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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 23
Gaspé, 1760-1867
by David Lee
Part II: The Fisheries of Gaspé
Par les yeux et par les narines, par la langue et par la gorge,
aussi bien que par les oreilles, vous vous convaincrez bientôt que,
dans la péninsule gaspésienne, la morue forme la base de la nourriture
et des amusements, des affaires et des conversations, des regrets et
des espérances, de la fortune et de la vie, j'oserais dire, de la
société elle-même.
Abbé Ferland
Of Cod and Other Fish
The fishing industry dominated all forms of life in Gaspé. As Abbé
Ferland observed,1 there was no way to escape the odour of
cod. Few people in the district were not dependent on the fisheries;
most men and adolescent boys worked on the fishing boats while the
women, girls and younger boys worked on the beach curing the fish. The
merchants, clergymen, doctors and lawyers who provided services in the
district were quite likely to be paid in fish. The fishermen bought
their store goods with fish and paid their church tithes with it; they
manured their gardens with fish and made soap from it. And naturally
fish dominated everyone's diet.
Abbé Ferland claimed that the Gaspé fishermen would not eat the best
quality cod, "la morue marchande" which was exported to Europe, because
they found it "trop insipide" and preferred the cod sent to feed the
slaves of the West Indies and Brazil, "la morue de réfection." They
shunned the good fish and ate "la chair tachetée [qui] dnéote que les
mouches y ont déposé leurs oeufs. Ces matières étrangères produisent de
la fermentation dans les parties voisines et leur donnent un goût plus
piquant." They also ate the lean parts of whale meat but not the blubber
although the Indians ate it.2
The Gaspé fisheries enjoyed two advantages over other dry-cod
producing areas in North America, particularly Newfoundland. Since
there was little spring fog in Chaleur Bay, cod could be caught and
cured up to six weeks earlier than at Newfoundland and spring was the
season when the cod swarmed in their greatest numbers along the shore.
However, the shipping lanes around both Gaspé and Newfoundland suffered
from the menace of icefields in the spring. On the richest Gaspé
fishery, extending from Cap des Rosiers to Cap d'Espoir, the season
lasted from May to mid-November and actually encompassed two seasons.
The spring and summer season was the most productive, supplying the
ships which left for Europe before the autumn freeze-up. The fall and
winter season consisted of whatever cod could be caught after the ships
left. Some of this fish was eaten locally, but most was sent to Europe
in the spring after the ice had left the shores. There was also some
winter fishing — "tommy-cod fishing" — done through the ice
of the St. Lawrence River.3
2 The Gaspé Peninsula.
(Map by S. Epps.) (click on image for a PDF version)
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The other advantage of the Gaspé fisheries was that the fishermen
had to go only two or three miles from shore to find plentiful fish;
thus, only small, relatively inexpensive boats were required. The
berges or chaloupes they used were 18 to 20 feet long in
the keel and 6-1/2 feet wide in the beam. They were outfitted with two
sprit sails, oars, compass, anchor and a small
cooking stove. They could carry up to eight quintals of fish, which
was more than the two-man crew could normally catch (or "make" as it
was termed in Gaspé) in one day. In a good year one berge could
make as much as 300 quintals. The berges were pointed at both
ends and appeared fragile, but were solidly made and could withstand
fairly heavy seas. Normally the keel was made of birch, the timbers of
cedar and the planks of pine or cedar; there was usually no deck. A
fisherman could buy a berge in 1777 for less than £8 and
by the 1830s they were reported to cost from "nine to ten Pounds in
goods or Provisions sold at an advance of about seventy-five per
cent."4
Larger vessels were employed in whaling and in fishing for cod on the
Orphan Banks, which were farther out in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The
"bankers" carried six to ten men and could stay at sea for a few days
until they were full. They were more costly and by the 1860s even the
large Gaspé fishing companies had given up and allowed the banks to
become dominated by American fishermen.5
No fisherman was truly self-employed for he was dependent on the
powerful merchants to purchase his fish and market it. The fishermen
were subject to three systems. Some men were employed directly by the
merchant-exporters to work on the firms' boats and beaches, and were
paid in credit at their stores. Most fishermen turned over their catch
to the merchants to pay for the provisions and equipment which they had
earlier been advanced on credit. A third group were those who worked for
la moitié de ligne; they worked for bourgeois who provided
the fishermen with berges and bait in return for half the value
of the fish that they caught. This meant that the two fishermen in each
berge each received only one-quarter of the proceeds of their
lines (and they supplied their own lines). The bourgeois received
all the fish at the beach and arranged for its curing and sale to the
exporters; the fisherman's share of the catch was then credited to his
account at the company store. Under this system the fisherman in effect
worked for the bourgeois, but received his payment in the end
from the large companies.6
Beginning in the late 18th century, shoremen were brought down from
the St. Lawrence river parishes to supplement local labour. The planters
had hiring agents in the parishes, of which Saint-Thomas-de-Montmagny
(near Quebec City) supplied the most men, and by 1820 their number was
estimated at 500 out of a total of 1,800 working on the Gaspé fisheries.
