help and support the Mi’kmaq extended to them. I do not teach hate We do a great disservice, not only to the Mi’kmaq The solid part of one’s identity but also to ourselves, when we re-write and re-invent Is communication, the past. The reality is that our early settlers could not Exchanging words or touch have flourished here without the Mi’kmaq values of With no animosity towards another. sharing and respect, and without their technologies. I have had positive experience And not only was the New World changed by our com- The past twenty-two years of writing ing together, but also the Old. The Europeans who ex- Trying to teach the Micmac way of life perienced first-hand the non-hierarchical cultures of The majority of the Micmacs are peace-keeping people the North American natives took the values of free They are gentle people, anxious to please speech and consensus home with them to create parlia- I sympathize with my people across the nation ments and bring down monarchical and feudal systems I admire what they think should be done that had so limited personal freedom. But do not think a militant attitude should be used Unfortunately, rather than appreciating the many The solid part of our identity is sharing gifts bestowed by our proximity to First Nations such That is why we are here today as the Mi’kmaq, our society decided to push them to We are survivors. the margins and try to erase any vestige of their aborig- inal cultures. In doing so, we have left immeasurable scars which haunt us today in the form of the highest Cynthia Dow is a management consultant in the Gaspé suicide rate of any cultural group in the world, high and is currently working with the Mi'kmaq communi- rates of alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, ties of Gesgapegiag and Listuguj on a Health Canada child abuse. Having your language, culture, and history project. She has almost 30 years experience working distorted and devalued hurts, and those hurts result in with the English-speaking communities of Quebec. anti-social behaviour.

Mi'kmaq canoe and camp, Matapedia, c.1865. McCord Museum of Canadian History - MP-0000.1452.133 11 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

OUTPOST OF EMPIRE Early French attempts at year-round Gaspé settlement by David Lee Adapted from “The French in Gaspé, Louis XIV, seriously affected New again with France. Gaspé Mi’kmaq ob- 1534 to 1760,” (1970) published by the France and the Gaspé in particular. In served this European madness for cod National Historic Sites Service, Depart- August, 1690, two corsairs, most likely with great amusement. But unlike Indi- ment of Indian Affairs and Northern De- authorized by the colony of New York, ans in other European colonies, those of velopment in Canadian Historic Sites: pillaged and destroyed the ships, fish, Gaspé were never enticed or forced into Occasional Papers in Archaeology and missions and villages on Îles Percé and participating in the hunt for cod or in the History, No. 3. Bonaventure. A month later, William wars for it. Phips destroyed the tiny settlement at In the 1720s, the French began the acques Cartier landed in Gaspé Petite-Rivière (in Baie-des-Morues). great fortress at Louisbourg to protect Bay in 1534 and raised a huge French fishing vessels occasionally the Gulf of St. Lawrence shipping en- cross bearing three fleur-de-lys visited Gaspé during the next 23 years of trance to Canada and at the same time and the words, “Vive le Roy de almost constant war and many were cap- they came to realize the strategic impor- France.” When a Mi’kmaq chief tance of Gaspé. Although they did Jprotested that the region was his do- not erect fortifications during the main, Cartier assured him that the War of 1744-48 and the Seven cross was meant only as a landmark Years’ War, they maintained a vigi- for ships in the harbour. Yet, from lant lookout there to forewarn Que- that point on the French considered bec of the approach of English Acadia, Gaspé and the St. Lawrence ships. Nevertheless, in 1758 Wolfe to be theirs, though they were con- levelled the growing fishing estab- tinually faced with intrusive chal- lishments at Grande-Rivière, Pabos, lenges from other Europeans, no- Gaspé Bay and Mont-Louis, de- tably the English and the Scots. stroyed 36,000 quintals (hundred- Nearly every armed conflict in- weight) of fish and transported hun- volving the French in America was dreds of settlers to France. felt in the Gaspé. In 1613 the Eng- This time the English kept lish captured Port Royal and sent the Gaspé. By 1760, Acadian refugees inhabitants in boats to Gaspé where had gathered at the mouth of the they found French fishing ships to Restigouche River. Many stayed and return them to France. In 1628, four multiplied on the south shore but vessels bound for Quebec with 400 many also moved northward along colonists were forced to land in the the coast. Here they were joined by Bay of Gaspé. The commander, several families who had lived in Claude de Roquemont, had heard Gaspé before the Conquest. By that the English under David Kirke 1765, there were more than 200 Eu- controlled the St. Lawrence. France ropeans settled on the south shore had sent the expedition without a and over 100 at Gaspé Bay― a third naval escort, so when de Roquemont tured. In 1711, an immense expedition of whom were English. eventually left the bay to try to reach led by Sir Hovenden Walker was sent to Quebec, all his ships were taken. Kirke seize Quebec in reprisal for Franco-Indi- ypically, development in New destroyed the French cargo stored at an raids. Bad weather forced him to take France required fur trade for a Gaspé but took two of the French ships refuge in the Bay of Gaspé. Here he capital base and agriculture for back to England. found only one French fishing vessel, a population base, and Gaspé Another expedition took Quebec in which he burned. The Treaty of Utrecht had the potential for neither. There was 1629 and was not retuned to (1713) provided the French with 30 Tone resource, however, in which Gaspé the French until 1632. Emery de Caen years of peace to resume development of and Newfoundland did abound and for was named commandant and sent to re- Canada and Gaspé, but by then they had which speedy delivery to Europe was an claim the colony, landing in Gaspé Bay lost most of Newfoundland and Acadia. asset: cod fish. on 6 June and at Quebec a month later. The fisheries of Gaspé were envied Although ice conditions prevented a Other wars in Europe, including that by New England and regarded as an im- winter fishery such as New England en- between William III (of Orange) and portant consideration for going to war joyed, Gaspé did possess other requisites Jacques Cartier erecting the cross at the head of the Gaspe 12 peninsula, 1534. Image: fc.lbpsb.qc.ca/~history/l2.html JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010 for a successful indsutry. Cod could be tendant of New France, was a lead mine or five sections and re-assembled by car- caught close to shore and this was an ad- near Gaspé Bay. He had a party of work- penters, who were also fishermen. In vantage not only for its convenience but men including a German engineer sent 1675, two typical ships going to the dry also because coastal cod was smaller from France in 1665 to spend several fisheries were Le Simbole de la paix of and thus better for drying. months digging for the ore. Serious acci- 220 tons, which carried 70 men and le Settlement began in New France in dents and two deaths plagued the project Bannière de France of 205 tons which the seventeenth century, and accounts and in the end not enough ore was found carried 65 men. Every chaloupe used in left by traders, colonizers, colonists and to merit continuing. From 1729 to 1734, the fishery required about five missionaries document the early devel- a group of Quebec entrepreneurs ex- men―two on the beach and three in the opment of the Gaspé fisheries. Catholic pended considerable effort trying to de- chaloupe―so French ships were always France had a large market for fish and velop a slate-works at Grand-Étang on encumbered on the outgoing voyage large domestic supplies of salt to make the northern shore of Gaspé. But the with up to 10 or 12 chaloupes. The large possible the green cod fishery for which quarry failed when it could not produce vessels proved easy prey for pirates and the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were slate of good enough quality or price to enemy ships. so suitable. Green curing involves salt- compete with slate imported from Eu- As settlement developed in New ing the fish right on board ship and per- rope. Neither of these mining ventures France, the rewards of the Gaspé cod mitted ships to hurry home as soon as attracted any permanent settlers. fishery became more inviting. A cheaper they were full. Newfoundland was the The early voyages to the Gaspé source of cod would benefit both the New World fishery nearest to the French peninsula apparently came with the in- colonists and consumers in the mother channel ports of Honfleur, St. Malo and tention of trading for furs as well as fish- county. But French fishermen were slow Le Havre. ing. The first year Europeans are known to take advantage of the local Canadian But when the fishermen of southern to have wintered in the region was that market, even though it could usually France entered the New World fisheries, of 1615-16 when five men from La bring higher prices at Quebec than in they found that it was more France. difficult for green cod to sur- For years the French tried vive the longer voyages to to encourage a permanent, their more southerly ports of sedentary fishery in the Gulf of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Bayonne St. Lawrence, including the and La Rochelle without spoil- Gaspé coast. They hoped that a ing. Thus they adopted the sedentary fishery would pro- technique of dry curing which vide a more dependable supply required more men and an of dried cod to Canada and elaborate (and thus lower and thus more stable prices. A costlier) process of drying cod sedentary fishery that put on land. This process required Canadians to work would also less salt, leaving more room offer alternative employment on ship for fish, and enabling for the colony’s coureurs de France to supply her southern bois. At least 15 seigneuries provinces while developing a were known to have been valuable export trade to the granted and re-granted be- Catholic countries of the tween 1653 and 1707 in the Mediterranean. The harbours and beach- Rochelle were left at Matane to trade Gaspé. But few seigneurs ever visited or es and the smaller cod found there made with the Indians. But the fur trade de- used their concessions, simply keeping the Gaspé coast ideal for the dry-cure pended on good river transportation and, them for speculative or prestige purpos- process. of course, on good furs, both of which es. There was some government inter- were lacking in the Gaspé. Fur trading There were some remarkable excep- est in the 1720s in developing other thereafter would always be of minor im- tions, however. Gaspé resources, but nothing came of it. portance in the region, with greater prof- In 1724, two agents for the French navy its to be made from fishing. n early attempt to establish a reported “a considerable stand of fine Financing a vessel engaged in dry sedentary fishery was made pine and spruce proper for masts” in fishing, however, was expensive and at Mont-Louis cove on the St. Chaleur Bay, but a sample sent to France risky. The seasonal voyage involved Lawrence River, 75 miles subsequently failed inspection. The transporting large numbers of fishermen, downstream from Matane. Here, at the French never again tried to exploit the their provisions and equipment, includ- endA of the seventeenth century, Denis region’s considerable timber resources. ing chaloupes―20- to 25-foot-long fish- Riverin formed elaborate plans to estab- Explorers of the New World were ing boats carrying sail and oars―back lish a fishery with a sound agricultural always on the lookout for rich mineral and forth across the every year. base able to support a large resident pop- deposits. One of the first projects at at- Some chaloupes were brought over in- ulation. Riverin was born in Tours about tract the enthusiasm of Jean Talon, In- tact but others were transported in four 1650 and came to Canada in 1675 as

