Told our story well
Renowned teacher-photographer Robert Edward Holloway told our story well
Robert Edward Holloway travelled the province
“While passing the mouth of Fortune Harbour at dusk we found ourselves surrounded by a school of whales. For a mile in every direction little jets of spray rose into the darkening air. The whales absolutely ignored our presence and although we fired a few shot, they showed no alarm. So erratic were their gambols that we feared they might even rise under our boat or upset it with a stroke of the tail.”
The summers of 1907-08 seem to have been a good time to be in Newfoundland. By our standards today, life could be so unhurried as to be near idyllic. The economy was good, in relative terms. The railway was new, and promoting travel. And there was plenty to see and do on both the island of Newfoundland and in Labrador.
Literature fortified by photographs like that produced by Robert Holloway of St. John’s in 1910 might well be expected to do positive things for tourism.
As a teacher, in addition to being an exemplary photographer, Holloway made his book “Through Newfoundland with the Camera” something more than a promotional piece. The way he described Newfoundland and Labrador showed this place as a mix of pure poetry and hard-edged reality. In Notre Dame Bay one summer, equipped with a camera, a pen and a tent, he seems to have missed nothing.
Apart from prevailing occasionally upon an outport home for fresh bread, or a meal of fish, he was self-sufficient. He was not alone but his travelling companions are not identified. Mind you, Holloway enjoyed coastal boats with their on-board services, but once off their routes, he took to a smaller craft (see photograph with this column).
In Notre Dame Bay
“In our journeyings we were never in want of fish. A few casts of the bright jigger brought up as many cod-fish as we required and no one knows the proper taste of fish who has not eaten it within half-an-hour of its capture. Just outside Tilt Cove two of our party caught 30 fine fish in about an hour.”
As progress is made across the sheltered salt water of the bay, the teacher points out such essentials as “the copper mine at Tilt Cove ... the whales killed and towed in to the Snook’s Arm factory ... the proximity to Norris’s Arm of the important lumber settlement of Botwood ... and, of course, his attention is always ready to focus on the natural features:
“An observer standing on any high ground – as for instance at Herring Neck – sees unfold before him one of the most magnificent panoramas in the world.”
Monotony is never a problem. There is peace and tranquility, yes. But there is always expectancy ... around that next island ... and Notre Dame Bay is dotted with islands ...
“One night we were startled by heavy splashing about a quarter-of-a-mile away; and on our return, after resting on our oars for about half-an-hour, we were told that it was no doubt the tumult caused by a fight between a whale and a thresher. Another day, we saw from the deck of the steamer ‘ Home” a 30-foot whale leap entirely out of the water and the captain assigned as the reason the attack of a thresher.”
The thresher shark can grow to 20 feet and weigh 1,100 pounds. One “fin” of its tail, called the thresher (it is rather like a scythe blade) can be as long as the body.
Holloway keeps his readers (and photograph viewers) informed with “spot” pieces of information: “We had a yacht too small to sleep in so that each evening found us pitching our camp on some islet and preparing for the night. We usually landed for our meals as our boat was small enough to handle easily and we towed a small dory.”
To return for a moment to the experience with the “school” of whales near Fortune Harbour N.D.B., Holloway gave this explanation for the great gathering: “Earlier in the evening the calm surface of the water had been ruffled by enormous shoals of herring and it was evident that we had unexpectedly come across a picnic in which the whales were indulging.” But the lesson is not over:
“Although these whales were then having a good time, they are by no means without enemies. Their destruction by man has been referred to in the section dealing with The Fisheries ... and Holloway adds that the thresher wages “constant and successful” war against them.
10 to 30-pound salmon
Holloway writes of a visit to the Rigolet area of Labrador in an earlier summer.
“The author spent a pleasant holiday at Gross water Bay and partly at Lester’s Point at Northwest River about 80 miles from the mouth of the bay on board a trading schooner travelling up and down the bay. Salmon fishing is the chief industry here”. He recalled the salmon at Francis Harbour where “the sea was like glass” ... and he looked down into the deep water to see the silver flashing of salmon caught in a net:
“The day’s catch of over a hundred salmon, varying from 10 to 30 pounds in weight each was spread out on the wharf to be ultimately pickled in barrels and sold for two or three cents per pound.”
Paul Sparkes is a longtime journalist intrigued by the history of Newfoundland and Labrador. E-mail: psparkes@thetelegram.com