“And they affirm that the sea is covered with fish which are caught not merely with nets but with baskets, a stone being attached to make the baskets sink with the water.”
As you are aware, this famous quote has historically been attributed to famed Italian navigator and explorer John Cabot upon his 1497 arrival to the island of Newfoundland or Cape Breton — whichever version of history you prefer.
Cabot, also known as Giovanni Caboto in Italian, Zuan Caboto in Venetian and Jean Cabot in French, is reported to be the first to introduce our rich east coast fishery to the 16th century empires of Europe. However, chances are, there were already foreign fishermen plying our waters prior to Cabot’s famous quote.
Nonetheless, despite whatever particular historical chronology you aspire to, the fact is fishermen from other countries have been harvesting fish from our waters for more than five centuries — and probably long before that.
Historical records show that the Portuguese, French and Spanish, followed by the English, were the first to engage in the Newfoundland fishery.
According to historians, the Portuguese had already been fishing for cod in Newfoundland waters by 1501 and French fishermen — Normans and Bretons — had appeared by 1504. French and Basques from Spain were also fishing off Newfoundland in the early 1500s. Despite its early claim to the island, England did not actively pursue a fishery until the mid-1500s.
For more than 500 years, fishermen have been harvesting the bounty of the sea off our shores and for that same period, as with every commercial fishing enterprise, this industry has encountered both tragedy and loss. Over the centuries, countless fishing vessels, sailors and fishermen have been lost to the sea while harvesting cod and other species. The waters off eastern Canada, especially the Grand Banks, might have been some of the richest fishing grounds the world has ever seen, but are also some of the most dangerous. Hurricanes, gale-force winds, monstrous waves, strong, ripping tides and dense fog are among the natural obstacles early and current harvesters had and have to face while prosecuting this fishery.
Many ships have left their prospective ports bound for the fishing grounds, only never to return — crews lost to their families forever, without a trace. And as every reader is aware, this is not just an aspect of the past — tragedy can strike at a any time and impact both local and international fishermen.
In the dark, early morning hours of February 15, 2022, the 50-metre Spanish fishing vessel Villa de Pitanxo sank in rough seas about 460 kilometres, on the Grand Banks, east of Newfoundland. Out of the complement of 24 crew members, only three survived and only nine bodies of the 21 victims were ever recovered from the cold, deep waters of the North Atlantic.
The sinking was one of Spain’s worst marine tragedies in nearly a century.
But despite their nationality, fishermen across the globe have a solemn and respectful solidarity. This relationship was once again on display in St. John’s when a permanent monument to the 21 fishermen lost on the Villa de Pitanxo was recently unveiled.
The monument is meant to be a memorial to the Spanish, Peruvian and Ghanaian crewmembers lost on that fateful night.
Many families of the lost crew members made the trip to St. John’s for the unveiling of the memorial.
María José de Pazo, who lost her father Francisco on the Villa de Pitanxo, told CBC that “the memorial is very important for the families and all people from the sea. Fishermen, our families of the sea.”
Similar memorials to fishermen lost at sea are unfortunately a common sight in numerous fishing communities across Atlantic Canada. Nearly every fishing community of ours, no matter how large or small, has experienced and suffered tragedy and loss down through the generations and using such memorials to honour the lost is not only fitting, but necessary. Despite the 21st century advances in fishing and safety technology, such monuments are a stark reminder to all that fishing was and can be a dangerous profession and that the power of the sea must be respected.
“They That Go Down to The Sea in Ships,” Psalm 107:23 — the inscription on the base of the Gloucester, MA, iconic Fishermen’s Memorial statue.
The names of the 21 fishermen lost when the 50-metre Spanish fishing vessel Villa de Pitanxo sank February 15, 2022, on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland:
- Raul Santiago Gonzalez: Cangas, Spain
- Fernando Santome: Beluso, Spain
- Pedro Herrera Couso: Marín, Spain
- Ricardo Arias Garcia: Marín, Spain
- Fernando Gonzalez Martinez: Moaña, Spain
- Francis DePazo: Pontevedra, Spain
- Francis Manuel Navarro: Gran Canaria, Spain
- Edwin Andres Cordoba: Peru
- Daniel Moore Valladares: Peru
- Diego Moore Vega: Peru
- Jonathan Calderon: Marín, Spain
- William Arevalo Perez: Marín, Spain
- Martin Quino: Vigo, Spain
- Rogelio Cueva: Vigo, Spain
- Miguel Lumbres Cumpra: Cambados,Spain
- Ricardo Alfonso Flores: Peru
- Samuel Kwesi Koufie: Marín, Spain
- Edmond Okutu: Pontevedra, Spain
- Apaanah Zure: Ghana
- Juan Choir: Spain
- Michael O: Ghana