Normandy fishermen. Image: Beauge, Belloc, Boury, Desbrosses, Fage, le Gall, Lambert, Remy, Schvinte, Manuel des Peches Maritimes Francaises, 1936 13 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS secretary to the Intendant, Duchesneau. seigneury; in that year he reported only Baie-des-Morues), including a store- He had long been interested in the fish- two families resident there. Neither were house 90 feet long, a few cattle, a large eries of New France, and in a few years descendants of Riverin’s orginal settlers. garden and over 100 acres cleared and he left the government service to try his Louis Gosselin or his heirs must ready to cultivate. luck at them. The government wished to have sold the seigneury around 1750 to Charles Bazire died in December, encourage him but all it did over the one Michel Maillet, who succeeded in 1677, and by then Denys was in serious next few years was grant him four reviving the settlement until it was rav- financial difficulty as a result of his seigneuries in the Gaspé and one in aged by the English under Wolfe. In large family and the disability of blind- Labrador. 1758, Mont-Louis was a small but thriv- ness. During the 1680s, the settlement Riverin’s idea was to combine agri- ing community of 40 to 50 souls. Maillet grew only slightly. La Chesnaye seems culture with fishing to provide the post seems to have prospered from it for he to have lost interest and Denys’ only with a more solid, diversified and self- was willing and able to offer a ransom hope was government assistance. sufficient economy. He believed that of 3,500 livres to keep it. All the cod not Pierre Denys’ affairs were assumed Mont-Louis would become “one of the consumed by the community itself was by his son, Simon Denys de Bonaven- most considerable establishments in the presumably sold at Quebec and must ture, and it was he who tried to maintain country.” In 1699, he had brought a total have represented a contribution of some his father’s claims to the seigneury of of 53 people to Mont-Louis, including importance to the economy of New Percé. War broke out in Europe in the nine heads of families and six young un- France. spring of 1689, and that summer French married men. The next year he had 26 fishermen were harassed by English cor- families and a total of 91 people. Most n 1672, Pierre Denys, in associa- sairs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at of the men were apparently expected to tion with the prominent Quebec Percé. The fishermen returned the next engage in at least two activities. These merchants, Charles Bazire and year and six ships were seized at Percé were usually farming and fishing but Aubert de la Chesnaye, was ceded when it was captured and razed by the there were other combinations of spe- the seigneury of Percé, which included English. The Percé fishery never recov- cializations: stonemasons, carpenters, Iabout a square league of the mainland ered―no permanent settlers ever re- sawyers, blacksmiths, beach-masters and opposite. Talon and Frontenac agreed turned to fish there and the number of even a surgeon. One Michel Arbour, that it was a promising location for summer fishermen from France de- who had just married the 13-year-old sedentary fishery, and in 1676 the con- clined. daughter of another fisherman, is listed cession was confirmed. The Percé fisheries never had more as a fisherman-blacksmith-carpenter. Although operations seem to have than five families permanently resident. In 1700, Riverin reported a busy begun almost immediately, we have no Pierre Denys’ great plans for extensive population blissfully harvesting crops, record of a truly permanent or sedentary settlement never progressed very far but tending livestock, fishing and cutting fishery there until at least 1676. Denys’ the population remained quite constant. timber in the new sawmill. But apparent- detailed inventory of his establishment In the decade between 1678 and 1688, ly, most of the settlers returned to Que- at this time reports that four men, a Rec- some families left but others arrived to bec that autumn, and never came back. ollet priest and a married couple were replace them, maintaining the year- By 1725, the Quebec merchant Louis resident there. He also reports several round population between 20 and 30. In Gosselin owned the Mont-Louis buildings at Percé and Petite-Rivière (in the summer the population was swelled by 400 to 600 fishermen. Fishermen from many ports of France participated in the dry fishery, but Pierre Denys recorded that there were none better than the Basques. He claimed that one chaloupe manned by Basques could catch better than three times more fish than one chaloupe manned by any other fishermen. Fishing from a chaloupe required skill both in fishing and in seamanship. Six days a week, even in the rain, they would sail out in their fragile chaloupes, often to fish far from shore. They fished with lines baited with cod entrails, or bits of capelin, mackerel and herring caught earlier by nets. At day’s end they hurried ashore to unload their catch. The Percé fisheries seem to have had a lot of troubles. The fishermen had little to do with their free time but gam-

Clifford M Johnston, Gaspé fishermen. Library and 14 Archives Canada - PA-056645 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010 ble and drink. Wine was one of the thrive on its own initiative in the de chaloupe who, in the Gaspé context, men’s few diversions and they drank it Gaspé. This sort of development was probably owned their own chaloupes or in their cabarets: temporary structures rare in New France, for normally the were entrusted with one by another own- which they faithfully erected every year government extended its paternal hand er. Then there were the maîtres de grave upon arriving at Percé. The gaming, into all aspects of life in the colony. who were responsible for allocating fighting and carousing on Sunday were a This must surely have resulted in a cer- beach lots and directing the drying oper- source of great scandal to the local mis- tain spirit of independence among the ations there. sionaries. inhabitants. In retrospect, the government at When selecting sites to settle, the Quebec had no intention of discouraging French had to choose the most he twin communities of Pabos sedentary fisheries in Gaspé but when favourable combination of terraces, and Grande-Rivière also be- the interests of the sedentary fishermen beaches and gentle slopes, as well as came more than typical Gaspé and those of the visiting fishermen con- proximity to fishing ground, good har- fishing stations under the flicted, it gave precedence to the latter, bours, protection from attack by the French regime: they grew into substan- whenever it had the power to do so. As a English, length of fishing season, fur tialT settlements of resident fishermen. result, the Gaspé fisheries were less trade potential, and agricultural poten- They were served in the 1750s by two or within the influence of the government tial. After the English destroyed French three missionaries and the parish regis- of New France than they were within the fishing establishments at Percé in 1690, ters for the years 1751-55 provides us economic orbit of Old France or even defence was considered more important with the names of nearly 100 residents their own independent little world. than fish stocks, so the focus of the fish- of the area. Many ships came from Whereas fur traders and other entre- eries shifted northward to Gaspé Bay, France every year to fish or buy fish preneurs in Canada received special where French fishermen could hide from caught by local fishermen. privileges and aid, fishermen settled in predatory English warships. Jean-François Lefebvre de Belle- Gaspé with no government help or even feuille and his sons François and encouragement; and yet by the 1750s uring the 30 years’ peace Georges were the only Gaspé seigneurs their numbers had grown to 500 or 600. (1713-44), the fisheries of who lived on their land for a long peri- Gaspé’s isolation and its peculiar geo- Gaspé Bay flourished, though od. Even though their seigniorial grant graphic characteristics had fostered the it was not until the War of the was for the area around Baie-de-Pabos, growth of a frontier spirit of independ- Austrian Succession (1744-48) that the the family seems to have settled people ence and self-policing. firstD wintering appears to have been at- along the coastline from Pabos to It is interesting to note that only a tempted. A Canadian named Arbour was Grande-Rivière. Thirty years of perma- few years later the English recognized reported to be cultivating wheat, buck- nent residence must have given them the distinctiveness of Gaspé: under the wheat, hay and various vegetables with particular knowledge about the character English, the Gaspé would have its own some success. He is noted as a perma- and resources of Gaspé that made their lieutenant-governor until 1833. nent resident of the bay and was proba- settlement succeed. By the 1760s, France’s Atlantic bly the first of European ancestry. The English made no estimate of fisheries were producing 800,000 quin- By 1754, war was a serious threat their numbers because Bellefeuille and tals (hundredweight) of fish annually again. This time there would not only be many of his settlers fled into the woods worth 12 million livres. The great size fishing ships to attract the English to when the English troops arrived in 1758, and efficiency if the industry had al- Gaspé Bay, but the attractive plunder of and were never taken. However, since lowed the French to compete a permanent settlement. The French set- the English burned 27 houses at Pabos favourably in both domestic and export tlement at Gaspé Bay is scarcely men- and 60 at Grande-Rivière, there must markets. Train oil derived from the cod tioned in the official French correspon- have been at least 200 people in the was important to the flourishing French dence of the times, though Governor community. We do not know their fate, woollen industry. Besides employing Duquesne estimated in 1754 that there except that François Bellefeuille was 20,000 men the fisheries were also vital were “at least 300 inhabitants including still alive in 1765, when he sold his to the French kingdom for their contri- wintering fishermen.” seigneury to Frederick Haldimand. bution to the Royal Navy. The fisheries After years of inattention, sugges- Jean Barré of Granville in Nor- stimulated the ship-building industry tions were made for a naval station there mandy was noted as a prominent resi- and dried cod was a staple provision of to patrol the gulf and control its ship- dent as early as 1747, when he was en- the navy. More significant, the fisheries ping. The bay itself would be fortified to trusted with organizing a guard and were considered “the nursery of the protect the fisheries and the settlement. lookout in response to the threat of Eng- navy.” An army post could serve as a base for lish attack. He is noted variously as a The peace treaty of 1763 left invasions southward into English territo- habitant, fisherman and ship’s captain. France with only the islands of St. Pier- ry. But nothing was done, and settlers In the Gaspé context, “ship’s captain” rre and Miquelon and certain beach fled into the woods when Wolfe attacked most likely indicates he owned his own rights in Newfoundland. This represent- on September 4, 1758. fishing vessel, something larger than a ed only a third of their former extent of It is significant that a community mere chaloupe. coastline. And Gaspé’s dried-cod trade of at least 300 souls could develop and As well, there would be the maîtres was now in the realm of British control.

15 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

STAMP OF THEIR BAILIWICK Revisiting the Channel Island connection to Canada’s east coast by Yves Frenette Adapted from “The Anglo-Normans in Eastern Cana- glo-Normans, patois-speaking or bilingual. da” (1996), translated from the French by Carole To coin a delightful Jersey expression, Anglo-Nor- Dolan and published by the Canadian Historical Asso- mans left “the stamp of their bailiwick” where they ciation, Canada’s Ethnic Groups Series, No. 21. lived. The Channel Islands are a dependency of the Unit- espite their small numbers, Anglo-Normans ed Kingdom with a separate government. Over the played a decisive role in the social develop- years, Jersey and Guernsey, the two largest islands in the ment of eastern Canada. In Newfoundland, archipelago, became home to thousands of French polit- Labrador, , the north ical and religious refugees, as well as seasonal and per- shore of the St. Lawrence, New Brunswick and the manent workers. In the twentieth century, English be- Gaspé,D their trade activities often led to permanent set- came predominant in the Islands, gradually replacing tlements, and helped shape societies that were closely French, the language of the elite, and Norman, the idiom tied to the fishing industry. of the popular classes. And yet the memory of Anglo-Normans survives Early on, the Anglo-Normans became adept at pro- only in eastern Canada. West of the Gaspé Peninsula, tecting their islands from the almost relentless military they are unknown. For Quebecers, Ontarians or Alber- conflicts between France and England. By the sixteenth tans, “LeMoine” or “Mauger” are merely French-sound- century, Jersey and Guernsey prospered through their se- ing names. What Canadian would be able to link the mi-official status as warehouses for French and English names of John Bourinot, founder of the Royal Society of trade goods, through their legal and illegal trade, and Canada, or General Brock, hero of the War of 1812, to through their involvement in the commercial adventures the Channel Islands? of two of the New World’s colonizing countries. Increas- Collective memory and, to a certain extent, histori- ingly, the Channel Islands’ economy relied on the fish- cal scholarship, has focused on negative images of the ing, shipping, contraband and piracy. Jersey prospered “Robins,” as Anglo-Normans in Acadia and parts of the through the North American fisheries which, beginning Gaspé are still called. They are blamed for holding back in 1730, became the driving force of Jersey’s economy. regional development and mercilessly exploiting poor Anglo-Normans were early comers to the fishing fishermen reduced to slavery. Anglo-Normans have at banks of Newfoundland, the oldest written record dating times been portrayed as the “damned English.” But for back to 1591. The importance of the North American each entrepreneur, there toiled hundreds of humble An- fishery grew when the new Governor of Jersey, Sir Wal- ter Raleigh, encouraged Island merchants to equip their ships for the new lands. In 1713, the French departure from the southern coast of Newfoundland, following the Treaty of Utrecht, led to an expansion of Channel Is- lands trade in the region. In 1731, Jersey firms em- ployed seventeen ships and 1,500 men in eastern Cana- da. In 1765, Anglo-Normans comprised ten percent of fishermen in Newfoundland where a worker could earn as much as £20 a season, compared to £3 at home. Many Anglo-Normans came to Canada as officers and seamen during the Seven Years’ War and the War of 1812. However, it was fishing and its related trade activ- ity that continued to attract Anglo-Normans to eastern Canada after the Conquest. Each year, fifty or so Jersey vessels manned by 2,500 men fished off the coast of Canada, considered by many Jersey Islanders to be a distant extension of their own island. Carteret and Pri- ault, DeQuetteville, Nicolle & Co., LeMesurier, De- Gruchy and many other business firms competed with English and French companies. Anglo-Normans moved quickly into the Gulf of St. Lawrence after Canada’s final cession to England in Map showing the location of the Channel Islands. Im- 16 age courtesy of the Cape Breton Museums Network JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

