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Battle Harbour
Battle Harbour, is located on the south eastern coast of Labrador, at
the eastern most edge of a cluster of small islands dotting the mouth
of St. Lewis Inlet. It emerged in the 19th century as the
major commercial and operational centre in coastal Labrador and it
consists of the settlement area of Battle Island which contains the
mercantile complex, the church, a village, and the former fishing
rooms on Great Caribou and Gunning Islands. The landward boundary of
the community is defined by steep-sloped barren hills.
The Battle Harbour complex is the most intact example of the numerous
traditional mercantile premises that were built up and sustained in
Newfoundland and Labrador by the salt fish industry and was functional
up until the fisheries moratorium in 1992. Premises like these were
set up around the province by merchants as self contained businesses
as they would bring the required labour force to operate with them
when they came to set up their enterprise.
Throughout its history Battle Harbour has been primarily a mercantile
establishment with a small attached, dependent community. Battle
Harbour has always been dominated physically by the mercantile
complex-the water front wharves, board walks, storehouses, warehouses,
retail store/office, dwellings, cooperage, fish flakes, and processing
facilities. Like other mercantile settlements in coastal Newfoundland
and Labrador, Battle Harbour had a single merchant firm which was able
to exert a virtual monopoly over trade within the region.
The Slade firm originally claimed ownership of the whole Battle
Island, or, at least, virtually all the portion suitable for a fishing
settlement. This right was passed on to Baine, Johnston and Company
(1871), and its successors Earle Freighting Services (1955) and in
1992 the Battle Harbour Historic Trust. Anyone who wished to build on
or occupy Battle Island had to seek the patronage of the firm. At
various times land was given to or leased to different
institutions-the Anglican Church, International Grenfell Mission,
Marconi Corporation, Newfoundland Rangers and the RCMP. Land was also
made available to individual families under the condition that the
occupants would not engage in trade or otherwise interfere with the
firm. In practice the company dispensed land for which it had little
use.
John Slade of Poole who, by the late 1750s, was well established in
the West Country-Newfoundland fishery, with major premises at
Twillingate ventured into Labrador, establishing a station first at
Chateau Bay before continuing north beyond Cape St. Charles in the
early 1770s.
Battle Harbour proved to be an opportune choice for him to set up a
business enterprise as not only did the narrow channel separating
Great Caribou and Battle Islands provide safe anchorage, with a
foreshore suitable for erecting dwellings and capable of supporting
year-round habitation, but its location would later offer strategic
advantages in subsequent developments in the Labrador fishery. It’s
most important characteristic from the very beginning, however, was
its location with respect to the seasonal availability of seals,
salmon, cod and waterfowl.
The diary of Isaac Lester (John Slade’s next door neighbour in Poole)
indicates that Slade was cod fishing on the coast of Labrador by 1767,
but exactly where is uncertain. It is also uncertain when Slade and
Co. began operating at Battle Harbour however by the mid-1780s the
company had expanded its operations at Battle Harbour to include the
exploitation of salmon and fowl, as well as seals and cod. The Slade
ledgers list eleven “peoples” at Battle Harbour in 1787-8, with an
additional fifteen in nearby areas.
By the last decade of the 18th century, Slade’s mercantile
premises at Battle Harbour formed the nucleus of one of Labrador’s
earliest communities. The Slade ledgers indicate that there were a
minimum of 77 men engaged in fishing and sealing between 1793 and
1811.
Many of Slade’s employees in the beginning came out from England as
salaried workers or indentured servants. Once their appointments or
apprenticeships ended, a few stayed on in Labrador, supporting
themselves in the summer by salmon and cod fishing, and in the winter
by sealing, hunting and fur trapping. They survived by taking supplies
from the company and giving up their catches under the truck or credit
system. Slade’s, like other mercantile establishments, quickly saw the
benefits of such arrangements as it created a servitude dependence on
the merchant which created for the merchant a secure customer base.
The 19th century witnessed several major structural changes
in the British-Newfoundland fisheries on the coast of Labrador.
Firstly, the British migratory fishery established after 1763 and
conducted by firms using imported servant labour (from England,
Ireland and Newfoundland) became increasingly a resident, family
dominated enterprise as employees became livyers and merchants became
middle-men for settlers and brokers between the sources of supplies
and markets. Secondly, there was a dramatic growth of a Newfoundland
migratory fishery reminiscent of the Old West of England fishery in
Newfoundland. Thirdly, Newfoundland ports and merchants replaced
British ports and entrepreneurs. In Labrador this process was
completed in 1871 when Baine, Johnston and Co. of St. John’s purchased
the Battle Harbour premises of T. and D. Slade of Poole.
The development of the Labrador migratory fishery had important
implications for Slade’s mercantile establishment. Schooner crews
(floaters) flocked to Battle Harbour in great numbers en-route north
and south along the Labrador coast, and many actually fished among the
Battle Islands. Battle Harbour also became one of the main fishing
areas for seasonal Newfoundland migrants known as ‘stationers’ who
relied upon the local mercantile establishment for almost all their
supplies.
In the context of the Newfoundland based migratory fishery and the
early settlement of southern coastal Labrador, places such as Battle
Harbour, Cape Charles, and Venison Island performed the same functions
that Trinity, Carbonear, and Fogo had played earlier in the island’s
historic West of England migratory fishery.
In 1991 the owner of the Battle Harbour salt fish complex, Earle
Brothers Freighting Services Ltd. of Carbonear, donated all of the
mercantile buildings and infrastructure to the newly incorporated
Battle Harbour Historic Trust, a registered non-profit charity founded
to oversee the restoration, preservation and presentation of Battle
Harbour’s structure and history. By 1997, the Battle Harbour Historic
Trust (BHHT) had restored approximately 20 buildings, reinstated
wharves, drying flakes, decking and walkways, and established an
interpretation programme to aid in the presentation of the community’s
long and varied history. Today the site operates seasonally between
May to October as a national historic district. Please visit the
following website to learn more about the work of the Battle Harbour
Historic Trust and this sites history:
www.battleharbour.com
Source: With notes from the Historic Sites and Monuments
Board of Canada Agenda Paper on Battle Harbour, Labrador by Dr.
Chesley W. Sanger, 1996. Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial
University of Newfoundland.
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