Gary Peschell, College of the North Atlantic, Baie Verte Campus

This past summer, the College of the North Atlantic, in cooperation with the Dorset Trail Tourism Association conducted a survey of the Baie Verte Peninsula section of the historic French Shore.  The purpose of the survey was to lay the groundwork for future archaeological and historical research into the French heritage of this coastal region, heritage which dates back over four hundred years. As many residents of our province are aware, the French Shore was that part of the coast of Newfoundland where France had inshore fishing rights under the Treaty of Utrecht from 1713 until 1904.  French cod fishing crews were allowed to occupy harbours in the spring and build stages to process their catch for drying on the beaches.  The had to leave in the fall and were prohibited from erecting permanent structures.  From 1713 until 1783, the "French Treaty Shore" (to use its full name), ran from Bona Vista down to Point  Riche on the west coast.  In 1783, due to friction between settlers and French crews,  boundaries were shifted to Cape St. John on the east, running down to Cape Ray on the southeast corner of the island.  France finally relinquished her rights under the Anglo-French Agreement or "Entente cordiale" of 1904 in return for certain British territorial concessions in Africa and the Pacific.

That treaty signed at Utrecht in 1713, however, in a way but recognized what had been fact for some 200 years.  When Jacques Cartier sailed up the coast in 1534, heading for the Strait of Belle Isle,  a French fishery was already present in the region.  This is apparent from Cartier's casual mention of meeting a large fishing ship from La Rochelle on the coast of Labrador.  Cartier himself, judging by his journal, had been this way before,  most likely as a fishing captain or ship's pilot; he seemsto be in familiar waters and to know right where he is going.   A dearth of surviving records makes it impossible to tell how large the French fishery was at that point.  (Reliable documentation does indicate, though, that between 1524 and 1550 over sixty ships from the Biscay port of La Rochelle -or financed by merchants of that port - sailed to Newfoundland; their exact destinations, though, are unclear.)

A hundred years later, though, a large seasonal inshore fishery most certainly existed along the Northern and Baie Verte Peninsulas in a region the French by then called "Petit Nord."   A decree by the Parliament of Brittany, dated March, 1640, lists over forty fishing harbours from Degrat (at the tip of the Northern Peninsula) to La Scie (on Cape St. John).  The total number of men working these harbours, at full capacity, comes to just over four thousand!  (This figure is especially impressive when we note that it exceeds the number of fisherman listed by Fisheries and Oceans for the same region in 1995.)

That Breton decree of 1640 was the basic working document for the survey of the Baie Verte Peninsula in the summer of 1998.  From it, the field team of  two student workers - Dave Clarke and John Easo - compiled a list of communities on the Baie Verte Peninsula on harbours used by French fishermen over 350 years ago.  These were: Fleur de Lys, Coachman's Cove ("bee verte" - not the modern settlement of that name), Ming's Bight ("Les pins"), Pacquet, Woodstock ("Paris"), Harbour Round ("Coup de Hache"), Brent's Cove ("La Rochelle"), and La Scie.  (By the early nineteenth century, Coachman's Cove would have the French name "Pot d'Etan," -meaning "Tin Can" and Brent's Cove that of "Petite Coup de Hache.")   Visiting each of thecommunities over several weeks in June and July, Clarke and Easo recorded on specially prepared maps locations of modern fishing stages and reported sites of French "fishing rooms" (berths) and structures. ( Modern fishing stages were recorded because they are likely sites of French fishing stages in centuries past.)    Locations of former French  "rooms" and in some cases actual remains of French structures -  information passed down by oral tradition -   were discovered through interviews with local residents.  Besides recording information on maps, the team took numerous photographs ( e.g., harbours,  stages, bread ovens), kept extensive notes, and tape recorded some resident interviews.

Fleur de Lys provides one example of the wealth of information available through this approach.  Residents not only pointed out former French "rooms," but led the team to remains of outdoor bread ovens and,  as well,  of a sauna bath (cut in rock).  (Chances are that the ovens and bath are those built by a French Captain  Jules Gucret as  mentioned in a report of 1872 by  British naval Captain A.H. Hoskins..)

It must be added that the Fleur de Lys research was aided considerably by a 19th century Admiralty chart of the harbour based on a French chart of 1859 and showing details such as stages and drying flakes.  Another invaluable resource was a splendidly sharp  photograph of  Fleur de Lys Harbour (obtained from the National Archives of Canada) taken between 1857 and 1859 which shows French ships and stages. Talks with residents of other communities also produced impressive results.  In Coachman's Cove, the team was led to remains of outdoor bread ovens like those in Fleur de Lys.  In Pacquet they were shown where artifacts such a clay pipes had been found over the years.  In La Scie it is common knowledge where the French crews driedtheir fish on rocks - particular sites known as "The Bonds." Besides information germane to future archaeological work, the investigation also turned up some nuggets of social history: A resident of  Fleur de Lys produced a marriage certificate of a forbear born in France who had married a local woman.  In Coachman's Cove stands the tombstone of John Marie Le Mee  "A native of Binic, France" who died April, 21, 1914, aged 80 years; nearby is the grave of his wife Ann, (presumably a local woman), who died in May of 1919.  A different and darker tale emerged from an interview with a resident of Baie Verte who told of a forebear witnessing a heated quarrel between two French fishermen (during a card game) that ended in murder.

To supplement their field work, Dave Clarke and John Easo spent two days searching archival collections in St. John's.  They found copies of fishery patrol reports from the 1880s with detail on population and activity in Fleur de Lys, Pacquet, Mings Bight and La Scie and around the bay called  "Baie Verte."

Of particular note regarding the inlet Baie Verte is the observation "three families living in Slaughter House Bay;" Slaughter House Bay is now unoccupied and as such offers an "undisturbed site" for archaeological purposes; and if settlers were there in the last century, French fishermen could have used it long before that. Plans are afoot to make use make good use of the information gathered in the French Shore Survey on the Baie Verte Peninsula this past summer.  An application by  The  Dorset Trail Tourism Association for funding to hire an archaeologist has been submitted to the appropriate funding agencies.  It is hoped to have an excavation begin in the summer of 1999.