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ecuperated from the Bank fishery. for which they could no longer be trusted. The
greatest danger was the return voyage. which corresponded to the season when
hurricanes, spawned in the Gulf of Mexico, swept these shores. ine schooners and
eighty people were lost in 1929. It is only in the last decade of this fishing industry that
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most Labrador vessels were equipped with gas or diesel engines.!
3.2.6. The Lumbercamps
Along with the ocean, the forest played a pervading role in the life of
Newfoundlanders. FolJowing the summer fishery, many men spent a few weeks or
months of the fall and winter in the lumberwoods situated inland the western, northeastern
and central regions. Work was manual, intense and hazardous, the greatest perils
occurring in the expen operation of the spring drive. Wages were low yet supplemented
the family income. For, apart for the expert few who were retained for the winter haul-off
and spring drive, neither the fish nor the woods provided a year·round employment.
Working and living conditions were substandard, and only alleviated by Ihe socializing,
singing and storytelling which followed the day's work. The tradilional wood camps
disappeared in the 50's to be replaced by industrial enterprises hiring commuting and
professionalloggers.2 In the attempt to diversify Newfoundland's economy al the lum of
this century, a huge paper mill was built at Comer Brook in 1923-5, and beside Bell
Island's iron ore, lead and zinc mining commenced in Buchans in 1928. Both places grew
into modem communities, and by 1930 resulted in Newfoundland's greater dependency by
1930 on Ihe export of minerals and forest products than fish. Thousands of fishermen quit
Ihe fishery, either to be absorbed by the new land industries or emigrate (0 the United
States and Canada. 3
IJohn Feltham, St!lling Sail lor Bonavista Bay: Tht! Story 01 Nint! Schoont!rs Driven OUI 10 Sea
In tht! Fall 01 /929 (51. John's: Cuff, 1988) )-5 and 93.
2John AshlOn, "A Study of the Lumbercamp Song Tradition in Newfoundland," PhD thesis,
MUN. 1985.
30'Flaherty, Rock 128-9.