Newfoundland outports

An outport is the term given for a small isolated coastal community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Originally the term was just used for coastal communities on the island of Newfoundland but the term has also been adopted for those on the mainland area of Labrador as well.

Outports are some of the oldest European settlements in Canada. Giovanni Caboto (known by his English sponsors as John Cabot) visited Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island in 1497; and news spread quickly that Cabot had caught cod by simply lowering and lifting a weighted basket. Gaspar Corte-Real of Portugal visited Newfoundland in 1500, and by 1506 the catch from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland encouraged the King of Portugal to impose a ten percent import tariff to protect local fishermen. The first recorded French fishing boat on the Grand Banks was in 1504, Basque whalers arrived in 1527, and Spanish fishermen followed by 1540.

Most fishing boats would sail in April or May and return in September. The seasonal fresh catch of "wet" fish were initially returned to Europe to be lightly salted and air-dried for preservation until later use, but drying fish in Newfoundland outports allowed each boat to bring back a more valuable cargo of already dried fish from each voyage. The westbound Atlantic crossing carried an expanded crew including a shore party. While the normal crew fished from boats, the shore party felled trees to construct a small wharf or fishing stage and platforms of brush and small boughs upon which the fish would be dried about three feet above the ground. The boats returned to the fishing stage where they threw their catch to be gutted and split by the shore party, who then lightly salted the split fish and arranged them to dry on the platforms. The drying fish were covered with sailcloth every night and during fog or rainy weather, and rearranged periodically for several weeks until they hardened and could be stacked like boards. The dried fish were then stored in sheds until the expanded crew and cargo were loaded for the eastbound Atlantic crossing.

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