Helier Bonamy and Nicholas LeMesurier in Gaspé Bay. These two men settled in the re- gion with their families and workers shortly after 1763. However, they were unable to compete with the larger companies, notably the Janvrin brothers, who bought them out in 1792. The Bonamy and LeMesurier families remained in Gaspé Bay where they were joined by other small fish merchants form Guernsey. These small merchants acted as in- termediaries between the fishermen and the large trading company. They also hunted whales. Some, like the Simon family of Indi- an Cove, operated flour and saw mills. The Guernsey Islanders established small Protes- tant communities whose geographic isolation 1763, taking advantage of their knowledge of French to preserved their ethnic identity, including their Norman form economic ties with the Acadians. Anglo-Norman patois. merchants settled on Cape Breton Island, in the Gaspé In 1789, the brothers Francis and Philip Janvrin ex- region and New Brunswick. Among them, the brothers panded into the Gaspé, where they soon had some 200 Philip, Jacques (John) and Charles Robin established clients and several trading counters. Their ships also Robin, Pipon and Company of Isle Madame in 1765 and sailed the shores of New Brunswick. For approximately John Robin & Co. soon after. At first, these businesses fifty years, the Janvrin brothers held shares in the Robin enlisted the services of seasonal Jersey fishermen, but company and were involved in other Anglo-Norman op- quickly transformed their Arichat trading counter on erations, notably that of Carteret Priaulx. In 1820, the Cape Breton Island into a sedentary fishery post. In Janvrin brothers were the largest Jersey Island outfitters. 1766, the youngest Robin brother, Charles, explored They gradually disposed of their fishing operations, Chaleur Bay and established trade relations with the however, to concentrate almost exclusively on banking Acadian and aboriginal peoples, and with other traders and financial activities by the mid nineteenth century. who had arrived earlier. Charles returned the following Other companies were established soon after; among the year and did business on both shores of Chaleur Bay es- most important were William Fruing (1832), John tablishing a small post on a Paspébiac sand bar which LeBoutillier (1833), LeBoutillier Bros. (1838) and later, was destined to become the company’s headquarters. John Fauvel and John and Elias Collas. Charles traded with the Acadians, the Mi’kmaq and sea- These establishments could be enormous. In sonal fishermen from New England―salt, liquor and Paspébiac, Percé and Grande-Rivière in the Gaspé other commodities were exchanged for fish, furs and Peninsula, Jersey merchants owned vast domains cover- fresh meat. He developed a clientele by advancing the ing several hundred acres, with woodlands and dozens fishermen goods that they would reimburse with the of building where they stored large quantities of dried next year’s catch. In the years that followed, this prac- cod as well as tackle, provisions, tools, hardware, dried tice enabled him to expand his market by regularly in- goods, clothing, shoes and furniture. The manager lived creasing the size of his clientele. in a dwelling set high on a hill where he could survey Charles Robin had no difficulty putting pressure on everything happening on land and sea. The establish- the Lieutenant-Governors of the Gaspé Peninsula. The ment could also include a bakery, a farm, a shipyard and first incumbent Nicholas Cox took up his duties in 1777 a public house. These companies all relied on the same while deeply in debt to Charles. His successor, Francis system of credit-dependency among fishermen-clients. LeMaistre, was a Jersey native and also a friend of the Italy, Spain, , Brazil and the British Caribbean family. With their help, Charles had a customs office were their primary markets, but eastern Canadian cod opened near his headquarters in Paspébiac and acquired was also sold in the United States, Jersey, England, as vast stretches of land as well as strategically located well as domestically. shoreline property. He was also commissioned on vari- The division of labour in these establishments was ous occasions to act as judge or investigator, positions highly sophisticated. Almost all skilled labourers, jour- he filled to protect his own interests. Furthermore, he neymen and seamen came from the Channel Islands. helped elect politicians to the Legislative Assembly of Most were farmers or farm workers whose wives and Lower Canada who would pander to his interests and children looked after the farm in their absence. These unscrupulously undermine his opponents. At the turn of men left Jersey after the spring communion and, hoped the nineteenth century, he was one of the most powerful to return in time for the harvest. Some fished and figures in eastern Canada. worked as boatswains, most laboured eleven hours a day During this era, the competitors of Charles Robin on the beach as cod gutters and salters. on the shores of the Gaspé included small Anglo-Nor- The economic power of the Jersey merchants com- man merchants, especially those from Guernsey, such as Fishing catch in Normandy. Image: Beauge, Belloc, Boury, Des- brosses, Fage, le Gall, Lambert, Remy, Schvinte, Manuel des 17 Peches Maritimes Francaises, 1936 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS bined with political and social power. In the Gaspé, John assimilated. Those surrounded by Irish or Acadian peo- Gosset, nephew of Philip Robin Jr. and the company’s ples became Catholic churches, especially when the senior manager in Canada, was elected to political of- services of Protestant missionaries were unavailable. fice. Like David and John LeBoutillier, the latter was Though Anglo-Normans comprised a majority of the also a member of Canada’s Legislative Council in 1867. population in mixed religious communities like Mal- The Anglo-Normans also dominated the local Bay in the Gaspé their preference for Protestant wives scene, wielding an influence far beyond their faint de- led them to assimilate with anglophones. mographic importance. Many of them owned small fish- In the changing world of the late 19th century, An- ing operations or a business and, although not wealthy, glo-Norman firms faced serious problems resulting from their standard of living surpassed that of the rest of the their reliance on outdated practices such as line fishing. population. In 1871 the small group of notables from The arrival of steamship and rail transport also struck Griffon Cove, north of Gaspé Bay, included four Jersey blow by fueling competition. Refrigeration technology Islanders, among them the mayor and an alderman. made it easier to ship fresh products, and so dried cod Elsewhere, they served as sheriffs, customs officers, jus- lost its appeal. It was also more difficult to satisfy fisher- tices of the peace, school commissioners, municipal and men-clients who demanded an increasing variety of con- school board secretaries, postmasters and telegraph op- sumer goods. The profits from import-export operations erators. declined. Similarly, it became difficult to balance Themselves Protestant, Anglo-Norman merchants “good” as opposed to “bad” debts. The companies gave looked down on the “Papists” in their midst. Whenever credit to insolvent persons, and raised the costs of pro- possible, Charles Robin & Co. hired no Catholics except duction while lowering consumer prices, all this in an as fishermen. When Philip Jr., nephew and heir of unfavourable international environment. Charles, married Marthe Arbour in 1811, with whom he In 1886, the collapse of the Jersey Commercial already had two children, the Robin family refused to Bank toppled the foundations of eastern Canada’s An- acknowledge the union and no favours were shown to glo-Norman firms. DeGruchy and his associates in the children who, raised in the Catholic faith, were dis- Newfoundland, and Charles Robin and LeBoutillier inherited. Other companies hired Catholics but Jersey Is- Bros. in the Gulf, went under. One by one, Anglo-Nor- landers employed by the Fruing Company and suspected man fishing companies disappeared, the largest joining of succumbing to Catholicism were sent back to their forces with Canadian interests. Such was the case for the native island. Aware of the Church’s power, the compa- LeMesurier family, the LeBoutillier Bros. and even nies nevertheless maintained cordial relations with the Charles Robin & Co. which, following several reorgani- clergy. The merchants and their managers generously zations, moved its headquarters from Jersey to Halifax helped build and decorate Catholic churches, and also in 1904, amalgamating two years later with the firms loosened their purse strings at parish bazaars. Relations A.G. Jones and A. H. Whitman. The new entity operated between Anglo-Norman immigrants and other segments under the name Robin, Jones & Whitman. From 1912 of the population were generally marked by tolerance, onward, it concentrated on the retail aspects of its busi- where Anglo-Norman settlers were too few to comprise ness by establishing a chain of department stores. a community, they mingled with their neighbours. They With few exceptions, Anglo-Norman interests had shared the same trade, bought goods from the same disappeared from eastern Canada in 1930. Robin, Jones stores and even danced at the same weddings. Because & Whitman declined for half a century before finally Anglo-Norman women were scarce in eastern Canada, closing shop in the 1980s. Beginning with the Great De- Jersey and Guernsey immigrants most often chose pression, Anglo-Norman immigration to eastern Canada spouses outside their ethnic group to avoid marriage be- all but ceased. An unknown number of Jersey Islanders tween relatives. Almost invariably, the Jersey settler was returned to their homeland or emigrated to other parts of Canada and to the United States. Around 1950, only a few dozen residents born in the Channel Islands remained in eastern Canada; a quarter century later, the group was on its way to extinction.

Yves Frenette teaches in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa.

Editor’s note: In 2002, interest in the Que- bec’s Channel Islands heritage prompted the founding of the Gaspé-Jersey-Guernsey As- sociation, dedicated to the collection of arti- facts, documents and other information rel- ative to the history of the early Channel Is- lands settlers.

