The Grand Banks by J. P. Andrieux

Author:J. P. Andrieux
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flanker Press
Published: 2012-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

5

The Spanish Fleet

When WWII was finally finished, the large Spanish side trawlers returned to the Grand Banks after an absence of nearly a decade. The PYSBE trawlers had stopped coming with the Spanish Civil War of 1936.

The Spanish government was offering to fishing companies through the naval reconstruction credit institute low-interest loans to ensure that as much fish as possible was caught by Spanish vessels to reduce the dependence on imported cod. PYSBE went on an aggressive postwar construction order for new vessels such as the Abrego, Cierzo, Tornado, Mareiro, Cefiro, Mistral, Tifon, Tranmontana, etc.

Two other fishing companies with large trawlers had also emerged. The Pesquerias del Bacalao S. A. (Pebsa) founded in 1942 in A Coruna, as well as Compania de Pesca e Industrias del Bacalao (Copiba) at Vigo in 1944.

In post–Civil War Spain, jobs were very scarce. This fishery incentive program as such was able to create jobs on land and sea. It produced food, and created a steady supply of orders for shipyards, engine builders, and associated industries.

PYSBE was able to build an integrated fishing industry and became the training grounds for Spanish cod fishermen and officers.

Spanish trawlers had mostly used St. Pierre in these earlier times to load their coal bunkers, but the postwar trawlers were now equipped with diesel engines and needed Gazoil, which was available in St. John’s and not in St. Pierre. As a consequence, all Spanish vessels initially used St. John’s as a base of operations after the war.

On March 17, 1948, the large Spanish trawler Aliso arrived in St. John’s with her flag at half-mast. She was returning to port with the body of Jose Pereira Lopez of Escoizabota, Spain, who was the leading net man on the trawler. He died on the Grand Banks of an apparent heart attack.

One of the Pebsa trawlers, the Santa Eliza, sent a distress signal on March 28, 1948. This was received by the US naval authorities in Argentia, Newfoundland. The message stated that the vessel was in danger and that her forward hold was flooding. She was located thirty-three miles off Cape Race. A US cutter, the Bibb, was dispatched from the base to render assistance, but she was quite a distance away.

Another message came from the stricken trawler stating that the pumps were working and that they had gotten rid of some of the water. The vessel was able to safely make it to St. John’s on her own. She was repaired and continued to fish for many years afterward.

Newfoundland in 1948 was still a British colony. It joined Canada the following year on March 31 to become Canada’s tenth province.

During that period, some Spanish pair trawlers arrived on the Newfoundland scene. The experimentation carried out by these small trawlers of 350 tons each were very successful. They had one net towed by the two vessels. There was so much codfish in this postwar era that they were able to load up very quickly. There was one major handicap: they had to make the long return trip back to Spain to unload their catch.

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