PAGE 1/2/3/4/5

    For this work one depended on les graviers, young people who came with the ship and were left on shore for the whole fishing season. Christian Querré in his work "la grande aventure des terre-neuvas" explains their task thusly.

    Once split, gutted and washed, the cod was salted for between eight and ten days, then washed once again.

    After that, the cod was put to dry on la grave, a gentle slope of pebbles on shore. It was there that the work of les graviers, ship's boys and apprentices between 12 and 17 years of age (...) They turned the cod which was spread on the bank two or three times a day (exposures in the open air called soleils (suns)). As the sun tends to cook the fish as well as to favour the hatching of vermin, it was rather in the wind that the fish was dried.

    Expanses of pebbles and rocks, if possible with gentle slope, constituted the best locations: this was the reason for the frantic race to the echafaud at Croque, on the coast of the "Petit Nord", to get the best places. Once these were distributed, the others had to content themselves with remaining locations which were sandy even muddy or swampy.

    Under pressure of the risk of badly dried cod, perhaps rotted, they were forced to cover the ground with vigneaux, a kind of embankment made of rocks and branches.