The Architecture of the Family Fishery in Keels, NewfoundlandEdited by Gerald L. PociusLiviNGSPAcES The Architecture of the Family Fishery in Keels, Newfoundland
Edited by Gerald L. Pocius
2013
Heritage Foundation of
Newfoundland and Labrador
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Folklore and Language Publications
LIVING
SPACES FISHING FOR TRADITION | 03
two inshore fishing families left in Keels: Alphonsus ( Phonse) Ducey, and Phonse’s nephew, John Ducey. Both men live in family houses, Phonse with his wife Marg, John with his mother, Nora. Both men still use their outbuildings for the work of the fishery. Six students took part in this project: Kristin Catherwood ( Saskatchewan), Alicia Farnham ( New Brunswick), Claire McDougall ( Ontario), Noah Morritt ( Ontario), Ed Millar ( New Jersey), Erin Whitney ( Newfoundland), along with the field school teaching assistant, Meghann Jack ( Nova Scotia). We all started with Reg Hobb’s house, another working fisherman who had just recently died. Most of our time was spent with Phonse and John and their buildings, where they lived, where they worked, where they maintained their boats and gear. Many other people in Keels helped throughout our work, but this booklet showcases the work our field school did in recording the built heritage of these two families.
Acknowledgements: The residents of Keels made our field school a rewarding experience, and we would like to thank everyone who lives in this special place. There are a number of people there who contributed directly to our project: obviously first and foremost, Phonse and Marg Ducey, and John and Nora Ducey, as well as Keels’ resident historian, Alvin Hobbs. But many others helped directly, including : Michele Bowes, Peggy Bulger, Jim Byrne, Loretta Byrne, Rodney Byrne, Ruby Byrne, Annie Jane and June Fitzgerald, Barry and Delores Fitzgerald, Sherri Fitzgerald, Clayton and Janice Hobbs, Kayla Hobbs, Wince Hobbs, Shirley Humby, Barry Mesh, Janice Mesh, Marg Mesh, Roland Mesh, Selby and Eileen Mesh, Rick and Gloria Pardy,
( LEFT TO RIGHT): JOHN DUCEY, IN HIS TRAP SKIFF, SETTING CRAB POTS; ROSIE WELCHER WITH SELBY MESH IN SELBY’S SHOP; ALVIN HOBBS, WITH HIS LATEST FIND.
During the last three weeks of September, 2012, the Department of Folklore at Memorial University introduced a new course for incoming graduate students on cultural documentation techniques. Unlike previous field courses, this one would actually take place outside the classroom, with students living away from their usual environments, focusing on a place and people different to most of them. I decided that I would focus on the community of Keels in Bonavista Bay. When I first purchased a summer house there in 1982, the population was close to 200; by 2012, it was closer to 50. A major exodus has occurred since 1992, when the Government of Canada placed a moratorium on inshore cod fishing. Since that date, residents have gradually moved away to seek work in places like Alberta, and the landscape of Keels has dramatically changed. Many buildings have been abandoned, some torn down, and a number of houses have been bought up by summer residents from Ontario or the United States.
The changing Keels cultural landscape and the legacy of the inshore cod fishery became the focus of our field school, twenty years after the start of the cod moratorium. We decided to document the buildings used by the last
The 2012 Keels
FIELD SCHOOL With its small but sheltered harbour situated close to productive fishing grounds, Keels was probably the base for an intermittent summer cod fishery from France and Iberia before 1600. According to Captain Cook’s map, it was one of only a handful of harbours beyond Bonavista occupied by the English “ on or before” 1660 and it remained close to the northern limits of English settlement in Newfoundland into the next century.
The harbour was not large enough to accommodate easily the fishing ships arriving annually from the English West Country; through much of its early history Keels functioned as an outport of Bonavista, the central place in this frontier region. Censuses record it as a “ dependency” of Bonavista through the eighteenth century. Little is known, as a consequence, of its specific social and demographic structures or early economy.
There were 67 persons there in the summer of 1681 operating eight shallops, the traditional craft of the inshore fishery. The great majority were young male servants either from south Devon, heartland of the migratory cod fishery at that time, or from Poole and its hinterland. Most of these youngsters would go home in the fall and Keels’ overwintering population was composed of two or three planters probably with family and a small band of indentured male servants. In the eighteenth century the port of Poole entered this fishery in force and maintained its hegemony in the northeast until dislodged by St. John’s around 1830. For a variety of reasons explained elsewhere some migrants recruited by Poole merchants in the homeland elected to remain.
A History of
KEELS
Crystal Taylor, Kristin Taylor, Dorothy Welcher, Rosie Welcher, Stirling Welcher. Instructors that made the field school a success were Dale Jarvis ( Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador), John Mannion ( Memorial University), Guha Shankar ( American Folklife Center), Brian Ricks ( Independent Photographer). We’d also like to acknowledge support from the Board of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. At Memorial University help came from the President‘ s Support for Scholarship in the Arts Fund, the Dean of Arts Office, Janet Harron, and in the Department of Folklore, the help and encouragement of Sharon Cochrane, Renee Lawrence, and especially the Department Head, Diane Tye.
