Leaving the Newfoundland fog astern, our boat nosed into the entrance of a channel between steep, rocky, spruce-covered banks. The waterway seemed to suddenly stop ahead, but as we neared the end we saw it curved tightly westward, so we followed. The placid waters kept curving like a coiled rope between the banks. Small buildings appeared on the shores, a few occupied but most, more ramshackled, stood abandoned among the evergreens. Several small boats were tied up at fishing stages.
This was Traytown, Trinity Bay, a tiny former Newfoundland fishing outport uniquely protected from the wild North Atlantic weather in the midst of rugged hills on Ireland’s Eye Island (not to be confused with another island with the same name off Dublin, Ireland, but probably named after it).
The coast of Newfoundland is dotted with bays and coves. Over centuries, almost anywhere European fishermen could seek shelter from the Atlantic Ocean, they would discover a niche in the shoreline. Many of these, became small settlements, locally called outports, whose people depended on the cod fishery for their livelihood. That is, until government resettlement of more remote hamlets in the 1960s, then the devastating cod moratorium of 1992 which threw thousands of Newfoundlanders out of work. Fishing families moved away to seek other employment.
What they left behind, in sad testimony of a cherished and unique lifestyle, eventually became curiosities to be explored by outsiders like ourselves on that foggy summer’s day.
If the circumstances are right, you can almost feel what it was like when these tiny, isolated coastal communities were thriving. When houses stood on the now-crumbling stone foundations, and people walked the ancient paths over the meadows. When wooden churches thrust their spires above the trees and their old graveyards were carefully tended. When there were still plenty of codfish to catch, which was the reason these outports existed.
Around the shores of Trinity Bay the Bonavista Peninsula harbours a number of abandoned settlements that can only be reached by boat. Twenty years ago I was fortunate to explore several of these places for four days in a cabin cruiser.
Ireland’s Eye Island is located to the east of much larger Random Island. Traytown is one of four abandoned outports on the former.
An elderly man was tinkering with the motor on a boat moored at the wharf. We waved as we got closer and our skipper, being a curious and chatty fellow, let our cruiser drift while he greeted the other man.
“Good day skipper. This is a nice tidy harbour you have here. Do your people come from here originally?” he asked.
“Yes, my son,” came the reply. “Before resettlement my family lived in that white house there.” He pointed to a neat bungalow up the hill. “I keeps it for a place to get away to. Spend most of the summer here now.”
“I suppose you’ve got relatives do the same in the other houses still in good shape?”
Looking inland from St. Jones Without. (Author’s photo)
Heather1 year ago
Enjoyed this very much. One of my aims is to get to Newfoundland and you’ve whetted my appetite.