Throughout North America and around the world, those who are familiar with the name Lunenburg, Nova Scotia know it as a fishing town. Yet the first settlers of Lunenburg were Foreign Protestant farmers who were brought to the region by the British authorities in 1753 to clear and cultivate the arable land. A 1761 account of the settlement indicates the Lunenburgers were doing just that as they "had no inclination for the Fishery tho' well situated for that purpose…the chief of their time is spent in clearing and improving their Lands."

 In 1767, a general return of the township listed only 6 fishing vessels and 6 schooners or sloops. The numbers increased slowly in the following years and primarily represented vessels engaged in the shore fishery which supplied food, oil and fertilizer to local markets. The export trade from Lunenburg remained small, and fishing was viewed as little more than a supplementary occupation up to and beyond the dawn of the nineteenth century.

 The wealth of the Grand Banks had drawn European fishermen thousands of miles from home for more than 300 years, yet Lunenburgers did not respond to the call of the sea at their doorstep, even as other areas of Nova Scotia became active in the fishery. New Englanders, who had been fishing off Nova Scotia's south shore since at least the 1670s, began to arrive in the Loyalist migration after 1760 to settle permanently in areas such as Liverpool, Shelburne and Yarmouth. But of the 39 vessels from the southwestern shores of the province applying for bounties in 1811, only two were from Lunenburg.

 However, a dramatic transformation occurred in the 1800s. The relaxation of British colonial shipping policies allowed Nova Scotians to build and crew their own ships and to develop an independent worldwide trade. With expanding markets, interest in the economic potential of the fishery grew among Lunenburg's rising merchant class. The town's vessel fishery expanded rapidly on the fertile banks off the coast of Nova Scotia and into the Labrador cod fishery. Lunenburg fishermen also explored the viability of other species such as herring and mackerel and territory in the Gulf of St. Lawrence known as the North Bay cod fishery.

 A corresponding boom in shipbuilding saw 46 schooners built in Lunenburg County in 1859. The size and design of vessels was changing to meet the demands of the fishing industry. Large sleek bank schooners could travel faster, stay at sea longer and bring back a larger catch, making individual trips to the fishing banks all the more profitable for the owners and fishermen.

 But the predominant milestone for the Lunenburg fishery occurred in 1873 when Captain Ben Anderson made the landmark decision to take his schooner Dielytris to fish the banks off Newfoundland. His record catch of 207,200 pounds convinced many others to follow in his wake and by the end of the century the lucrative fishery included 180 vessels from Lunenburg and up to 3,600 men and boys. The scene was set for the legendary vessels, companies and personalities that would forever link the name of Lunenburg to the heydey of fishing by wind and sail.

 A Company Town

 An important element in the success of the Lunenburg fishery was the interdependence of the many players in the industry. Most of the vessels involved in the local fishery were built, owned, outfitted, sailed and repaired by Lunenburgers. A vessel was traditionally divided into 64 shares that could be purchased by investors, including the builders, the captain, crew members, local merchants or townspeople. Thus, many people held stakes in the industry and profits from a vessel were generally retained in the local economy. Since everyone shared in the profits or losses, everyone worked to ensure the success of a vessel. The builders strived for strength and speed in the vessel's construction, the captain and crew searched for the best fishing grounds that would yield the greatest catch, while outfitters and merchants sought fair prices for provisioning the vessel and top-dollar markets for the catch.

 One of the longest enduring family firms in a town of family-run companies was founded in 1789 by John Melchoir Zwicker. The son of a Foreign Protestant, Zwicker set up a general merchandising business primarily to ship fish and lumber to the West Indies and import sugar, molasses and rum. With the growth of the fishery in the 1800s, Zwicker began to focus on the lucrative trade in dried codfish and eventually increased his firm's fleet to include twelve full-rigged vessels, two sailing ships and a number of schooners.

 Zwickers passed into the hands of John's sons in the mid 1800s and soon joined other firms, such as James Eisenhauer & Co. and Lewis Anderson & Co. on the Lunenburg waterfront. There the company flourished with the growth of the bank fishery and continued under the direction of William Zwicker and his sons, Arthur, Norman and Fenwick. In 1904, the firm was incorporated as Zwicker & Co. Ltd. – a name that endured through seven decades of industry growth and modernization. In 1939, Zwicker & Co. introduced an innovative artificial drying system for processing fish. However, the subsequent decline in the saltfish industry spelled the end for the family firm and the fifth generation of Zwickers were forced to cease operations in 1970.

 Another fixture on Lunenburg's picturesque waterfront is the brightly painted buildings of Adams & Knickle. Formed in 1897 by bookkeeper Harry S. Adams, former sea captain Alexander Knickle and their partner William Arenburg, the fledgling outfitting firm acquired an interest in several schooners and became active in the fishery and trade with the West Indies. After a decade in business, Arenburg retired, leaving the partnership of Adams and Knickle whose business under that name has continued to this day.

 The saltfish cure particular to Lunenburg was extremely popular in the West Indies and Adams & Knickle vessels carried on a lucrative trade with the region. As that industry faded in the 1940s and other firms faltered, Adams & Knickle branched into a new venture with the purchase of the Aegir, an offshore scalloper. The company's scallop fishing reached a heydey in the 70s and 80s when the offshore fleet numbered 77 vessels. Though modern conservation concerns have significantly reduced the industry, Adams & Knickle maintains a small but successful scallop fleet and employs many people in its office and crews. In the Lunenburg tradition of family-run companies, Harry Adams' granddaughter Jane Ritcey-Moore is now president of the firm, while David Knickle, great-grandson of Alexander Knickle, is operations manager.

