The White Ships - Portuguese cod fishing 1966 aboard the Santa Maria Manuela.

Life In The Seas

Á Vida Nos Mares

aboard the Santa Maria Manuela
1966 Cod Fishing Campaign


Video courtesy of Patricio Family's web site.

Here's a superb short film guaranteed to stir a few memories in those lucky enough to witness the last of the cod fishing sailing schooners that worked the Grand Banks.

After introductory shots of the boat setting sail, the film then moves ashore in Portugal, the land with a history of 500 years of fish trade within the cod-laden waters off Newfoundland as it became known. Soon the camera is back aboard one of the few remaining sailing schooners still working a fleet of tiny single handed dorys where the men worked handlines for cod - and the risks they took fishing away from the 'mother ship' in fickle weather that could give rise to sudden gales or, worse still, dense freezing fog. Despite being the 1960s, this is still an era when men worked with hemp, canvas and oilskins - "wooden ships, iron men".

For the bigger picture, and if you haven't already done so , get a copy of the book, "Cod, the biography of the fish that changed the world."

There's a link here to a book by that most famous teller of sea tales aboard sailing vessels experienced at first hand - Allan Villiers.