By the 1830s some were coming down to fish on their own. They were
considered poorly-skilled fishermen, but they were able to make a little
money by using the small, unappropriated beaches on the
north shore between Matane and Cap-des-Rosiers. In 1832 a few were
reported permanently settled at Sainte-Anne-des-Monts and in later
years others settled the north shore, eking out a living by subsistence
fishing, practising very little agriculture and cutting wood only in the
winter.7 Although spring and summer were the busiest times,
the winter, too, was a time of work. Wood had to be cut for fuel and
building purposes, some fishermen had a few chickens and occasionally a
cow to care for, and the fish-curing flakes on the beach and boats and
nets had to be repaired. Some were lucky enough to get a few weeks'
employment with the big fishing companies making the drums in which cod
was sometimes packed. There were also a few winter jobs with the whalers
making the barrels in which whale oil was exported.8
Few of these jobs paid workers in cash and, indeed, there was very
little cash to be found anywhere in the Gaspé economy. The fisherman
gained his necessities at the company store on credit and paid his
account with fish during the fishing season. For larger transactions
bills of exchange were used,9 but fish was the general medium
of exchange. The best source of capelin for bait was Grande-Rivière;
there the seigneur charged two and one-half quintals of cod for every
boat which came to gather bait. The Roman Catholic priests of Gaspé were
called missionaries, but the parishioners were expected to pay
something toward their subsistence. The tithe could be in the form of grain
or potatoes, but generally it was fish which the missionary could keep
for himself or redeem for goods at the company store. At Percé
parishioners were expected to pay the priest one-half quintal of cod for
every boat they had, but there, as in most places in Gaspé, tithing was
very irregular and unreliable; however, in 1838 the people of Paspébiac
agreed to pay their priest one-half quintal of fish per
family.10
Although the Gaspé fisheries had several advantages over competitors,
one problem of which the local industry was always aware was pollution
of the fishing waters. In 1765 a government surveyor visited Gaspé Bay
and suggested that the French might have diminished the local cod
fishery by throwing fish offal into the waters of the bay. The cod would
eat the offal instead of the bait offered by the fishermen and it also
hurt the quality of the fish that fed on the offal.11 Renewal
of the Gaspé fisheries under British sovereignty increased pollution. As
early as 1769 the problem was considered serious at Pabos and a petition
from the few residents complained particularly about the behaviour of
fishermen from the thirteen colonies to the south.
