Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1987 - 53

grooves at either end into which the
heads fitted were cut with a tool
called a croze. The heads, usually
comprised of five pieces, were cut from
the blanks brought from Spain and
shaped and bevelled to fit the cask. The
last piece was set in place with a
"cask hook," which resembles a large
screw eye. It was threaded into a
hole drilled in the headpiece with a
small auger or gimlet. Numerous
examples of these tools, as well as
adzes, croze blades and other coopers'
tools were found during our excavations. Finally hoops were cut to length,
notched at the ends to lock together,
bound with withies, levered over the
assembled casks, and driven into
place. About two-thirds of the cask
was eventually covered by wooden
hoops.
The cooperages were not merely
workplaces; they also served as
the coopers' living quarters. Domestic
refuse includes thousands of sherds
from ceramic cooking, storage and
other vessels. Most of these are coarse
earthenwares typical of the Iberian
Peninsula during the sixteenth century. They include large pitchers
whose interior lead glaze has been
etched by acid in the cider or wine
served from them, strap-handled storage and cooking pots, and small
tin-enamelled majolica vessels which
may have held condiments or medicines. In addition, a surprisingly large
number and variety of drinking glass
fragments have also been recovered.
Some are stemmed "wineglasses"
while others are from large "footed
tumblers" with remarkably thin
walls. These latter held more than 12
ounces, probably of the same cider
and wine served from earthenware
pitchers. Other finds include such personal possessions as coins, a wood
rosary and other bone rosary beads,
knives, and similar objects.
The living accommodations and

objects in use at the cooperages
seem almost luxurious by comparison
with small dwellings used by other
crew members. These living sites
proved to be of a much humbler nature
than the substantial tile-roofed
structures in which the coopers lived
and worked. Light wood frames
covered ^yith baleen, and perhaps
cloth, seem to have housed most
of the crew members who lived on
shore. Some of these are at high
elevations and might have served as
lookouts. Others, located near sheltered beaches from which small boats
could be launched and landed, may
have been the dwellings of chalupa
crews. Still others seem to have been
situated to provide shelter from the
cold winds of fall and early winter or,
alternatively, to take advantage of
the southwestern winds of the summer months which would have
provided relief from the swarms of
blackflies which continue to plague
residents of Red Bay each year.
At one such location on nearby
Twin Island, a few hundred meters
south of Saddle Island, a remarkable
collection of organic and other objects was found preserved in a fresh
water pond adjacent to the living
site. Chief among these objects were
artifacts manufactured from local
and imported woods and a large variety
of food bone. The latter include
virtually every bird native to southern
Labrador- gulls, ducks, dovekies,
and the now-extinct great auk, to name
but a few. Some of these birds may
have been hunted in a fashion peculiar
to the Basques. One of the wooden
objects found in Twin Island Pond is
virtually identical to hunting devices still in use in the Basque country.
It resembles a thick table tennis
paddle which is thrown over the heads
of flocks of birds, simulating, so it
is said, the flight of a falcon, which
drives the birds into nets strung below.

The most numerous objects,
however, are long roasting spits made
from barrel staves, hoops or the
planks of small boats. Many still bear
traces of burning on the pointed
ends where they apparently came into
contact with a fire used to cook meat.
Other objects include many barrel
parts, portions of planks and timbers
from boats and ships, and other
scraps of local and imported woods
destined for remanufacture into
other items or for firewood. Large
amounts of cut and burnt whale
bone found in the pond suggest that
the fatty bones of right and bowhead whales also constituted an important source of fuel.
Very few ceramics were found at
these small living sites but from
Twin Island came a large drinking
glass, 15 centimeters tall and with
a capacity of about 14 fluid ounces, although the glass itself weighs only
about three ounces. It must have been
a prized possession of one of the
inhabitants of Twin Island, brought to
the New World as a reminder of home.
Other living sites, discovered
during the summer of 1985, are even
less impressive than that on Twin
Island. They consist of small hearths
scattered over the southern end of
Saddle Island, where virtually every
crevice in the bedrock contains evidence of burned wood and whale fat,
surrounded by a few potsherds, nails,
baleen, and where conditions are
favorable, bits of wood. The impression
conveyed by these living sites is
one of stringency: the whalers seem
to have been left largely to their
own devices during the whaling season. Ironically, however, the men
who summered at Red Bay may have
eaten better than many of their

(Far left) The blades are from "crozes"
used to cut the interior groove in casks ,
into which the headpieces were fitted.
(Left) The style of this harpoon , found
nearone of the try works, was used until
the mid-nineteenth century.

1987
January/February

53
Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1987

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - January/February 1987
