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Old style Grand Bank cod schooner; crew at hand rail hand-line fishing.
© NOAA |
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The Basque Secret
The first Europeans to discover these rich fishing grounds were the Basques, a fiercely independent people from northern Spain. They had salt, which they used to preserve the fish, and by the year 1000 they had established an international trade in salted cod. The Basques kept the location of their fishing grounds a secret for over 500 years, but in 1497 Giovanni Caboto, a Genovese known by the Anglicized version of his name, John Cabot, undertook a voyage for Henry VII of England. Searching for a northern spice route, Cabot instead found 1000 Basque fishing vessels, rocky shores ideal for salting and drying fish, and waters teeming with fish. A legend swiftly grew that the fish were so abundant that they could be scooped out of the water in baskets. Cabot named the place New Found Land and claimed it in the name of England. Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano discovered Georges Bank in the early 1500s and named it Armelline Shoals after a papal tax collector. In 1605, English colonists renamed it for St. George.
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