Carbonear Mariners and the Ships They Sailed - Carbonear, Newfoundland

Waymark Code: WMT82T

Appropriately, this information panel is along the shore, across from the railway station.

Going Foreign
CARBONEAR MARINERS AND THE SHIPS THEY SAILED Foreign going merchant mariners have been sailing in and out of Carbonear harbour for at least 500 years. In the earliest days, migratory fisherman from England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Basque country came to the fishing grounds in summer and returned home across the Atlantic in the fall. By the middle of the 1600s there was a permanent settlement here but the dry salt cod on which it depended still had to be shipped across the Atlantic.

For a brief period from 1870 to 1920, Carbonear's fleet of sailing ships actually grew. The 1920s saw a gradual decline until by the end of the thirties it was almost gone. During this period Carbonear produced more sea captains and crews than any other outport in Newfoundland. These mariners sailed the vessels, mainly schooners, with great skill and courage all over the Atlantic Ocean in the employ of merchant ship owners of Carbonear, elsewhere in Newfoundland and abroad.

The development of steam powered ships gradually changed the harbour at Carbonear from a busy port, with a waterfront crowded with merchant premises to what you see today. A hundred years ago there was a regular coming and going of ships loading up with fish and oil for Europe, South America, the Caribbean, the United States and Canada while others discharged their cargoes of salt, rum, molasses, coal, manufactured and agricultural products.

The narrow escapes, tall tales, tragedies and happy homecomings of the earliest seamen to visit these shores are mostly lost forever. However for the era explored by the Going Foreign exhibit we are more fortunate. Some of the mariners and many of their direct descendants still live in Carbonear. We invite you to visit the exhibit on display in the train station and enjoy some of the experiences and memorabilia they have so generously shared with Carbonear Heritage Society.