 In 1899, former sea captain W.C. Smith founded a fishing and outfitting company on the Lunenburg waterfront. With eight of his ten other shareholders also experienced sea captains, Smith had a ready made market of vessels to provision and was soon attracting other vessels that required supplies, bait and brokers to arrange the drying and selling of their catch. Following 25 years of success in the saltfish market, W.C. Smith and company launched into the fresh fish industry with the construction of a large processing plant in Lunenburg in 1926.

 The company, known as National Sea Products, reached international success marketing frozen fish products under the High Liner brand name. In 1964, NatSea opened the largest groundfish processing plant in the world just outside Lunenburg. Weathering financial storms, industry upheavals and the collapse of the Atlantic fish stocks, the company marked its hundredth anniversary in 1999 with a corporate name change to High Liner Foods Inc. and has diversified its products to include other foods such as chicken, pasta and vegetables.

 Life on Land and Sea

 Success rarely comes without sacrifice, and this was undeniably the case for the Lunenburg fishery. For every success story there was a tale of struggle and tragedy. For every family who survived and prospered there were a dozen more who suffered and collapsed under the toil. Though it provided a livelihood for many, the fishery also exacted a terrible toll on the people of Lunenburg and the surrounding communities.

 The routine of the fishing seasons dominated every aspect of Lunenburg life. When the vessels were at sea, the male population was decimated and the women were left to tend the home and raise the children. In the era before modern conveniences, caring for a home or farm was no easy task but often involved hard manual labour. As women hauled firewood and water, harvested crops and managed the livestock, the properties around Lunenburg came to be called Petticoat Farms.

 Many families had few financial resources until the men returned with the season's catch and often got by on credit or on meagre amounts earned from the sale of produce or perhaps at work in the fish plants. Many children left school early to help on the family farm or to supplement the family income by working. The physical demands of life on shore were accompanied by the emotional strain of weeks or months of waiting and hoping for the safe return of fathers, husbands and brothers from the unforgiving sea.

 Life on board the fishing schooners was no less difficult. Voyages could last a few weeks or several months in cramped quarters, eating unpalatable food and with the constant threat of a sudden Atlantic storm. The fishermen worked 16 hour days, rising in the wee hours of the morning to bait the hundreds of hooks on each trawl line. Working by candlelight from the "sticking tommies" wedged into the wooden walls of the hold, the dorymen would deftly but sparingly apply the bait, since the cost would be held against their pay. When all was ready, the two-man dories were set out at regular intervals from alternate sides of the schooner and the dorymen laid their trawl in long lines out from the drop off point. Each trip along the trawl line was fraught with danger as the men rowed the small dory, often through pea-soup fog, as much as a mile and a half across the open ocean away from the relative security of the main vessel.

 Few fishing seasons were unmarred by tragedy and some years witnessed an overwhelming loss of life. Such was the case in 1926 and 1927 when fierce storms off Sable Island took an horrific toll on the fishing fleet.

 A Tragic Legacy

 As early as 1783, a phenomenon known as August Gales was recorded on Sable Island. In the warm summer months, tropical fronts moving north from Bermuda collided with weather systems emerging from the Bay of Fundy and created a tumultuous blend of wind and rain around the southern coast of Nova Scotia. The force of the storms was especially severe about 100 miles off the coast in the shallow windswept waters around the shifting crescent of sand known as Sable Island.

 On August 24, 1926, the Gales struck without warning, catching two Lunenburg schooners, Sylvia Mosher and Sadie A. Knickle as they fished off Sable Island. Both vessels disappeared. Fishing schooners of the time had no radios on board, so no warning of the storm was received by the vessels and no emergency signal sent out from them. Small bits of wreckage that washed ashore in the following weeks were the only evidence families would have of the final fate of the vessels and their crew.

 The tragedy was compounded in many households by the loss of more than one family member. Fishing was a livelihood that was commonly passed from one generation to another so fathers, sons, brothers and uncles often went to sea together. The grieving families and communities began to call for action, and plans were laid to upgrade the traditional fishing schooners with radio receivers and engines.

 Unfortunately, these plans were slow to be implemented. In 1927, just a few days after the anniversary of the 1926 tragedy, the Gales again swept the waters off Sable Island. This time the toll was even greater. Four Lunenburg schooners, Mahala, Uda R. Corkum, Clayton W. Walters and Joyce M. Smith, succumbed to the waves and took all aboard with them. Many other vessels were damaged or lost in the storm of 1927 including four vessels from Newfoundland and the Massachusetts schooner Columbia with a Liverpool captain and mostly Nova Scotian crew.

 Communities around Lunenburg were devastated by the massive loss of life. In two seasons, 138 men from in and around Lunenburg had lost their lives. In Blue Rocks it was said that every household lost at least one family member and the male population was virtually wiped out. With families and communities facing financial ruin, an official inquiry was launched. Nova Scotia families who were victims of the disasters received monthly compensation cheques and improvements in shipboard technology were recommended.

 Source: Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

Compiled by Tony Colaiacovo.