GERALD L. POCIUS
KEELS FIELD SCHOOL PARTICIPANTS ( LEFT TO RIGHT): GERALD L. POCIUS, MEGHANN JACK, ERIN WHITNEY, KRISTIN CATHERWOOD, NOAH MORRITT, CLAIRE MCDOUGALL, ALICIA FARNHAM, ED MILLAR. ( PHOTO: ANNE BARKER) FISHING FOR TRADITION | 07
Immigration had virtually ceased by 1836 when the first comprehensive census was taken. There were by then almost 300 persons living in 44 houses with 30 boats exploiting the grounds inshore. The old indentured servant class had virtually disappeared, replaced by family labour. Close to 40% of the population was under 14 and a school had been established, the only public building recorded. The cod fishery continued to dominate the economy. Agriculture was meagre and purely subsistence in nature. Each householder tended on average less than half an acre of ground, mainly for potatoes and only one in every two houses kept livestock.
Two decades later Keels had 450 inhabitants, by now all but a few native Newfoundlanders. Partnership based on extended family networks began to characterize social life and work. Twelve of the 77 families shared a house with another family and the community fished from 27 stages crowding the waterfront. Keels was a classic outport, socially egalitarian and occupationally unspecialized. Apart from two resident traders and a lone artisan, all adult males were engaged in the catching and curing of fish, aided in the latter takes by the women and children. People became poorer as the fishery worsened and as a consequence became more self sufficient, exploiting local resources to ward off poverty. The number of acres improved quadrupled in two decades but still have each household no more than an acre on average; land clearing continued through the century. Almost every head of household could build a house, store, stage and boat, the essential equipment for survival. Traces of this versatility are strewn across Keels’ landscape to this day.
DR. JOHN MANNION ( 1986)
( LEFT TO RIGHT): ANNIE JANE FITZGERALD, MAYOR OF KEELS, AND HER HUSBAND, JUNE; KEELS HARBOUR AND COMMUNITY WHARF, LOOKING NORTH; FISH DRYING ON JOHN DUCEY’S FLAKE; DOROTHY WELCHER, DRYING CAPELIN.
Dorset and its borders dominated the regional origins of this immigrant population, as Gordon Handcock has shown, and their descendants dominate places such as Keels to this day. Almost all the names in a petition for an Anglican school at Keels in 1769, for example, had connections with Dorset or its borders with Hampshire and Somerset. Some families were extended, reflecting the longevity of settlement; they included Elliott, Moss, Batt, and the Hobbs – whom tradition honours as the first settlers in Keels. Close to half a dozen surnames had disappeared by 1805 and there is no memory of them locally, an indication of the transient nature even of family settlement in eighteenth century Newfoundland.
The Catholic Irish arrived later, entering this fishery generally as servants to English planters, mainly as shoreman cutting, salting and drying the fish, managing meadows and tiny gardens. In the winter, they gathered timber inland for vessel constriction and for the wide range of wooden structures that dominated Keels’ material cultural landscape. Gradually they procured properties either in physically less- favoured sites for the prosecution of a fishery, or by purchase or marriage to daughters of English planters.
Intermarriage may account for the Fitzgeralds appearing as the lone Irish family in Protestant petition of 1769 and James Aylward ( first recorded as a planter at Keels in 1772) who owned an English room in 1805 “ established by his wife’s family”. At least ten Irish immigrants acquired rooms in Keels before 1830; almost all came from the hinterland of Waterford. Most married Irish women and more Irish men entered later, but prior English occupancy helped maintain English dominance. The Irish remained a minority ( around 40%) through the nineteenth century. FISHING FOR TRADITION | 09
In 1996, the house underwent several renovations, with the cost shared by the four residents at the time: John, his parents, and his Uncle Gerald, who were all working in the fishery. The linney was raised and extended to house a larger kitchen and bathroom. One of two woodstoves was removed, leaving one in the original kitchen as the main source of heat for the house. New insulation and vinyl siding replaced the original clapboard, an attic venting system was installed, and the roof was redone. The supporting walls between the main rooms and the former porch were also cut out, reinforced and decorated with spindles to increase air circulation in the house.
In the original plan, the large kitchen area would have been the central living space, both for practical uses ( cooking, eating, etc.) and for socialisation. The smaller parlour would likely have been used only on formal occasions. Since the addition and renovations in 1996, the original kitchen has become a dining room, and still retains its function as the main living and socialising area. The sink and cupboards remain. The large entryway between the original kitchen and the new kitchen is approximately four feet wide, thus enabling the kitchen and dining area to function as one large room when visitors come to call. The parlour/ living room now houses the television ( which can be viewed from the dining area), and also functions as a bedroom. A rocking chair is placed beside the kitchen window so that the sitter can watch television, as well as observe passers- by on the road outside.
