The first people came here because codfish, salmon and herring were very
plentiful during the summer months, and birds and seals during the winter months, so
the first settlers were shore fishermen. They caught most of their fish in cod-nets
and later by cod-seines, but some were caught by hook and line. They used for bait:
caplin, squid and herring, but very often had to supplement these by clams, locally
known as cocks and hens. These were dug in the beaches and they seemed to be very
plentiful, even at present, and this practice of digging them up has continued down
through the years.

     The men living on the front of the Island in Northern and Southern harbours
fished with hook and line on the fishing grounds off the Island, such as Offer
Ground, Parker's to the Cross, Salmon Rock, etc. These range from one half mile to
two miles off shore, and fishermen have used them down to the present day. They set
their cod-nets along the shore and also salmon nets, but used their cod-seines in
Little Bay and Halls Bay. The people living on the beach of the Island in Mursell's
and Ansteys Coves usually fished in the vicinity of Little Bay Head, setting their
cod-nets along the Little Bay Shore and using their cod-seines in Little Bay.

     Codfish were so plentiful in the vicinity of Little Bay that schooners came
from Twillingate and other outside places to fish during the summers. One cod-seine
crew hauled 400 qtls. of fish in summer as far up Little Bay as where St. Patrick is
now.

     This shore fishery was the chief occupation for a number of years, and it was
supplemented by a small salmon and herring fishery. The salmon and herring were both
pickled. In 1859 the first schooner went to the Labrador from here. She was the
"Victory" of 57 tons, owned and brought here by the first George Jones. The Jones'
went to the Labrador from Twillingate, and so continued the practice from here. Two
years later William Mursell had the second Labrador schooner and she was built here
for him. George Oxford had the third, and the number increased until at one time
there were twelve schooners prosecuting the Labrador fishery from here. This number
does not mean that the schooners were owned by companies, but personally owned
vessels and the owner was the skipper of the vessel. Also the number does not
include those which went to the French Shore fishery, as at one time about 20 years
ago there were as many as 50 schooners prosecuting the fishery; and so George Jones
was the pioneer in the Labrador fishery from here.

     The first Labrador fishermen used cod-nets, hook and line, cut [but?] chiefly
cod-seines. These fishermen made very good catches of fish, but spent a longer time
on the Labrador coast (sometimes from July to November) than they usually do now. In
1880 the first cod-trap was used by William Mursell. He made the cod-trap out of his
cod-seine after seeing cod-traps being used on the Labrador by fishermen of the
southern bays. George Jones had the second cod-trap (1881) and it was not long
before everyone had switched to the new method of catching fish.

     The first schooners ranged from 25 to 70 ton schooners being considered very
large in those days. Of course, there were no motor boats then, but they seem to
have made very quick runs to and from the Labrador in the same year. Some skippers
went in the Straits, Canadian Labrador, in the vicinity of Greenly Island, in the
early summer, and if they got sufficient fish would come home and then go to the
Northern Labrador. Most of the schooners from here fished north of Cape Mugford,
some going almost as far north as Cape Chidley. These old skippers must have been
good seamen and fishermen to do such distances without power of any kind, secure a
load of fish and reach back home in time to dry it and usually brought it to St.
John's before navigation closed. Those days too were the days of real men and every
Labrador crew must have had a much harder summer than Labrador fishermen of today.
There were no motor boats as said before, and often they had to row two or three
miles to their traps, in trap skiffs almost as large as those of today, and the
chief fare was hard-tack and fat pork. Most of these hardships were over with the
coming of motor boats. The first motor boat was owned by Richard Anstey in the early
twentieth century.

     Besides the Labrador and local shore fishery, there was, as it is now, a brisk
French Shore fishery. Besides the many schooners as before mentioned, many
stationers went to the French Shore every summer. Most of these fishermen caught
their fish by hook and line.

     These three fisheries, Labrador, French Shore and local shore fisheries have
continued down through the years and except for the last named, have been the
mainstay of the Island's industries. During the years other fisheries or industries
might spring up, prosper and then die out, but these three have continued all down
through the years.

     Sometime during the middle of the nineteenth century there was a brisk
mackerel fishery, but it did not last long. Then about 50 or 60 years ago there was
a brisk lobster fishery. It seems that lobsters were very plentiful around the
Island and vicinity, so the Little Bay Island Packing Co. saw the possibility of a
lobster tinning industry and developed it. That company packed four thousand cases
of lobsters one summer. The tinning of lobsters continued for ten or fifteen years
until lobsters became too scarce to keep the canneries open. This industry must have
given employment to many people in the hedday (in passing I may say that lobsters
were so plentiful that they were a common food for pigs, and two of the first Jones'
daughters hooked enough lobsters themselves to feed three pigs - about eighty years
ago. About 50 years ago when the cannery was situated outside where the cold-storage
is today, the unused and spoiled lobsters reached the surface of the water which is
about ten or twelve feet deep.) In later years the herring industry boomed for a few
years, from 1915 to 1920. This gave much employment during those years, but it was
short-lived as a crash came in prices in the early 1920's and closed the industry
here.

     Of course during all the years from the middle of the nineteenth century until
the second decade of the twentieth century, schooner building was the great industry
of the winter months, especially during the winters of the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century. Then Little Bay Island was a hive of industry, when every man who
could cut a stick or plane a board was employed. Several winters two or three
schooners were built, and one winter two schooners were built on the same dock. More
than twenty-five schooners have been built on the Island itself, and more than fifty
have been built on the Island and nearby mainland by the men of the Island. These
schooners have ranged from fifteen to sixty-two tons. The first one was built either
by Philip Wiseman (The Mayflower) of 20 tons, (she was built 88 years ago at
Mursell's Cove), or one by John Campbell. It is hard to find out which of these two
was the first built. The last was the "James Strong" of 139 tons, in the year 1923.

     We cannot finish with the industries without mentioning the Seal Fishery. It
was prosecuted in much the same way as it is now, but on a much smaller scale. The
seals were killed with shotguns, not with rifles as now. Some were netted. For a few
years schooners from here went to the ice. Jones was the pioneer again, sending out
the "Industry" of 55 tons. She was lost at the ice 55 years ago. Two of the
schooners from here were out the same year. This did not last long as it seems that
no great catches of seals were made at the ice.

     The above is the history of our industries in so far as I have been able to
find out the facts about them. As for our present industries, the chief one is cod
fishing and the industries connected with it. Ninety percent of our people are
directly or indirectly associated with the fishery either in catching, drying,
packing, coopering or trading.

     During late years there has been a falling off in employment on the Island and
many men go to the lumber woods and elsewhere. Many men secure employment during the
winter months by cutting wood, sealing and boat building. Thus we see that the
industries of our Island have changed little during all these years.