Robin, Jones & Whitman Store, L'Anse a Beaufils (2008), 18 now operating as a summer museum. Photo: Rod MacLeod JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

OWE MY SOUL A brief history of the Jersey truck system on the Gaspé coast

Adapted from “The Anglo-Normans in Eastern Cana- clients came to the company store to settle their debts, a da” (1996), by Yves Frenette, translated from the clerk read them their account out loud, interpreting it as he French by Carole Dolan and published by the Canadi- pleased. Trilingual, the clerks conversed among themselves an Historical Association as part of Canada’s Ethnic in Norman patois so English or French-speaking clients Groups Series; and from “Two Centuries of Settlement could not understand them. of the Gaspé Coast by English-speaking People”, by Accumulating debt was not always negative, either, David J. McDougall. and the best producers were often the most indebted, while others never or very rarely incurred debt. In some places, rom the early years of the nineteenth century Anglo-Norman companies were unable to take control of till the beginning of the twentieth, the Jersey independent fishermen who sold their catch to the mer- “truck system” of exchange between mer- chant of their choosing, without taking on debt. Indeed, chants and fishermen affected many families “coasting” merchants had always given Anglo-Norman of the Gaspé coast. “Truck” is derived from the French merchants competition by stealing their clients. In the sec- verbFtroquer (to trade), and this system was widely ond half of the nineteenth century, the growing number of used in many industries including fishing, lumbering permanent or seasonal merchants restricted the Anglo-Nor- and mining in North America and parts of Europe dur- man firms’ freedom of action by forcing them to pay better ing the nineteenth century. wages, offer a better price of the fish, give more generous The Jersey truck system relied on the dependency of advances and ask a lower price for their merchandise. fishermen-clients. Large fishing companies would give At the end of the nineteenth century and in the early fishermen credit throughout the year to buy merchandise twentieth, relations between Anglo-Norman companies such as fishing lines, hooks and salt, as well as clothes and and local lay and religious elites soured as the latter began food for their families. To secure their loans, Anglo-Nor- to assert their local and regional influence. Some mer- man merchants registered debt instruments and mortgages chants grew to despise the Catholic clergy with its notions on the fishermen’s lots in an amount equal to the amount of of temperance, agriculture, education and cooperative en- merchandise advanced. The loan was repaid in dried and terprises. The growing number of zealous priests gave the salted fish at the end of the fishing season Catholic Church better control. Gradually, the large Jersey The advantage of the system to the fish merchants was firms even stopped selling liquor in their stores. that they had a known source of supply, while the fisher- The lay elites were also becoming more aggressive. men had a known market. But when the high price of sup- The regional petty bourgeoisie used politics to limit the in- plies exceeded the return on their fish, fishermen ended the fluence of company managers. Slowly, these managers lost season in debt, and were practically forced to work for the their regional and local dominance. One telling example is same company the following year. If a man was not a good the fact that William LeBoutillier-Fauvel, the grandson of fisherman or bought more than he could reasonably hope Jersey businessmen and senior manager of LeBoutillier to pay for with his labour, he was continuously in debt and Bros., owed his election to the House of Commons in 1891 literally “owed his soul to the company store.” The result to the powerful Liberal organization mounted by the parish was that many fishermen and their families had to work priest of Bonaventure, Napoléon Thivierge. very hard to make a very poor living; and many fishermen- But the elites were not alone in challenging the au- clients were forced to mortgage or sell their operations fol- thority of Jersey companies. On at least two occasions, lo- lowing one or more consecutive seasons of poor catches. cal populations revolted. In Chéticamp, Nova Scotia, in Foreclosures also took place. In extreme cases the 1879, the forced evacuation of several families of squatters fishing companies found it necessary either to seize a fish- living on land owned by the Robin firm triggered a riot and erman’s property or require him to work without pay on the departure of the Jersey manager. Thirty years later, a their sailing vessels on trans-Atlantic voyages. More than a popular uprising shook the small Gaspé community of few had to work for the Jersey Islanders in winter, cutting Rivière-au-Renard. Dissatisfied with the price offered by and hauling wood, building and repairing boats, or manu- Jersey companies, local fishermen found another buyer facturing barrels. Other fishermen prospered, however, and who sent a schooner to collect their catch. But after deal- were able to stay out of debt. And the farmers, salmon fish- ings with the Jersey Islanders, the schooner left without a ermen, whalers and boatwrights rarely seem to have been single cod on board. As a result, fifty or so fishermen dependent on credit from the fishing companies. showed up at the Fruing store and violence ensued. A clerk To maximize their profits, Anglo-Norman companies shot at a fishermen and the mob retaliated by turning on used dubious means. When grading the cod, they would re- employees. At the companies’ request, the federal govern- quire the fishermen to supply a few extra pounds per hun- ment dispatched a frigate and two military detachments. dredweight if their fish were poorly dried and mouldy. Twenty-two fishermen were brought before the courts and They also took advantage of their clients’ illiteracy. When sent to prison.

19 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS

KING OF COD Netting year-round Gaspé settlers was Jersey fish-merchant’s historic legacy by Betty Lemaistre hy would anyone want to Newfoundland. In 1765 the three There was a barachois (a triangular leave the lush, prosper- brothers joined with two other family sandbar enclosing a lagoon) which was ous, semi-tropical island members to form the Robin Pipon ideal for the small shallops used in the of Jersey and sail for Company. Their first investment was inshore fishery; they could be quickly weeks half-way around the world to the purchase of a brig, the Seaflower, beached on the sandbar or taken reachW the cold, empty and desolate and Charles and his brother John went through the narrow passage into the Gaspé Coast on the eastern seaboard of to Cape Breton Island to investigate the sheltered waters of the lagoon in case Canada? potential of the old French fishing es- of a storm. There was no protected har- Charles Robin very much wanted tablishments near Louisbourg. In the bour available for the larger ships, but to, and the story of the Jersey connec- the anchorage was secure: even in the tion on the Gaspé is very largely the heaviest gales his ships would not story of the Robin Company he drag their anchors along the bottom. founded, and its successors. The ma- On 2 June 1767, Robin landed in jority of the present inhabitants of the Paspébiac after an unusually long region owe their existence to the men trans-Atlantic crossing of some eight – and a few women – who made their weeks. He had sailed from Jersey to way to a new life on “La Côte” to Arichat, his brother’s post in Nova work in the fisheries established by Scotia, where he picked up some these companies. lumber he needed for construction In 1758, James Wolfe, fresh from purposes, and then continued on to his participation in the siege of Louis- Paspébiac. This was very late in the bourg, was given the mission of de- season and he had no time to waste. stroying the French fishing establish- Ideally, he should have been there in ments on the Baie des Chaleurs, and early May in order to buy the best destroy them he did. He sailed into fish and have time to fill his ship’s the Bay, set fire to the buildings and hold and send her off to Europe be- drove off the inhabitants. We are told fore the weather became too cold. To that most of them escaped into the quote David Lee’s The Robins of forest and managed to survive some- Gaspé: how, possibly by linking up with the Acadians. The site of a French fishing When Charles Robin finally village at the Bourg de Pabos has landed at Paspebiac at 3 o’clock in been excavated and is open to the the afternoon of 2 June 1767, his public in the summer. next two years the company purchased patience could bear no further de The following year, Lower Canada two more ships and expanded their op- lay. Within two hours he was came under British rule, and the stage erations to the coast of the Gaspé. afloat again in a shallop headed up was set for the involvement of a Jer- Charles Robin and Company and its the Bay to talk with Acadian fish seyman in the Gaspé fisheries. successors date the birth of the firm to ermen at the nearby barachois of Born in St Aubin, Jersey, the 1766, the year of Robin’s first visit to Bonaventure. Robin got there be youngest of three brothers, Charles the Gaspé Peninsula. That made it the fore dark and negotiated all night, Robin (1743-1824) had undoubtedly second company to be founded in arranging to trade them salt in re heard of the money to be made off the Canada, after the Hudson’s Bay Com- turn for dried cod. He left fisheries in the North Atlantic. In fact, pany. Bonaventure at daybreak, was one of his brothers had been to New- When he returned to the Gaspé the back in Paspebiac by 8 o’clock in foundland and seen that the fisheries following year, Charles Robin was 23 the morning, loaded his shallop there were becoming overcrowded. Al- years old. He had scouted the Baie des with trading goods, and set sail so, he must have heard stories of the Chaleurs well the previous year and again at 11 o’clock southward old French fisheries on the Atlantic had recognized Paspébiac as one of the across the Bay to , where Coast of North America, and so he per- choice sites for the drying of fish. This he arrived at 5 o’clock. He spent suaded his family and his relatives, the tiny port became the North American the next day (June 4) trading hard Pipons, to invest in them rather than in headquarters for his fishing company. ware and salt for “thirty quintals Charles Robin. National Archives of Canada 20 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

dry codfish and sundry kinds of there was work for them in the fisheries. pay his employees in cash. furrs”. He left Caraquet at 3:30 the But Robin also brought with him from The arrival of hundreds of Loyalists next morning and returned to Jersey each spring a number of Jersey- to the Baie des Chaleurs in 1784 Paspebiac. The following day men, particularly skilled workers, such alarmed and irritated Charles Robin. Un- (June 6) Robin was off again in the as carpenters and shipwrights and, very til then, except for customs duties, he shallop, this time to trade with the importantly, men who knew how to had not had to worry about any govern- Acadian fishermen at Tracadigache “make fish”. In the early years they ment regulations. He had been able to and the Micmac Indians at the would return to Jersey for the winter. fish where he pleased, erect buildings mouth of the Restigouche River. When his establishments became wherever he wanted and cut timber more substantial Robin and his employ- wherever he found it. Now, land titles With that kind of energy, small ees began to stay year-round on the became important. The Loyalists were wonder that Robin’s firm was still in Coast. In fact, from 1783, with the ex- not the passive Acadians he was used to operation more than 220 years after its ception of a few weeks in Quebec City dealing with, but rather aggressive Eng- founding. in 1787, Charles Robin did not leave the lish-speaking settlers who knew their Baie des Chaleurs area for nineteen rights. He quickly became disenchanted ife in the fisheries on the years. He spent the winters of 1767-68 with the Loyalists; he found them to be Gaspé was not easy during the and 1768-69 at his brother’s establish- quarrelsome, ungrateful and unruly mal- last years of the eighteenth ment at Isle Madame on Cape Breton Is- contents. To his immense relief, by the century and the beginning of land where he found congenial company following year many of them had left the nineteenth. Robin had to contend not among the Acadians, especially the seeking better farmland farther west. Lonly with the normal fluctuations of the young ladies. When not visiting or danc- In February 1787 the Legislative market and the varying availability of ing, he occupied himself in cleaning up Council in Quebec took under consider- cod, but also with the wars that broke his brother’s buildings, cutting firewood, ation a projected ordinance to regulate out from time to time. He lost his mar- mending sails, brewing beer, trapping the fisheries of the Gaspé Coast. Charles kets in the United States during the rabbits and fighting a large army of rats Robin was not invited to the hearings in British American War of 1812-1814. that was threatening to devour every- Quebec, but if the government was go- American warships came into the Bay thing in the storehouse. ing to impose fishing regulations, he and he was forced to close down for a Robin soon had a monopoly of the wanted to be there. The only way to couple of years. As well, he had to do fisheries on the Bay. There was a firm of reach Quebec from Paspébiac in the his best to keep abreast of developments Guernseymen farther to the north for a middle of winter was to walk. There in Europe in order to be sure that he was time, but they were not serious competi- were no roads except for farm tracks in sending his vessels to friendly ports tors. At a later date, Janvrin, another Jer- the populated regions on the south shore when they left Paspébiac in the autumn. sey company, took over the fishery off of the St Lawrence, but Robin was de- On more than one occasion when the Gaspé. Janvrin had been employed by termined. So he walked to Québec and British were at war with the French he Robin and was trained in his methods, back, 300 miles each way. He left fitted out his captains and crews with so it was a friendly sort of collaboration Paspébiac on January 8, 1787 and French uniforms and equipped his ships rather than out-and-out competition. crossed the St Lawrence on the ice- with French flags so that if they were Their respective fishing grounds did not bridge at Quebec on February 2. The trip challenged by a French warship, they overlap. had taken him 20 days. He spent the could claim to be French. After all, the Robin needed ships to transport his next three weeks meeting and dining men all spoke French fluently. It is inter- increasing output, so he brought out a with various government officials, in- esting to note that his captains were not shipbuilder from Jersey and constructed cluding Lord Dorchester. The govern- eager to call at British ports: they were ships at Paspébiac at the rate of about ment eventually passed an ordinance terrified that their crew would be taken one every two years He and his succes- which was quite favourable to his Com- by the press gangs and forced into the sors built 16 ships in all between 1792 pany. British navy. Ships would sail from and 1824. He set up a chain of stores at It is worth noting that whereas the Paspébiac to Portugal, for instance, and his fishing stations along the Coast to governments of New Brunswick and then any of the passengers who wanted supply fishermen with whatever they Newfoundland had for many years been to go home to Jersey would have to needed for their boats and their families. paying bounties to their fisheries, noth- book passage on another ship. Everything functioned on the truck sys- ing of the kind had ever been paid to Who were these fishermen and tem: no money changed hands. The fish- anyone in Quebec. It was only because sailors who worked for Charles Robin ermen would come to the store in the the superior quality of Robin’s “Gaspé and Company? Some of them were the spring to get what they needed for the Cure” was recognized everywhere that men who had disappeared into the forest summer’s fishing, and then they brought he could compete in world markets. The when Wolfe attacked and had subse- their cured or raw fish to Robin to pay Newfoundland fisheries were, after all, quently been absorbed into the Acadian for it. This was a universal way of doing 200 miles closer to Europe than he was. settlements along the Coast. As well, a business at the time. It was abolished in After spending so much time poli- certain number of men came from the England in 1831 when the Truck Law ticking in Quebec, Robin was anxious to Quebec City area every summer because was passed, obliging every employer to get back to Paspébiac where there were

