Notes from the Codfish "Did you know" file

[1nsBit]

I am going to try something a little different here. We will see if it interests anyone. We certainly know that everyone on this site is a serious fisherman. Some of you out there fish for Cod, some do not. But I wonder if you all know that the lowly codfish changed the World!

I don't think it will come as any revelation to some of you that Christopher Columbus did not discover the New World. It was in fact discovered by Vikings about 500 years before Columbus sailed, a journey only made possible by Codfish.

It seems that around the second half of the 900's AD there was a particularly nasty Norseman name Thorwald who had a particularly nasty habit of killing people. Call it a hobby. By about 980 AD Thorwald and his unruley son, Erik the Red had been expelled from Norway for murdering too many people. Being seafaring Vikings with no place to go, they naturally went to sea and headed west eventually landing on what is now Iceland. But old habits die hard, and soon, Thorwald and Erik the Red continued on their killing ways. By 985AD they were once again expelled from Iceland. Already at the end of what was then the known World. they sailed west through freezing waters strewn with icburgs until they encountered a barren desolate and freezing land. Erik, hoping to gain profit by colonizing this new land decided a little PR wouldn't hurt, so he named the new land Greenland in hopes of encouraging settlement.

Eventually, Erik decided to keep moving west in search of new discoveries, but an injury to his foot prevented him from going. The task was left to his son, Leifur, later know as Leif Eirikkson. Leif sailed west until he finally encountered another barren rocky coast which is today Newfoundland. In search of more hospitable climates, and natives, he then sailed south and is believed to have gone as far as present day Maine. Today, Viking campsites ave been found along the Newfoundland and NE coast that pre-date Columbus's voyage by hundreds of years.

What in the world does any of this have to do with Cod, you ask? Simple, a journey this long had never before in history been possible because it was simply physically impossible for any ship to carry enough provisions to travel this far. In addition, When Leif Eirikkson stumbled onto Newfoudland, he quickly learned that the Natives were definately anti-Norseman and so going ashore to provision was out of the question. So how did they travel such great distance with no way to stock provisions or go to land to re-provision. Enter the lowly cod. Seems the Vikings had discovered that if Cod, with its low fat content were left out in the cold winter air, it would essentially become freeze dried and so provisions could be caught, dried, and stored for several more months of travel as they continually pushed west. Not coincidentally, Norway to Iceland, to Greenland, to Newfoundland follows the exact northern range of the Anlantic Cod.

Think Columbus came next, guess again. A few hundred years after the Vikings, the seafaring people of northern Spain and southern France, the Basques, had something the Vikings did not, Salt. By this time, inexpensive protein was the thing fortunes were made with, and no one did it better than the Basques. By now, it was learned that if fish was salted before drying it would last far longer than just drying. Long lasting dried fish was now a very valuable product in Europe. Only problem was that Europe's best fishing grounds were vigorously protected by the World's strongest navel powers, England, France, etc. The Basques were master sailors and merchants and so were determined, and did, find a new source for Cod to sell to Europe. They were also very sharp business men and were able to keep their source a secret for hundreds of years as they became wealthy supplying Europe with cheap protein. Where was their secret source? Newfoundland, again, hundreds of years before Columbus.

To be continued??

[shoefish]

I hope it is to be continued. Very cool read- I had no idea that that was how they were able to make such long voyages at sea. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the next story....

[clt_capt]

Great read - please keep it coming.