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    Red Island was an important enterprise for France and Saint-Pierrais fishermen. Facing Mainland, like a ship anchored on the Banks, Red Island placed the fishermen directly on the fishing grounds, permitting them to launch their small boats on windy days, providing shelter from the prevailing winds which sometimes caused significant undertow at the settlements on the coast, preventing the fisherman of Mainland from putting to sea.

    On the other hand, there was no grave at Red Island and as eye witness reports indicate the pebble bank was so narrow that at times they had to draw up the dorys along the cliff to shelter them from the waves. The cabins of the fishermen were built for this reason - clinging - on the cliff, out of range of the sea, as Comte de Gobineau explains in detail.

    Cageots and échafauds occupied the pebble bank. It was there that one cleaned the cod and salted it. The drying could not be accomplished on the beach for lack of space. It was necessary by some means to raise the fish to the grassy plateau and hills of the island.

    Raising the quintals of cod still dripping brine could have been no slight affair but as the Comte de Gobineau explains, the men had installed an ingenious system of wooden rails along which one could raise and lower the loads with the aid of a capstan.