21 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS many things still to be done before the Paspébiac was the headquarters. would take on cargoes of rum, molasses ice broke up in the Bay. It took him The Robin and Le Boutillier installations and sugar for Europe. From Europe they three weeks to walk back through the on the barachois resembled a small returned to Paspébiac with manufactured Matapedia Valley to his home base. He town. Each company had a warehouse goods. The market for dry fish disap- was travelling with a group of four or four or five storeys high, a general store, peared almost completely during the five―possibly Acadians―and one of a wharf, a carpenter shop, a sail loft, a twentieth century; the Company them was probably carrying the mail. To blacksmith shop and forge, a cooper processed frozen fish for a number of avoid having to struggle through the shop for making barrels, offices, a cook- years, but eventually that was given up dense forests they followed the frozen house, a boarding house for the appren- as well. rivers and hugged the edges of the lakes. tices, and numerous other buildings, be- There was a disastrous fire in 1964 He fell through the ice once but escaped sides the large area given over to the that destroyed most of the original serious injury. flakes and the drying fish. Set on the hill Robin buildings on Paspébiac Beach. So he continued for a total of 31 away from the fishery there were the The remaining ones on the site, which years. When he left Paspébiac for good Robin farm buildings and a large house, include the large Le Boutillier Bros on 28 September 1802, his company had known as The Park, where the General warehouse, form the Site Historique du extended to include general stores and Manager lived. Banc de Paspébiac. fishing stations all along the Gaspé, with The ownership of the Company un- a few in Cape Breton and at least one on derwent a number of changes and merg- Betty LeMaistre is a former director of the Lower North Shore of the St ers during the nineteenth century. In the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Net- Lawrence at Magpie. His company was 1886 their financial backers, the banks work, representing the Gaspé Jersey- exporting somewhere in the region of in Jersey, failed. There was a riot in Guernsey Asociation, and the past presi- 15,000 to 17,000 quintals (equivalent to Paspébiac and the store was looted when dent of the Montreal chapter of the Roy- 112 pounds) of dry cod each year to the Company could not pay its fisher- al Commonwealth Society. She divides ports in Europe―principally Spain, Por- men. The government had to intervene. her time between Montreal and her tugal, and Italy―and the coast of South It was at this time that the firm became home in New Carlisle. America. Charles Robin Collas. In 1924 they ab- Robin never married, His succes- sorbed Le Boutillier Brothers. Robin, Sources: sors in the Company were his brother’s Jones and Whitman, as the Company three sons. When he died on 14 June was most recently known, at one point Lee, David. The Robins in Gaspé, 1766 1824 at the age of 81, he left assets operated a string of seventeen establish- to 1825, (Fitzhenry and Whiteside), worth about £22,500. ments on the Gaspé, three in New 1984:18. Lee’s book is book is based to The second generation of Robins di- Brunswick on the south shore of the a large extent on Charles Robin’s jour- rected the Company affairs on the Gaspé Baie des Chaleurs, seven or eight on the nals and letters. Robin kept a detailed until 1814 when it became expedient for North Shore of the St Lawrence, and account of everything he did and all the the family to send a non-family manager three in Cape Breton. transactions of his company during the to Paspébiac. The owners never again A triangular voyage evolved over years that he lived and worked on the returned to the Gaspé but left the direc- time. Ships would leave Paspébiac laden Gaspé Coast. Some of the originals are tion of Company business to a succes- with dry cod bound for ports in the West owned by the Société Jersiaise in St He- sion of loyal and efficient managers. The Indies and South America. There they lier, some are in the British Museum, owners kept a long-distance eye on their affairs from Jersey. During the nine- teenth century a number of competitors established themselves along the Bay, notably the Le Boutillier Brothers, three brothers who had worked for Robin be- fore striking out on their own. Their buildings in Paspébiac constitute the ma- jor part of what is left there today. A typical Robin establishment would have consisted of a general store, a house where the manager lived, a warehouse for dry fish, and a stage (or landing platform) where the fish were brought ashore. There would also have been a large area on or near the beach where flakes for drying the fish had been erected. These were waist-high frames on which the split cod would be spread out to dry.

Paspebiac National Historic Site from the sandbar. 22 Photo: Rod MacLeod JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010 and some are on microfilm in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia. In addition, over 300 volumes of company correspon- dence covering the nineteenth and part of BARQUES,BRIGANTINES AND BRIGS the twentieth century are in the Public Archives of Canada. Shipbuilding on the Baie des Chaleurs by Kim Harrison Syvert, Marguerite. Everyday life on the Coast of Acadia and in the Province of he demand for timber and cod cargoes generated by Robin’s commercial Québec, 1767-1787. Société Jersiaise was instrumental in the devel- empire. In 1791, master shipbuilder Annual Bulletin, 1976. opment of the shipbuilding in- James Day arrived from the Isle of Wight dustry on the Gaspé coast in the to aid the company in designing and eighteenth century. Gaspesians realized building ships of up to 249 tons burthen. Tthat the future could be made more se- These would be the first of many large Robin, Jones & cure by harvesting the rich forests to square-rigged (barques and brigs) sailing Whitman build vessels and in turn use these vessels vessels to be built on the coast. to transport fish and lumber products to According to historian David Mc- establishments the hungry European and Caribbean mar- Dougall, Day had ship carpenters work- kets in return for items such as tea, mo- ing under him, some of whom were local circa 1940 lasses, sugar, salt, tools and equipment men. In addition there were sawyers that could not easily be produced in the whose job it was to cut planks, lumber- Gaspé Coast Gaspé. men cutting timber in the forest, black- Bonaventure Timber was being shipped from the smiths and probably sail-makers. No evi- Paspébiac coast as early as 1760 in the form of dence has been found that there were oth- Port Daniel boards, planks, hoops, staves, masts and er trades associated with shipbuilding Anse-aux-Gascons logs. The Seven Years’ War in Europe such as rope makers and block makers; it Newport Islands and the American Revolution effectively can be assumed that some of the items Newport Point cut off Britain’s supply of naval lumber needed to complete the rigging of the Pabos and forced her to depend more heavily on vessels were brought in from England, Grande-Rivière Canada to fill her needs. It is estimated Quebec City or Halifax. Ste-Thérèse that between 1818 and 1822 an average The first boat was launched in 1792 Anse-à-Beaufils of 5,013 tons of wood per year were and a long line of schooners, barques, Percé shipped from the harbours of the Gaspé brigantines and brigs designed by Day Barachois Coast, mainly to Britain. These ships also followed. On average a new ship took to Malbaie carried cod, salmon, eels, cod oil, flour sea every two years between 1791 and Gaspé (two stores) and furs and often returned home fully 1830. Day went on to build a gristmill Anse-à-Griffon loaded or, during the Seven Year War, and become a Justice of the Peace before Rivière-au-Renard were sold to the British Navy once they he died in 1833. had reached their destinations. Within a few years of Day’s arrival New Brunswick Between 1762 and 1895 there were other ship yards producing square-rigged Caraquet at least 460 ocean-going vessels built on vessels were established at New Rich- Shippegan the Gaspé Coast; most Gaspé-built ves- mond, Bonaventure, New Carlisle and Lamèque sels were registered as brigantines and Corner of the Beach. Square-rigged ves- schooners, with some brigs and barques. sels were mainly used for trans-Atlantic Nova Scotia The schooners were mainly “British voyages and sold in Great Britain, or Cheticamp Plantation” built, with one deck and two were used by fish merchants to ship their Inverness masts. Red pine and cedar were the most dried and salted fish to Portugal, Spain, Musquodobit Harbour popular woods used in these boats, al- Italy, the West Indies, and South America though fir, silver and yellow birch were As the number of these vessels in- North Shore also utilized. creased so did the number of schooners. Magpie Several shipyards existed along the Schooners were usually used for more lo- Thunder River (Rivière-au-Ton- coast, with the longest-running and high- cal voyages carrying dried fish and sup- nerre) est-producing being that of Charles plies between the various fishing commu- Sheldrake (Port-Cartier) Robin & Company of Paspébiac, operat- nities or for voyages to Prince Edward Is- Eskimo Point ing from 1791 to about 1900. Although land, Newfoundland and Quebec City Seven Islands (Sept-Iles) many locals built schooners to transport and Halifax. The more important Mingan. fish and other supplies to Quebec City, schooner building centres were at Car- St John River the Caribbean and Europe, the vessels leton, New Richmond, Maria, Bonaven- were simply too small to carry the large ture, New Carlisle, Paspébiac, Mal Bay