At a time when every Individual on the Continent seems Tenacious
of his liberty, permit us, the Poor & Ill-treated Fishermen of
Gaspey & Chaleur Bay [to complain about the] Number of Schooners
& deck'd vessels amounting to some hundreds yearly, from the
Southern Governments, which not only fouls the Shalop & Boat Fishing
grounds by the Distructive method of heaving over the Garbage of the
Fish, but even keeps within our Capes & Headlands. A practise so
distructive in itself that the French, was well aware of & punish'd
with the utmost vigor. . . . Let us humbly entreat the Sons of
Liberty, who knows us to be a conquer'd Government & naturely
polite, to give the Skippers of their Vessels for the ensuing year
strict orders not to Oppress us more than we are allready, by the
aforesaid practise, remembering that they themselves thought His
Majesty's Ship was an incroachment last year in Boston Bay,
notwithstanding she never foul'd the Ground with Cod heads or Sound
bones.12
Over the years numerous petitions were sent by Gaspé fishermen
imploring the government to impose and enforce laws prohibiting visiting
fishermen from throwing fish offal into the water.13 They
always blamed visiting fishermen and their accusation may have been
accurate; local fishermen found it easier to dispose of their refuse
and, of course, had a greater interest in the long-term welfare of the
fisheries. Legislation introduced in 178814 prohibited the
dumping of ballast in Gaspé harbours and of fish guts, offal or gurry
within two miles of shore, but it was not enforceable because of the
weak judicial system in Gaspé. Besides, the dumping of fish refuse
farther out at sea harmed the fisheries just as much for the cod was a
migratory fish. In 1824 the assembly passed new legislation which
forbade dumping offal within six leagues of shore.15
Americans were considered the worst culprits because not only did
they throw their refuse overboard, but also their fishing depleted the
supply available to Gaspé fishermen. Charles Robin noted in 1772 how
early the presence of American fishermen on the Orphan Banks was felt on
the Chaleur Bay fisheries.16 During the American
revolutionary war when very few fish were taken, Nicholas Cox noted that
the fishery quickly recovered.17 Americans who came later to
catch mackerel also affected the Gaspé cod fishery because the local
fishermen used the mackerel for bait to catch cod.18
The treaty of 1818 between the United States and Great Britain
forbade American fishermen to catch, dry or cure fish within three miles
of British territory though they could land for wood, water, shelter and
repairs; however, restrictions against coming ashore only meant that
they had to dispose of their refuse at sea. By this time, Gaspé
residents suspected that they dumped at sea in order to distract the cod
from leaving the banks to follow "their natural course near the
shores."19 M.H. Perley noted that although the "Crown
Officers in England" had interpreted that the three-mile provision
should be measured from the headlands, Americans were still fishing in
Chaleur Bay in 1850.20
Fish Production
It is difficult to determine the exact impact of American fishermen
on the Gaspé fisheries, but we do know that exports of most Gaspé fish
rose fairly steadily during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Codfish production for example, was reported to have been 28,000 to
30,000 quintals in 1777, the year before American privateers ravaged
the Gaspé fisheries,21 but during the years of the American
Revolution, cod production was probably no higher than that required for
local consumption. The fishery must have recovered quickly after the war
for 25,500 quintals were exported from Gaspé in 1784.22 During the 19th
century, exports continued to increase: in 1811 they were reported at
26,691 quintals and, with a few minor declines, rose to 62,747 quintals
by 1835. Statistics after this year are incomplete; however, exports
for later years have been found:
| Year | Number of Quintals of Cod |
| 1842 | 98,062 |
| 1848 | 80,339 |
| 1864 | 102,846 |
| 1865 | 120,278 |
| 1867 | 111,731 |
Total figures for cod exports would be higher for it was shipped in
other measures than quintals; for example, casks, hogsheads, barrels,
pacquets, caisses, tierces, kegs, firkins, bundles and boxes.
Other cod products exported included tongues, sounds (cod heads) and
cod-liver oil. Further, total cod production in the District of Gaspé
would have been even greater for a good deal was consumed
locally.23
In 1861 Gaspé Bay was declared a free port, thus attracting a great
deal of shipping to Gaspé; many of these ships took cod on their return
voyages. The destinations of the 351 ships which cleared the port of
Gaspé Bay that year are shown below.24
| Number of Ships | Destination |
| 15 | Great Britain |
| 6 | United States |
| 1 | Portugal |
| 119 | Spain |
| 112 | Nova Scotia |
| 32 | New Brunswick |
| 15 | Newfoundland |
| 32 | Prince Edward Island |
| 13 | Italy |
| 6 | Brazil |
Pierre Fortin, stipendiary magistrate charged with supervising the
fisheries in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, enumerated many examples of
shipping leaving the Gaspé district in his report for the year 1864.
