For the past 400 years the fishery has been the mainstay
of the Eastern Nova Scotian economy. Fishermen came from all parts of the
European world to fish the waters off of Nova Scot
ia and Newfoundland.
The fishery on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland was called the "wet" fishery method. This meant catching the fish, then cleaning, salting, and transfering them to the hold of a ship. Once the hold was filled, the ship and crew would travel back to their home country to market the fish. As time progressed it became very difficult to meet the large salt demands of the wet fishery .They eventually had to rely on other technigues, in particular the "dry" fishing method. This method required less salt because the fish were dried in the sun and air. French fishermen tended to use the cobblestoned beaches to dry their fish, whereas English fishermen built fish flakes to dry their fish (see photo).
By the beginning of the sixteenth century Canso was a popular fishing station. There were many reasons why this area had been chosen for fishing and settlement. Some of these reasons include the following:
The 1600's was an adventuresome era for Eastern Nova Scotia. Explorers from the "old world" (Europe) were just starting to discover and explore the area and its people. Little beknownst to many though, was that fishermen had been travelling in this area for many years before the onset of official exploration. Captain Savalet was clear evidence of this. Marc LesCarbot, a famous explorer, met Savalet in the early 1600's near Whitehaven (current day Port Felix). In their conversation, Savalet mentioned that it was his forty-second trip to the area. Other travellers to the Cape Canso area included Jesuits in 1611, and Father Charles Lallement (who was shipwrecked near Canso) in 1618.
There is no record of permanent settlements on Grassy Island until after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Both Mi'kmaq and French used Canso as a seasonal economic base. The impermanence of the French settlement was dictated by the Admiralty system imposed by the French court. Each year, the first ship into harbour could claim the best anchorage and shore station, known as the Admiral's harbour. The ship's captain was named Admiral for the season and was the arbitrator of any disputes which might arise. The second ship had second choice, theVice-Admiral's harbour. In Canso the best anchorages were associated with the two large gravel beaches, the Admiral's harbour at the east end of Grassy Island, and the Vice-Admiral's harbour by the spit on the west end of Grassy Island. No captain would invest resources and time in an establishment which might fall to a rival captain's hands the following year. Nicolas Denys, who maintained a fishing station at Canso in the mid- seventeenth century, described the accommodations as follows:
Arrived on shore, some of them set to work at the lodging for the fishermen, which is like a hall covered with a ship's sail. The sides at the bottom all around are lined with branches of fir, interlaced into pickets or stakes of four to five feet in height driven into the ground.... With respect to the size of the lodging, it depends as a rule upon that of the mainsail of the ship which covers it (Denys 1672).
The rights to the fishery at Canso passed back and forth between rival businessmen who jockeyed for trade monopolies at the French court. Occasionally, the monopoly boundaries overlapped and violent conflict could result between French interests. Over the century the Canso fishery was controlled by the Sieur de Monts, Isaac de Razilly, Charles d'Aulnay, Nicolas Denys, Emmanuel Le Borgne, and There Bergier & the Compagnie des Pêches sédentaires de l'Acadie.