23 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS and Gaspé Bay. English (6 ships) and Collas & Co. The bec City and Halifax, decreased. At In New Richmond, William Cuth- earliest-registered ship at Gaspe Bay about the same time the building of large bert established a shipyard at Duthie’s was launched by William Annett in square-rigged vessels also decreased be- Point, which became known as Shipyard 1805. cause there was no longer a viable mar- Point and later Governor’s Point, after ket for them in Great Britain. the Governor General of Canada, Lord Gaspé-built schooner was a By the end of the 1860s there were Stanley of Preston, built a home there. “remarkably durable ship,” only two shipyards still building wooden Two of the largest boats ever built on the according to John Macgre- sailing vessels. The Charles Robin Com- coast came from Cuthbert’s shipyard: gor, author of The Progress pany at Paspébiac and the J. and E. Col- the Saxon, 787 tons, built in 1846 and of America (1847). “One of those ves- las Company at Point St. Peter continued the Cuthbert, 914 tons, built in 1848. Asels which I saw moored in 1824, among to build both schooners and square- Experienced ship carpenters and work- the small fleet of Messrs. Robins in the rigged vessels for use in their business ers from Scotland provided the labour bay De Chaleur, I went on board after- until the 1880s. The fisheries and lumber and at least 28 vessels were built in New wards, in 1839, in the port of Messina, industry was affected by a world-wide Richmond between 1778 and 1870, the where the vessel, more than thirty years depression in the late nineteenth century. majority of them built in Cuthbert’s yard old, and perfectly sound, was discharg- After the Charles Robin Company went before it ceased operations about 1854. ing, in excellent condition, a cargo of bankrupt in the mid-1880s, most of its In Gaspé Bay, production of whale dry codfish to feed the Sicilians.” fleet of sailing vessels was sold. oil from whales captured in the Gulf of However, the arrival of the railroad Today, few vestiges of the industry St. Lawrence contributed to the growth and the advent of steel ships in the mid- remain along the coast. At the Banc-de- of shipbuilding in the area. The Gaspé nineteenth century brought the era of Pêche-de-Paspébiac historic site visitors Bay whalers used strongly-built shipbuilding in the Gaspé to a close. As can watch traditional shipbuilding schooners, from which they launched detailed in Eileen Read Marcil’s The demonstrations and thematic exhibitions small boats equipped with oars used to Charley-Man, A History of Wooden during the summer tourism season. In pursue and harpoon whales. Whaling in Shipbuilding at Quebec, metal ships New Richmond, the Gaspesian British this area reached its peak in the 1860s were stronger, they rarely leaked, their Heritage Village (Britville), the Bay with petroleum products replacing whale annual depreciation was less than wood- Chaleur Military Museum and Stanley oil. In 1858, there were five to ten whal- en ships and insurance rates were far House stand on what was once Shipyard ing ships in Gaspé Bay; by the 1880s, lower. According to McDougall, a regu- Point. Cuthbert’s original lumber store only one whaling vessel remained. lar government steamship service began, still stands, but is now a private resi- At least forty people built vessels in which brought freight, passengers and dence. Gaspé Bay between 1805 and 1890. mail to the principal towns on the Gaspé Some of the most productive were the coast, and the demand for large Kim Harrison is past executive director Annett family, William Miller (6 ships), schooners, which had previously carried of the Committee for Anglophone Social Philip Bechervaise (5 ships), Thomas freight and passengers to and from Que- Action (CASA), based in New Carlisle.

William Notman, Paspebiac harbour and wharf, Gaspé Peninsula, 24 QC, c.1900. McCord Museum of Canadian History - V3989 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

SEA BIRDS Trade, travel and peril: Gaspé schooners in the age of sail by Kevin O’Donnell he word Gaspé in the language graceful movements. But if they were at wrights had to take care not to line up of the Mi’kmaq Indians means home in sea and wind, schooners were the ends of the planks in a row, which “Land at the end of the earth.” products of the land and its people. And would result in a weak spot in the vessel. In the early days of settlement whenever a schooner sailed away, there Sea-going vessels twisted as they were in many residents of the Gaspé Peninsu- was always the fear that it might never battered by the waves. This resulted in laT must have felt this was true. There return. leaks which could damage the cargo and were no roads between Gaspé and Que- Throughout the nineteenth century, endanger the schooner. The shipwrights bec City. It took two or three weeks to beaches along the Gaspé coast echoed to had to make sure the frame of the boat make the journey on foot. Even along the sounds of mallets, chisels, and was strong and flexible enough to stand the coast, travel was difficult and slow. saws―tools of the shipwright’s trade. up to the pounding of the waves. With boat and ships the sea and the river Often they had little formal training and To make the planking watertight became highways linking Gaspé to Eu- worked without plan. But they knew Gaspesian shipwrights forced oakum, a rope, the Caribbean, and the rest of how to build trim, seaworthy vessels. mixture of tar and jute fibres, into the North America. The river and sea pro- One of their most important tools was seams between the boards. When the vided Gaspesians with a livelihood as the steam-box, a long metal container schooner was ready for launching the well. shipwrights greased the Fishermen went out blocks and knocked out two or three kilometres the wedges holding the from shore in small boats vessel to the scaffolding. called chaloupes in A tug on the ropes and the French, pronounced hull began to move. With “shallops” by English a resounding splash, the speakers. They fished schooner slid into the wa- with hand lines, each line ter. When the two masts having three or four hooks were put in place and the baited with pieces of her- sails rigged, the schooner ring. Gaspé cod fishermen was ready to begin its ca- either worked for, or sold reer at sea. their catch to large fish One reason why companies who sent Gaspé schooners made schooners to the beaches voyages was to hunt to pick up their catch. whales. The Right whale Barrels of fish were was valued for its oil and loaded aboard the schooner for the trip filled with “live” steam. After three or whalebone. In the days before electrici- to the fish company’s warehouse. Even- four hours in the steam-box, a straight ty, whale oil was used in lamps for tually the fish was sold in Europe, the plank would be pliable enough to bend homes and even for the huge lighthouse Caribbean, or South America. into the graceful lines of the hull. The beacons which protected ships at sea. Schooners were well-suited for wood for Gaspé schooners came from Whalebone, which came in long strips what was called coastal trading. They the nearby forest. Oak, the preferred from the mouth of the whale, was used were designed so they could sail in the wood for building ships, was not avail- much like plastic is used today, to make shallow water near the shore. The able. Often shipwrights had to settle for umbrella frames for example. schooner sails were rigged so that they spruce, which was plentiful but rotted One of the most famous of the could be adjusted from the deck. This after some years in salt water. Although Gaspé whaling ships was called the meant that normally only a three-man larch trees were scarce, this wood was Breeze. Built in 1834, it survived forty crew was required to operate the vessel. far more durable and was therefore used years―a long life for a schooner. The Square-rigged vessels were often whenever possible. Breeze usually carried a crew of fifteen larger than schooners and could carry Schooners were built around a men. As soon as a whale was spotted, more cargo. But they were not as ma- skeleton of timbers. When the keel, ribs, two smaller whaleboats carrying six men noeuvrable and needed a larger crew to and strengthening timbers were in place each were immediately lowered to give work the sails. “Birds of the sea” one old the vessel was said to be “in frame.” chase. When they were close enough, sailor called them, referring to their Planking the vessel was an art. The ship- the harpooner at the front of the boat

Chaloupes in the port at Quimper. Image: gw2.geneanet.org 25 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS stood up and hurled the iron shaft deep Gaspé mariners were often away for ley brothers, must have felt they were into the side of the whale. It was danger- months at a time. In some villages al- lucky, because a local company immedi- ous work. With one sweep of its power- most all the men went to sea. Still, the ately hired them to carry fish to Portu- ful tail the animal could destroy a whale- life of the community had to go on. gal. The Mizpah carried a crew of boat. Women had to perform just about all the six―two Buckley brothers, as well as After the whale was killed, the car- hard work, as well as care for the young, Elias Boyle, John Tuzo and a man cass was taken to shore or towed to the the sick and the aged. It was not an easy named Taylor. Her master was Captain side of the schooner so the crewmen life, but life was not all hardship either. Tom Robson. Robson had a reputation could remove the animal’s blubber. It In spite of the difficulties of travel, for being a brave and capable mariner. was from this blubber that whale oil was people would come long distances to Perhaps that’s why the Buckleys and the made. Chunks of blubber were boiled take part in a wedding celebration. Be- fish company felt it was safe enough to down to obtain the oil. The process was cause the menfolk were at sea during the attempt an Atlantic crossing in Novem- known as “trying” and the “tryworks” summer, December, rather than June, ber, which was late in the season. were often set up on the nearest beach. was the traditional time for weddings in On Sunday December 6, 1891, the From a single whale, the whalers could the Gaspé during the nineteenth century. crew said goodbye to their loved ones, obtain up to 10 barrels of oil, each worth Expert fiddlers like Alec McCrae pro- as the Mizpah prepared to set sail. Just a about $175.00―a lot of money in those vided the music, so everyone was sure to few weeks before, Captain Robson’s days. In 1858, the Breeze brought in 210 have a good time. wife had given birth to a daughter. Rob- barrels of oil, which were sold in Que- By the second half of the nineteenth son would never see his baby again. It bec City. century, changes were taking place that was a cloudy day with a breeze blowing The Breeze never made the return signalled the end of the age of sail. In from the northwest. Even with 1,800 trip from Quebec empty. Into the hold 1859, steamships began chugging down quintals of fish in her hold, the Mizpah went more barrels, this time filled with the river from Quebec City to deliver needed only foresail and jib to carry her sugar, peas, whiskey and other out of the harbour. She was the goods Gaspesians wanted from last vessel to leave port in the big city. The schooner 1891. might even carry back a In the days before radio, horse―perhaps a bit reluctant there was no way for ships at to undertake the week-long sea to communicate to shore. journey down the St. Lawrence The little 25-metre schooner River. battled the huge North Atlantic Coasting vessels such as waves cut off from the outside schooners usually carried out world. Around the middle of relatively short voyages be- December, a heavy snowstorm tween towns and villages along struck the Gaspé coast. The the coast. Usually they trav- weather on the Atlantic must elled within sight of land. If a have been bad also. The first storm arose, the captain could news of the Mizpah came in hurry to the safety of a nearby early January, 1892. A passing cove and ride out the weather. ship had sighted the schooner’s But the little schooners made wreckage a few weeks earlier. longer voyages as well, trans- There was no sign of the crew. porting fish to the Caribbean, But hope dies hard. Perhaps, Argentina, even to Europe. They had to goods along the coast. By the 1870s, just perhaps, Robson and his crew had endure anything the Atlantic threw at whale oil became obsolete for many pur- somehow managed to survive. Perhaps them. Rough seas were just one danger. poses, replaced by petroleum oil from even now they were in Portugal, Italy, In 1817, the Ann, a schooner under the ground. Ironically, Gaspé was one of even North Africa, trying to arrange the command of Captain Daniel Mabbe the first oil-drilling sites in North Ameri- their passage home to their loved ones. was attacked by pirates in the Caribbean ca. But as the weeks passed, hopes faded Sea. Mabbe was killed. By 1873, the schooner Breeze was and then disappeared. A trip to could take getting old. Her owner, Captain Harbour Six years later, a final entry was as long as six weeks. For all this time sold the rigging and gears, and ordered made in the Ships Register, the govern- the cramped quarters of the little the hull broken up. By the 1890s Gaspe- ment record book: “The Mizpah schooner was the sailors’ home. The sians had largely given up building foundered at sea in 1892. No tidings of cook was an important member of the schooners. The Mizpah was one of the vessel or crew heard of since.” crew. A good meal of “sailor’s wack,” a last built. Her tragic story is still told on stew made of cod, potatoes, onions, and the Gaspé coast. Kevin O’Donnell is the President of the salt pork, was one of the few pleasures The Mizpah was launched on No- Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network the men could look forward to. vember 5, 1891. Her owners, the Buck- and is never, ever sick at sea.