Following are a few examples.25
(1) One Charles Robin and Company ship left Paspébiac in June taking
cod to Rio de Janeiro; it returned (via New York with freight) in time
to take a larger cargo of cod to Brazil again in November.
(2) Another made two trips to Boston early in the year; returning
the second time, it "touched at Sydney" to bring coal to Paspébiac, then
took cod to Naples in October.
(3) Another brought salt from Jersey in the spring; took cod, oats,
herring, shingles and other products to Barbados in June; returned with
sugar and molasses in September, and took cod to Brazil in October.
(4) J. and Elias Collas of Jersey launched a 94-ton ship from their
Pointe-Saint-Pierre shipyard in the fall which went to Portugal in
November with cod.
(5) A ship belonging to John Fauvel of Pointe-Saint-Pierre arrived
in Gaspé Bay in May from Jersey with general cargo, left for Cadiz in
June with cod, returned in ballast, and left in November to take cod to
Naples.
Although cod was the main source of income for Gaspésians, other
types of fishing were carried on. Whaling began in Gaspé Bay about the
turn of the 19th century; according to tradition, an American from
Nantucket instructed the Boyle brothers of Gaspé Bay in his methods of
whaling.26 Whaling, a high-risk enterprise, was never
actively encouraged by the government. It required a good deal of
capital even to begin because it required schooners large enough to
carry about 12 men and capable of operating on the high seas (primarily
the north shore of the gulf). One season of poor sailing weather could
completely ruin a whaler.27
Over the years the gulf whale population declined because of
overkilling and the whalers moved into the Strait of Belle Isle and the
Atlantic along the Labrador coast, but by the 1860s even these areas
were depleted. Fortin tried in vain to encourage the Gaspé whalers to
go farther afield, to the Greenland coast, for example; he claimed that
they were notoriously bad navigators and gave as an example the fact
that the ships taking Gaspé cod to the world markets were still captained
by foreigners (presumably Jerseymen).28
Little whale meat was exported. It was the oil, refined for
lanterns, which led men to pursue whales. The oil-refining operations were
based at L'Anse-aux-Cousins and Penouil in Gaspé Bay. The task of
reducing the blubber to oil and preparing casks for its handling is
reported to have employed about 100 people, employment which would have
lasted about two and a half months in the autumn after the whaling
season ended.29 Although the production figures shown below
are scanty, they indicate that whaling was a very capricious enterprise.
| Year | Gallons of Whale Oil |
| 1810 | 15,360 |
| 1820 | 18,000 |
| 1832 | 18,000-20,000 |
| 1861 | 33,600 |
| 1862 | 26,000 |
| 1863 | 14,400 |
| 1864 | 25,014 |
| 1865 | 14,420 |
| 1866 | 12,230 |
| 1867 | 25,890 |
In 1810 the 27 whales caught produced 480 barrels or 60 tons of oil;
valued at £31 per ton, the yield was £1,860. In 1864 oil was
valued at 65 cents per gallon.
Salmon exports from the Gaspé district generally came from the
Cascapédia and Restigouche rivers. Salmon experienced a dramatic decline
in mid-century and only strong legislative measures saved them from
extinction. Despite charges that the Restigouche Indians were the chief
cause for the decline, many other factors were involved. The Indians
were accused of taking salmon before they spawned, but it was Europeans
who totally blocked some streams with nets and dams for lumber mills or
who choked the rivers with sawdust. There had long been laws governing
the salmon fisheries, but there were no means of enforcing them until
the mid-1850s when Fortin was made stipendiary magistrate to oversee
the Gaspé fisheries. Subsequently an overseer was appointed for the
Restigouche River only; in 1861 he reported no breach in the fishing
rules and a consequent increase of 60 barrels caught in the river that
year.30 Fortin noted that a Mr. Price had constructed a
fine fish-way on the Matane River, but no salmon had been seen above it;
before Price's milldam had been built the river had produced 25 to
30 barrels a year.31
In 1790 the Restigouche River alone is estimated to have produced
6,000 barrels of salmon; by 1823 production had fallen to 1,000 barrels.
