Untitled - Memorial University's Digital Archives - Memorial ...

Conniet
This seclion contains narratives which cxamine the kinds ofconflici encountered
b) fishennen prosecuting the annual migratory fishery. An examinalion of manuscripts
on deposil in the M FLA revealed only scattered references to areas ofconnict It
seemed rather amazing that upwards of20.000 fishcrfolk could converge on the Labrador
coastline to compete for cod for four months and nOI be involved in more cases of
conflict. I)erhaps the fishennen had nollaJked ofconflict because they had net been
properly qucstioned, on maybe mel' glossed evcr the confliclS because Ihey were
constantly being exposed to dangers. Thc gcncral impression givcn in the archival
records is that "evc!) body was in this together:' Therefore. differences ofreligion and
ethnic backgrounds were left on the Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle. Given
thai the four months on the Labrador meant thc difference betwccn survival and
starvation for thc winter. this seems to be a reasonable assumption to makc.
Ilowcver. there was some conflict on the Labrador. TIle personal experience
narrutives in Chaptcr Three show that dangcrs could be expected from the weather, the
land, thc Inuit, the huskies, foreign fishermell, supernatllral sources and other fishernlcll.
Accounts ofconflict have becn notcd in Reverend P. W.l3rowne's Where 'he Fisher.5
Go: 71w S'ory ojLllbrador, Greta Hussey's Dill' Lift 011 Lear's Room, and Nicholas
Smith's Fifiy·TlI'o Years on fhe Labrador. Entries in the record book and diary of
Magistrate E. J. Womell confinn that there were conflicts which ranged from lhe petty to
119