Gaspé fishing schooner, from Rear Admiral HF Pullen, OBE, 26 CD, Atlantic Schooners, nd. JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

DOCTOR COMMANDER Remembering William Wakeham, Canada’s high-seas civil servant by Andrew D. Gilker

s part of the Gaspé’s 475th Wakeham’s sense of humour and his en- in the realm of law enforcement, his pro- anniversary celebrations, the tertaining nature made him most popular fessional training and scientific mind Department of Fisheries and with locals, whether they were in need lead him to have a more holistic view of Oceans, in partnership with of medical attention or not. the fishing industry. Wakeham took the Committee for Anglophone Social Although he had become an impor- great interest not only in the economic ActionA (CASA) and the Community tant fixture in the community, in 1876 he aspect of the fisheries, but also of its so- Economic Development and Employa- decided to return to Quebec City and be- cial and environmental impact. He also bility Committee used his visitations (CEDEC), pro- to outports as op- duced a historical portunities to pro- audio guide high- vide medical care, lighting the life and making him a popu- accomplishments of lar and well respect- Commander ed guest at each William Wakeham. port of call. He is perhaps best Despite his known for his expe- many interests and dition to Hudson’s vocations, Wake- Bay and Cumber- ham’s primary task land Strait in 1897 was still one of en- upon which he de- forcement, an un- clared Canadian dertaking he took sovereignty over quite seriously. the Arctic. His in- Many international teractions with ships would pass communities along through the gulf and the shores of the would be subject to Gulf of St Canadian laws. Lawrence distin- Masted schooners guished Wakeham exporting fish for as one of Gaspesia’s most widely known came the head of medical staff at the companies such as Charles Robins Co. and respected citizens of his time. Belmont Retreat. We can only assume and Leboutiller Brothers were common. Wakeham first arrived in Gaspé in that he longed for the community and Smugglers and privateers were still 1866 at the age of 21, after graduating lifestyle of the Gaspé, for in 1879 he ap- prevalent, but could be intercepted by from McGill University as a physician. plied for and was awarded the job of In- the Commander and his crew. As Wake- It is not clear what brought the young spector of Fisheries of the Gulf of St ham was often the first point of contact Quebec City man to the Gaspé basin, but Lawrence, based once again in Gaspé. for arriving or departing vessels, he was if adventure was his goal, his legacy As Inspector of Fisheries, Wakeham given additional federal enforcement proves that he most certainly achieved it. quickly became the best known Gaspe- powers. He was appointed Customs In- For ten years, Wakeham travelled sian in eastern Canada. He commanded spector and Marine Police Commission- by horse or small boat to provide bilin- a steam vessel and crew of armed men er, giving him unsurpassed authority gual medical services to local residents. for law enforcement. His responsibilities over Canadian waters. Accounts of cap- (Horseback was the most common mode included reporting on such issues as tured American smugglers or privateers of transportation in the area over short quantity and value of fish caught, the were often published in the New York distances, as no roads or rails linked state of the rivers, fishing conditions, in- Times, which always referred to Com- communities as they do today; for fractions of fishery laws and the actions mander William Wakeham by name. The longer distances, or a more direct route, taken in response to those violations. Al- tall, handsome and weather beaten man the sea was the highway of the era.) though his official duties were primarily was making quite the name for himself – William Wakeham on the SS Diana, 1897 (photographer unknown) - Musée de la Gaspésie. P1 Fonds Musée de la Gaspésie. P1/14/3, dossier "William 27 Wakeham, explorateur de l'arctique". QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS feared by foes and welcomed by resi- Voyages to the Arctic were not un- ous conduct that all this territory of dents. heard of at the time. European and Baffin’s Land―with all adjacent During the winter months when the American fishermen had been visiting territories and islands―is now as it ice set in and fishing ceased, Wakeham these areas regularly for decades and has been since the time of the first would once again call Gaspé home. Af- had established whaling stations in the discovery and occupation under the ter accepting the post of Fisheries In- territory. The Commander’s purpose was exclusive Sovereignty of Great spector, he purchased a residence named to determine when shipping channels Britain. God save the Queen. “One Ash” with a view of the south-west were ice-free, evaluate fishing potential arm of Gaspé Bay. Over time he added and to enforce Canadian sovereignty in his statement confirmed Cana- rooms to the house to suit his interests, the area. Administratively, all remaining da’s jurisdiction and political including a medical office, billiards British territories in North America were authority over 500,000 square room, sports room, music room and proclaimed Canadian sovereign territory miles of territory. A photograph greenhouse. The music and billiards in 1880. Wakeham’s mission was to be was taken to capture the moment. Little rooms became gathering places for the first concrete action to assert Cana- Tnational attention was paid to the ac- many locals. Wakeham’s reputation as a da’s sovereignty over the Arctic archi- complishment at the time, in large part gracious host can be attested to by the pelago. due to the madness of the gold rush in numerous social gatherings held at his Wakeham selected a fast and ma- western Canada. To reinforce the coun- estate. The sports room displayed tro- noeuvrable steam ship named Diana for try’s claims, a handful of additional voy- phies from his personal hunting and an- the mission. Although the ship was near- ages were commissioned between 1903 gling adventures. A greenhouse fed his ly thirty years old, it was ideally suited and 1911, including those of the Captain personal passion for horticulture, allow- for the ice-packed Arctic waters. A crew J.E. Bernier. In 1903, the famed Norwe- ing him to grow exotic plants such as or- of experienced officers, whalers and gian explorer Roald Amundsen led the anges. One can well imagine that the fishermen were hired along with a scien- first expedition that successfully tra- name of a man that grows oranges in tific team to study the animals and min- versed Canada’s Northwest Passage, Gaspé could not go unknown. erals of the territory. Once assembled in linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. His methodical and scientific mind the port of Halifax, the ship carried 43 There has been renewed focus on made Wakeham uniquely acquainted people with supplies for seventeen the Arctic in recent years due to melting with all aspects of the fishery. For this weeks. ice of the Northwest Passage. As in reason, in 1893, he was appointed as the Leaving port in June of 1897, S.S. 1897, increased international shipping Canadian representative to the joint Diana headed for the Hudson Strait, a activity has raised concerns over Cana- commission to examine Canadian- three week voyage up the Labrador da’s ability to enforce her sovereign au- American boundary waters and fishing coast. The crew was greeted by heavy thority. A federal presence in the Arctic grounds, which led to the Boundary Wa- ice which seized the ship for ten days; with the ability to intercept foreign ves- ters Treaty. This treaty essentially estab- the vessel narrowly survived. When the sels and enforce Canadian law is as vi- lished Canada’s international maritime ice retreated and the ship was freed, tally important today as it was in Wake- borders. In this role, Wakeham also con- Wakeham continued into Hudson’s Bay ham’s time. ducted a number of joint studies on fish- where he studied the ice flows, travel- Wakeham’s name can be found on ing techniques, pollution prevention and ling the length of the strait twice before maps of regions where he lived and resource conservation. reaching the island of Kekerten. worked. Kekerten Island is roughly 50 kilo- The community on the north shore lthough the Commander had metres south of what is now Pangnir- of the southwest Arm of Gaspé Bay already served a most distin- tung, Baffin Island, Nunavut, in the bears his name, as does Wakeham Bay guished career by 1897, he is Cumberland Sound. Wakeham was star- in northern Quebec. His residence, “One perhaps best known for his tled to find a Scottish whaling station Ash,” still stands overlooking the bay to- voyage to the Arctic. With the advent of which had been in operation for 35 day as The Wakeham Inn. Two streets in theA Klondike Gold Rush and the result- years. The manager responsible for the the town of Gaspé were also named in ing influx of Americans into Western station was apparently unaware of what his memory. Although it has been well Canada, the ill defined borders made it country held title to the land. Command- over one hundred and fifty years since difficult to enforce Canadian laws and er Wakeham decided that the first offi- Dr Wakeham began his career, his ad- sovereignty. Similarly, on Canada’s east cial claim to the Arctic would be on this ventures and accomplishments ought to coast, foreign fishermen frequented the island. On August 17th in the presence be points of pride not only for Gaspe- gulf and Arctic regions. Under Prime of over 150 Inuit whalers, the manager sians and Quebecers, but for all Canadi- Minister Wilfred Laurier a number of of the whaling station and the crew of ans. voyages were commissioned to explore the Diana, Wakeham hoisted the Union the Arctic with the intention of provid- Jack as a symbol of Canada’s presence. ing a federal presence and securing the As he did this he proclaimed: Download the audio guide to Wakeham’s sovereignty of the Arctic territory for life and times in English or French at Canada. Commander Wakeham was I hereby declare in the presence of the Musée de la Gaspésie website: commissioned in April 1897 for just all now assembled that I hoist the www.museedelagaspesie.ca. such a mission. Union Jack as the open and notori