By the 1850s salmon had almost totally disappeared from the district,
but came back slowly during the following decade. The figures below
show the amount exported from the Gaspé district in the 1860s.
| Year | Number of Barrels |
| 1864 | 483 |
| 1865 | 517 |
| 1866 | 703 |
| 1867 | 950 |
In the 1860s sport fishermen using the artificial fly first began to
fish the magnificent salmon rivers of Gaspé and licensing of the sport
began to bring in some revenue. It was probably Jefferson Davis's visit
to Gaspé in 1866 (when he caught 160 salmon) that brought Gaspé salmon
to the attention of sport fishermen.32
Charles Robin mentioned gathering oysters as early as 1769, but they
never became a popular object of the Gaspé fishermen's search. In 1859
Fortin transplanted a number of oysters from Caraquet to Gaspé Bay
"according to the latest and most generally adopted European method."
Few survived and Fortin attributed the failure to the muddy bottom of
the bay.33
Many other fish were caught, especially for bait. Capelin, the chief
food of the cod, were netted along the shores of Gaspé and were also
popular for manuring local gardens, a practice which was later
forbidden. Capelin were especially plentiful at the beginning of the
fishing season, but if they became scarce as the season progressed, the
fishermen turned to herring, then mackerel and later even to squid,
smelt and trout.34 Other fish exported from Gaspé in small
amounts included pickled and smoked herring, trout, shad, eels, sardines
and mackerel.
Although mackerel were plentiful in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Gaspé
fishermen left them to American fishermen who pursued them with scores
of ships. Fortin particularly lamented the lack of adventure among Gaspé
fishermen who would not pursue whales to Greenland or take advantage of
local mackerel resources. The United States market was enormous and
American fishermen came long distances to fish in international waters
just off the Gaspé coast, but Gaspé fishermen preferred the easier life
of fishing for cod in coastal waters.
Sir William Dawson felt the Gulf of St. Lawrence mackerel fisheries
should be left to the Americans. Mackerel, he said, was a "vagrant,"
making the fishery unreliable from year to year. Further, fishing on the
open seas raised the risk of calamity; the cod fishery was much safer
and more dependable. Dawson added, "Our comparatively thinly settled
coasts could ill afford the frequent unsuccessful voyages and terrible
disasters and loss of life that attend the American mackerel
fisheries."35
It is interesting that lobsters, although abundant in Gaspé, were
never exported. Indeed they were seldom eaten locally, the fishermen
rejecting them as nothing more than a nuisance which often tore their
nets. Not until the 1870s when American businessmen set up canneries on
Chaleur Bay were the Gaspé lobster resources exploited.36
Gaspé Fishing Companies
Gaspé Bay and Paspébiac were the two major centres for the
exportation of cod and for the first 30 years of the 19th century two
Jersey companies shared the Gaspé fisheries on a non-competitive basis.
Francis and Philip Janvrin dominated the fisheries of Gaspé Bay and
even held shares in Charles Robin and Company, which controlled the
fisheries on Chaleur Bay, including Percé. Many smaller companies tried
to compete with the two large firms and some succeeded, especially later
in the 19th century, but many failed, particularly in the 18th
century.
In the period from 1760 to 1775 there were numerous traders, many
operating out of Quebec on a small scale along the coasts, who bartered
salt, fishing equipment and provisions, for fish, furs and skins. An
early example was William Van Felson, a native of Holland, who took a
15-ton schooner to Gaspé in 1763 with a cargo of "Sea stores &
utenzils for the fishery"; he continued trading at Bonaventure until the
American Revolution.37
Beginning in 1766 a Quebec-based trader, William Smith, with two
merchant partners in London had erected several store houses at
Paspébiac and Bonaventure and traded goods with the Indians for the
salmon they caught on the Cascapédia and Restigouche
rivers.38 As noted earlier, John Shoolbred took over these
operations but was driven out by American privateers in 1779.
