Work is advancing on Making Waves: The Portuguese Adventure, and I've just come across a marvelous National Film Board of Canada short film about one of the last white ships from Portugal to fish of Newfoundland and Labrador. You can view it here,Called The White Ship, it details a crossing in 1966 of one of the last ships to make the long voyage across the Atlantic from Portugal to fish cod. This was before factory ships vacuumed up the cod stock, leaving the fishery almost non-existent.
The photo above shows the ship, the Santa Maria Manuela, in St. John's harbour. It is currently being restored in Portugal and may make once again cross the ocean, if only to provide a look at a maritime history worth remembering.
Picture: The Telegram
2 comments:
Dear Mrs. Soderstrom,
My name is António, 35 years old and portuguese. I just discovered your blog/work via this old White Fleet photo.
I am son and grandson of dory fishermen, and most of my comunity, Caxinas, has a deep past in it. I try to be involved in everything related to this piece of portuguese past, researching and colecting everything I find.
It is very pleasent to read your text that "the portuguese are/were everywhere", because in fact only someone who "wants" to really see history, will see the portuguese. Our history is never "in fashion" for the big trends of the world.
The schooner "Santa Maria Manuela" will have it´s official start of a new life this next 10th of May, with a great ceremony in Gafanha da Nazaré. I and many others feel so good seeing this ship reborn, because more and more we want back things from the past, things that modern rulers and media keep under the carpet, things about patriotism, which Europe seems to forbid in it´s "Union". My grandfather did 9 years of codfishing in "Santa Maria Manuela", from 1952-1960 and previously 6 in a wooden schooner.
I hope your work on "Making Waves: The Portuguese Adventure" goes well and with fair winds. It´s an honour to see your interest in what the portuguese are and were.
My Best Regards,
António Fangueiro
www.caxinas-a-freguesia.blogs.sapo.pt
Muito obrigada pelo commentário. Vocé escreve o dia do fim de minha aula de português!
Parabéns pelo todo trabalho sobre Santa Maria Manuela. Espero que eu pude assistir na festa!
Mary
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