28 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

KNOTSINTHE NETWORK Local history and culture rate below scenery in Gaspé’s regional planning by Pierre Rastoul

he Gaspé peninsula holds quite a challenge comes to cultural heritage, however, government sup- for visitors: miles upon miles of scenic land- port has lagged far behind the commitment of individ- scape, bays and riverheads, nooks and cran- uals, organizations and communities. Were it not for nies, villages and communities, languages volunteer efforts, much of Gaspé’s heritage would to- and customs, architectural styles and artifacts―all day be lost. Tlinked to one another like beads in a rosary. And long A select few museums, historic sites and natural distances separate the major tourist attractions, at least parks operate today with funding from provincial or the ones that official visitor guides point to as quintes- federal government museum-support programs and sential Gaspé fare: Percé, Forillon, Miguasha, and Parc other public agencies. The larger parks and interpreta- de la Gaspésie. And yet none of these sites by them- tion centres―Restigouche, Miguasha, Pabos, Percé, selves is sufficient to define Gaspé’s wealth of nature, Forillon, Parc de la Gaspésie―are funded and man- history and culture. aged directly through agencies such as Parks Canada Much could be said of government-led efforts to or Parcs Québec. A few regional museums, the Musée safeguard Gaspé scenery, and how so many historic de la Gaspésie (Gaspé) and the Quebec Acadian Muse- communities have been obliterated in the process: pre- um (Bonaventure), as well as major historical sites serving the landscape didn’t prevent roads from de- such as Paspébiac or Fame Point (Pointe-à-la-Renom- stroying green spaces and local architecture in the mée), along with other smaller interpretation centres heart of countless Gaspesian villages. The iconoclastic like Newport or Rivière-au-Renard, benefit from vary- attitude lingers, with tourism officials insisting that ing amounts of public funding, some municipal. Yet, a rocks, birds, trees and outdoor activities are the only large group of local organizations and sites get by with visitor attractions of any real value, Gaspé’s “produit very little help, if any. d’appel” in marketing lingo. All in all, there are almost fifty heritage, nature or Fortunately, many heritage buildings and other museum sites and organizations around the Gaspé, and cultural landmarks have survived the bulldozers and that number is steadily growing through the local ef- nature enthusiasts; some magnificent scenery and forts of individuals and communities. Interpretation choice sites have been preserved or restored for poster- centres, preserved historical buildings and other cultur- ity. Indeed, the Gaspé retains a wealth of natural and al attractions valued by local populations dot the coun- cultural attractions for which huge efforts have been tryside, competing for exposure, funding, income, visi- invested to protect, safeguard and promote. When it tors and, to put things plainly, mere survival. Signifi- Along the Gaspe Coast, 1930s - Bibliotheque National du Quebec - c00577 29 QUEBEC HERITAGE NEWS cantly, many of these struggling heritage groups are idea that natural or cultural heritage attractions do so is closely associated with historic English-speaking com- absurd, since it is in everyone’s interest to offer many munities: Kempt Road, New Richmond, Cascapedia, things to see and do; this adds to the region’s appeal New Carlisle, Port-Daniel, Barachois and others. Al- and contributes to a deeper appreciation of the Gaspé though recognized museums and sites have recently as a whole, by residents and visitors alike. seen investments in networking through the Conseil de In the Gaspé, Native heritage, British and Jersey la Culture de la Gaspésie, many of the anglophone heritage, French and Acadian heritage, all blend into a pieces in the Gaspesian heritage jigsaw puzzle have rich variety of cultural scenes, which translate into di- long been ignored, possibly because of past political versified architectural landscapes, ways of living off and linguistic confrontations that kept English-speak- the land, languages and accents: quite an attractive ing communities out of the mainstream of Gaspé cul- menu for visiting tourists. However, these differences tural and tourist development. have in the past also played into a sense of mutual In any case, even “mainstream” efforts at heritage competition that visitors may feel as conflicts. networking in the Gaspé have been limited. Challenges Tensions between communities, Native, French or of distance, language barriers, and public policies ill- English, neighbouring villages or distant areas, have suited to harmonizing culture and nature have all built up and receded over the years, stemming from helped to undermine cooperation among heritage sites historical situations and conflicts which are now rather and organizations in the region. This in turn has pre- remote in regional history. At times, cultural tensions vented members of Gaspé’s broader heritage commu- have brought sectarian attitudes, rather than cross-cul- nity, Mi’kmaq, French and English alike, from sharing tural dialogues. These tensions survive in attitudes that resources and seeking common cause in the develop- can still drive communities apart instead of bringing ment of a coherent promotional strategy. people together in a network of joint effort, shared re- Set against a backdrop of timeless scenery where sources and common goals. Plus, a long tradition of the sea, the mountains and fossil traces dwarf human seeing outsiders and newcomers as intruders (Natives presence to minute proportions, one is easily tempted versus Europeans, Acadians versus Loyalists, for ex- to dismiss history and culture as alien. That natural ample), or of seeing historic culture-based conflicts sites are seen as the main appeal for tourists comes as (Jersey companies versus local fishermen), still has the no surprise in view of their visual allure and recre- power to fuel animosity. ational potential. However, over the last few decades, Promoting anglophone heritage sites in the Gaspé nature has been steadily played against cul- holds an additional difficulty, in that English-speaking ture―against human presence and the historical communities have a recent history of being kept out of record. This marketing argument drives heritage issues the heritage mainstream, when they aren’t shutting into the margins, minimizing historical interpretation themselves out of their own free will. The challenge and preservation as a focus for investment. In fact, his- for closely-knit anglophone communities in the Gaspé tory, culture and heritage are a lot more significant. is to connect with the region’s existing networks, root- The record of human occupation and historical ed in French-speaking communities, while at the same presence in the Gaspé is a story of people living in na- time retaining their distinctive presence and identity. ture, drawing on the resources of the environment to Since specific heritage areas, often culturally dis- survive, and finding original ways to blend this pres- tinct or very distant from each other, are intimately ence into their surroundings. And yet, the marketing linked by a unique coastal route, Gaspé communities argument for nature’s “produit d’appel” has been long also have to live with the fact that connecting attrac- opposed to cultural heritage, as if a choice had to be tions and communities into a working network will be made between the two. This attitude has isolated many a difficult undertaking. Here, patterns of living in- Gaspesian communities and their heritage from the evitably clash with patterns in travel, as visitors from benefits of tourism-based economic development. the outside (or for that matter, from within the Gaspé) History and culture, set within a framework of appear as moving targets for any organization hoping landscape and nature, living memory against the antiq- to lure visitors. In the Gaspé, heritage attractions must uity of ages, have long been seen as contradictions vie for attention in a far-flung geography: catching vis- rather than complementary issues. In so doing, these itors on the move is another challenge. Working to- parallel views have been kept apart as separate areas of gether in an efficient network would now appear as a effort, isolating cultural from natural heritage. This fundamental condition for success. hinders efforts to promote community attractions as an integrated whole. Pierre Rastoul spent 20 years working with the Musée While Nature was played against Culture as op- de la Gaspesie in Gaspé and in 2007 co-authored a posing themes in Gaspé tourism, local communities, comprehensive inventory of heritage resources in the villages, and ethno-cultural groups came to feel like Gaspé region for the Conseil de la Culture de la competitors struggling for their share of visitors, fund- Gaspésie. He is currently curator of the Colby-Curtis ing and public exposure. Though commercial hospitali- Museum in Stanstead, in the Eastern Townships. ty providers may very well compete for customers, the

30 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2010

EVENTS LISTINGS Eastern Townships book Paths of Opportunity, which For the Atwater Library Lunchtime Se- evolved from a desire to discover more ries, on St. Patrick's Day the group Uplands Cultural & Heritage Centre about the Irish Montreal experience of CRAIC-ATAC performs traditional Irish 9 Speid St.(Lennoxville) her great-great-grandparents. music with joie de vivre. Band mem- Info: 819-564-0409 WHERE: St Andrew's United Church, bers are Claude Bertrand on guitar and 7 February to 7 March Lachine bouzouki; Janet Laskey on fiddle, small Exhibition - Susan Monty & Alex De harp and low whistle; Jocelyne Pate- Lavoie March 16th, 7 pm naude on button accordion and hurdy TALK ON THE IRISH IN QUEBEC gurdy; and singer Donna-Marie Sullivan 11 to 21 March (POINTE CLAIRE Marosi, who also plays the bodhrán Exhibition - Quebec Week for Intellec- Dr. Lorraine O’Donnell, curator of the (celtic drum). Everyone is welcome and tual Handicap Being Irish Exhibit O’Quebec at the coffee and biscuits are served. Free ad- McCord Museum of Canadian History mission; donations invited 14 March will give a talk on the integration of St-Patrick's Tea -With Live music! To Irish immigrants and their contribution Outaouais Reserve (819)564-0409 to the social, cultural, political and eco- Brome County Historical Society nomic fabric of Quebec from the era of Gatineau Valley Historical Society Info:450243-6782, b New France to today. 80 ch Summer, Cantley [email protected] Info: 819-459-2004 Email: [email protected] WHERE: Pointe Claire Public Library, Email: [email protected] Central Branch, 100 Douglas-Shand Av- HISTORICAL REPRINTS NOW enue, Pointe-Claire (Québec) AVAILABLE March 15, 7:30 p.m. The History of Brome County Volumes Info: Contact the Library at 514-630- LECTURE 1 & 2 by Rev. E.M. Taylor have been 1218 or visit http://www.ville.pointe- Barry Wilson will reveal the strong con- reprinted. They are available individu- claire.qc.ca/en_1046_index.php nection he discovered between the vast ally or as a set. The set sells for $99.95, majority of prime ministers and the individually $53.95 Westmount Historical Association Gatineau Valley Westmount Public Library, 4574 Sher- ST. PATRICK’S SOCIETY OF RICH- brooke St. West Quebec City MOND AND VICINITY Info: 514-925-1404 or 514-932-6688 Info: Dennis Ridley at 819-826-5231 Email:[email protected] Morrin Center OR Mark O’Donnell at 819-826-2535 44, Chaussée des Écossais Quebec LECTURE SERIES Info: 418-694-9147 or 0754 March 21, 2010 March 18, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Email: [email protected] ST. PATRICKS 2010 PARADE WESTMOUNT STATION AND THE Website: www.morrin.org Each year in March, the St. Patrick's So- CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY ciety celebrates St. Patrick's activities SPEAKER: Justin Bur, M.Urb. (urban March 14, 2 p.m. throughout the month of March includ- planning) CELEBRATION ST-PATRICK’S DAY ing an annual banquet and dance, and LE VIOLON VERT the St. Patrick's parade. Exporail, Canadian Railway Museum WHERE; Starts at 7th Ave., Richmond, 110, rue Saint-Pierre, Saint-Constant Back for the first time since the 2009 Quebec General Information: 450-632-2410 Quebec City Celtic Festival, the talented dancers from the Le Violon Vert are Montreal Atwater Library and Computer Centre ready to share their passion once more. 1200 Atwater at Ste-Catherine (métro After the show, the audience will be in- Quebec Family History Society Atwater) vited to take part in a dance workshop. Info: 514-695-1502 Info: Contact [email protected] Come learn new steps and join in the Website: www.qfhs.ca or visit www.atwaterlibrary.ca fun, as we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

March 13th, 10:30 a.m March 17 at 12:30 pm Free 12 years and under-13-16 years old Lecture: Paths of Opportunity" LUNCHTIME SERIES: IRISH MUSIC $8. – adults $10. Sharon Callaghan will talk about her BY CRAIC-ATAC

31 This Summer Immerse yourself in the history & heritage of a great Gaspé salmon river

Destination of the rich and famous for more than 150 years

Featuring a unique collection of sportfishing memorabilia

Come learn the fascinating story of this fabled Gaspé river!

Permanent Exhibition - Guided Tours - Lady Amherst Tea Room - Documentation Centre - Atlantic Salmon Interpretation Centre & Aquarium - Gift shop

Guest Exhibit for 2010:

“Three Rivers – One Artist’s View” By Peter Corbin

Hours & Admission Museum operates from June 1 to September 30 Open from 8 a.m to 4 p.m. Admission: $5.00 per person with free admission for children under 12 years old 275, route 299, Cascapedia-St-Jules, Quebec