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Once
at sea, however, reality made itself felt. In so far as they were
extra, non-working passengers, the future shore workers were allotted
the worst bunks for the four week passage, and they lived in unhealthy
and uncomfortable conditions. After reaching St. Pierre they had
to go ashore, then board ship once more to head for the 'factories'
awaiting them on the French Shore, for a stay of about six months,
involving for them little but long hours of exhausting work. Contrary
to what happened at Codroy, St. George's and Port-au-Port, the
shore workers on Red Island had no possibility of any social life,
however ordinary. For in the first three places villages were
beginning to grow, whereas at Red Island there was no local population,
and presumably this situation contributed to the rather high number
of desertions which occurred on the peninsula. One should note
moreover that Red Island was the busiest of these shore bases
during the nineteenth century.
Red
Island is a rock of conical formation rising to a height of 89
m. (292 ft.), situated some two to three kilometres off the western
end of the Port-au-Port Peninsula, opposite the present-day community
of Mainland. During the nineteenth century, Red Island was the
site of a very active fishing establishment. A quite remarkable
document portrays the place as it was in about 1860. It is a chapter
from a book by the diplomat-author Count Arthur de Gobineau who,
on a mission to Newfoundland, visited the island. Here is his
description of the shore workers' lodgings:
At
the foot of the cliff a row of huts made of branches, containing
only cots and hammocks, serve as dormitories for the fishermen.
They are not merely humble, they are utterly wretched; and it
is hard to imagine, in such a wet and foggy climate, in which
the damp is often icy-cold, how anyone can without objection tolerate
such an improvised type of shelter.