Charles Robin first came to trade along Chaleur Bay in 1766 and, like
Van Felson and Smith, resided on the fisheries much of the time;
however, his supply base was Jersey rather than Quebec. Other
small-scale merchants who came to trade seasonally along the Gaspé
coast included a firm from Halifax.39
Guernsey fishermen who were also traders are known to have been on
the Forillon shore of Gaspé Bay by at least 1767.40 The LeMesurier and
Bonamy families are shown on a census of 1777 as having 17 fishing boats
and, besides their families, 58 people working for them (probably
brought in every spring for the fishing season). After the revolutionary
war the business was run by Thomas LeMesurier and his brothers and by
1789 they were reported to be bringing in 100 fishermen from Guernsey
every season and exporting 10,000 to 12,000 quintals of cod to
Europe.41 Charles Robin later commented that it was not a
profitable business and apparently the LeMesuriers sold out to the
Janvrins in 1792.42 Some of the Guernsey people, among them the Bonamy
and LeMesurier families, remained on the Forillon peninsula and were
joined by workers from Jersey brought out by the Janvrin
Company.43
Francis Janvrin was a shareholder in Charles Robin and Company as
early as 1787 and he and his sons continued as shareholders for at
least 50 years.44 The Janvrins, emulating the Robin firm,
established their first fishing operations at Cape Breton Island in
1783 and then expanded to the District of Gaspé. Although some of the
Janvrin family came out to Cape Breton to direct the fisheries there,
their operations in Gaspé were run by a resident agent who received
occasional visits from the Janvrins living at Cape Breton. Their first
fishing station, slow to prosper, was at Grande-Grève, but success
eventually came and the company flourished and expanded.
The devastating war in Europe in the first years of the 19th century
resulted in a greatly increased demand for fish and in response the
Janvrin company established new fishing stations at Gaspé Bay,
Pointe-Saint-Pierre, Mal Bay, Cap-des-Rosiers and Anse-aux-Griffons.
Their business was extensive, exporting dried cod to Brazil as well as
Europe. They entered an agreement not to compete in the North American
fisheries with some Guernsey fishing companies known as the "Arichat
and Gaspé Society." The Janvrins were to have no Guernsey competition in
Cape Breton and Gaspé Bay in return for not entering the Newfoundland
fisheries.45 Further, the Janvrins and the Robins did not
trespass on their respective fishing areas in Gaspé.
The Janvrins sold their fishing business — it is not known
why — to two Jerseymen who had been general managers for Charles
Robin and Company. John Fauvel, who had worked at Paspébiac, seems to
have purchased the Mal Bay fishing post.46 In 1857 William
Fruing bought the fishing stations of Gaspé Bay and the Forillon
peninsula. In 1861 the Fruing company was reported to be exporting
18,000 quintals of cod to several Mediterranean
countries.47
The Janvrins and their successors nearly monopolized the Gaspé
fisheries from Mal Bay to Anse-aux-Griffons. Only one merchant, the
Loyalist Daniel McPherson from Philadelphia, successfully competed with
the Janvrins, but he depended heavily on them for supplies.48
Charles Robin indicates that McPherson's "Fishery and supplying
business," established at Douglastown in the 1780s, enjoyed only modest
success, but by 1802 McPherson had gained enough to buy the seigneury of Ile aux
Grues (Crane Island) near Quebec to which he soon retired. His business
then appears to have been continued by his son John and son-in-law Henry
Johnston who added to McPherson's business by acquiring the Janvrin
properties at Pointe-Saint-Pierre49
Many investors had lost a great deal of money attempting to establish
fishing posts in Gaspé after the American Revolution and Robin lists a
dozen firms that failed with heavy losses.50 Charles Robin
flourished on Chaleur Bay, but only by means of great self-sacrifice,
energy and business acumen; meanwhile the Janvrins hung on until the
world market improved after 1800. They virtually had Gaspé Bay, with its
excellent harbour and curing beaches (especially at Grande-Grève, the
best beach in the Gaspé district) to themselves, their only competition
being the small business run by McPherson on the south shore of Gaspé
Bay.
These firms dominated the Gaspé fishing industry between 1790 and
1830 except for a few pedlars who sailed along the coasts of Gaspé every
summer touching at each small port and cove. These itinerant traders
were often able to sell goods at prices considerably lower than those
offered by the large companies, but they seldom had any salt and
usually sold their goods for cash only. (Both salt and cash were scarce
in Gaspé.) Some of these independent merchants did take fish, but there
were complaints that they traded alcohol for fish and corrupted the poor
fishermen.51
It was difficult for an entrepreneur to break into the Gaspé fishing
industry which was so firmly controlled by the two large companies. The
first man to successfully break into the monopoly and offer true
competition was John LeBoutillier. He, too, had come from Jersey at an
early age to work for the Robins. About 1830 he established a small
fishing post at Percé. He appears to have received some financial
backing from François Buteau, a Quebec merchant who had been trading
seasonally in Gaspé for 20 years and who participated in the fishing
industry at his seigneury of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. Starting cautiously
and at first specialising in the export of "la morue de
réfection" to Quebec, they were soon able to expand and by 1836 added
posts at Anse-aux-Griffons and Paspébiac. Buteau apparently left the
firm early, but LeBoutillier was soon joined by his sons and the firm
grew; however, it never reached the proportions of Charles Robin and
Company. In 1850 they were reported to be exporting 20,000 quintals of
fish a year (compared to the 40,000-50,000 quintals exported by the
Robin Company) and by the 1860s they had posts at Gaspé Bay, Percé and
Anse-aux-Griffons.52
About 1838 three brothers who had been working for Charles Robin and
Company began a merchandising and fish exporting business on the
Paspébiac barachois adjacent to the Robins. David, Amy and Edward
LeBoutillier were Jerseymen, but only distantly related to John
LeBoutillier. The LeBoutillier brothers seem to have been the first
Gaspé fishing firm to establish a fishing post on the Labrador coast.
They opened posts at Ile de Bonaventure and Miscou Island as well, but
their headquarters and shipping centre remained at Paspébiac. From there
they were reported, in 1852, to be exporting about 20,000 quintals of
cod.53
The LeBoutilliers showed that competition with the two large firms
was possible and several other people quickly followed their lead. The
Jersey firm of Hamon and LeGros began a fishery at Newport in the early
1830s and the Quebec-based firm of Georges and Ferdinand Boissonault
opened one at Bonaventure. Though this end of Chaleur Bay was not rich
in cod, by 1850 the two brothers had 150 boats in service there, each of
which brought in about 100 quintals a season. Around 1843 William Hyman,
a native of Russia, began a small operation on the Forillon peninsula
which lasted into the 1960s.54
None of these companies fished for whales; that was left to the
specialists — the Boyle family of Gaspé Bay. Von Iffland noted in
1821 that the Boyles had, at L'Anse-aux-Cousins, "des fourneaux avec des
chaudières énormes où ils font bouillir la chair de ces poissons après
l'avoir coupée en morceaux. Des tubes, à ce qu'il m'a paru, transportent
l'huile dans un grand réservoir." By the 1830s the refining operations
had been moved to Penouil where the Boyles and others erected "quelques
chétives baraques; là sont amoncelées des masses de lard de baleine, que
l'on fait fondre dans d'immenses chaudiéres, afin d'en extraire les
matières grasses et huileuses."55
In 1818 the assembly of Lower Canada discussed various problems in
Gaspé and Jean Taschereau spoke at length about the need to get more
Québécois merchants interested in the district because its economy was
dominated by outsiders.56 Of all the Gaspé entrepreneurs
noted above, only François Buteau, the Boissoneault brothers and perhaps
the Boyle family were native to Canada and they were not leaders in
their field.
The majority of the capital and management for the Gaspé fishing
industry came from the Channel Islands because people there were willing
to risk the large initial investment required to become established in
the fishing industry. As important as the capital were the many hard
years they were willing to invest in directing the fisheries. The fate
of two such investors, Frederick Haldimand and Charles Robin, will be
examined to show that the fishing industry dominated not only the lives
of the fishermen, but also the lives of management.
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