ERIN WHITNEY, KRISTIN CATHERWOOD & EDWARD MILLAR
JOHN DUCEY’S HOUSE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): JOHN’S ROCKING CHAIR BY THE KITCHEN WINDOW, FACING A LARGE TELEVISION IN THE PARLOUR ROOM; SOUTHEAST EXTERIOR; INTERIOR VIEW OF EXTENDED KITCHEN ( WALL CUT- OUT WITH SPINDLES IS VISIBLE ON BACK LEFT WALL).
John Ducey lives in a two- storey house that was built by four brothers: Thomas, James, David and John Ducey ( John’s great- grandfather). Construction began in 1901 and was completed in 1903. It has been passed down from father to son through three generations. When John was born in 1965, there were three residents of the house: his parents-- Nora and Everett Ducey-- and his uncle Gerald Ducey. Through the years, other aunts and uncles took up temporary residence in the house. John currently lives there alone, since his mother recently moved in with one of her sisters in a nearby community because of her health.
The house is laid out in a two- room kitchen/ parlour plan with an unused front door between the main rooms on the ground floor. Directly facing the front door is a narrow staircase leading to the second floor. The upper storey contains three bedrooms with very low ceilings, typical of houses in the area. A linney with a porch and bathroom originally extended from the house on the north side. The bathroom was probably a pantry before indoor plumbing and a bathroom were installed. This occurred sometime in the 1970s, according to John. The roof height of this former linney section is estimated at ten feet from the point where it met the house, descending to seven feet at the far end, and extending out approximately six feet.
John Ducey’s
HOUSE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 11
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 13
for the nets. The gear used for carrying out repairs on his speedboat and trap skiff while at sea are stored here in the off season. A workbench holding the majority of John’s hand tools and radio extends north from the southern corner of the northwestern wall; situated above and slightly off centre of the bench is a window with a view of Keels harbor.
Miscellaneous objects-- including empty cardboard boxes, poor quality wood and defunct screens-- rest in the rafters. A rope suspended slightly below the bottom of the rafter in the southwestern corner runs northeast, ending above the wood stove, holding a collection of fishing hats and work gloves fastened by clothes pins. The wood stove and chimney, removed from the house in 1996 during renovations, stand a few feet off the centre of the southwestern wall. A stack of winter wood stretching from the floor to the ceiling runs nearly the full length of the southeastern wall. In the centre of the store is a wooden platform rising roughly four feet, which typically holds whatever tool or material John is working on at the time. Three deep freezers containing John’s meat, fish, and bait occupy the northern reaches of the store.
John Ducey’s store is also occasionally used as a social space, with the remnants of a Christmas party several years past marking the room with rows of Christmas lights and a Christmas wreath. A dartboard perched halfway between the two windows on the northwestern wall sees intermittent use year round, while the large open interior can accommodate a number of patrons as the wood stove keeps both food and guests warm.
EDWARD MILLAR
JOHN DUCEY’S STORE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): HANGING FISHING HATS AND WORK GLOVES; INTERIOR VIEW OF WORKBENCH; EXTERIOR VIEW.
John Ducey’s store was built by Humby’s Construction of Princeton in 1996, using locally cut wood. The building is oriented on a northeast- southwest axis, and is located a few feet northeast of his house. An exterior wall composed of half- inch plywood with one- and- a- half inch vinyl siding, and seventy- seven spruce 2x4 studs envelop the store. Forty- five grade asphalt shingles cover the roof, while the interior rafters are made of spruce, braced by spruce trusses. One layer of inch- floorboards over joists supported by wooden legs comprises the floor of the store. There are three windows, each with removable glass panes. Two are located on the northwestern wall at the northern and southern ends, and the last is in the southern corner of the southwestern wall. The windows on the northwestern wall have a clear view of Keels harbour, while the southwestern window looks over the path between John’s house and the structure. There were two doors in the store, one located in the centre of the northeastern wall and the other in the southern end of the southeastern wall. The larger door on the northeastern wall was removed, sheathed and covered over in 1998, due to lack of use, as well as problems with leaks and strong winds. The smaller door on the southeastern wall remains.
This store is primarily used for preparing, repairing, and storing John’s fishing equipment. All of the woodworking tools and materials needed to create and maintain his lobster and crab pots can be found in the store, along with cotton, nylon, and bio- degradable twine
John Ducey’s
STORE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 15
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 17
The many windows in the original structure are reminders of a time when the building was used more often for work than storage, and natural light would have been an important consideration. Part of a chimney remains, which once vented smoke from a pot- belly stove. The stove is no longer present, but there are other indications that the building has been used for more than simply storage. The stud frame is partially clad on the inside, with hand- cut boards similar to those used for the exterior. This second layer of timber would have provided additional insulation. On the south wall, just east of the door frame, there is a hook in the wall ( made from the end of a fire poker), which was used for hanging nets. All around this hook, there are notes detailing stitch counts written on the wall. It is clear that Reg Chapman and Isaac Penny used the facility as a space to mend their nets, a winter activity.
Apart from the repairs and alterations mentioned above, John Ducey has made only one change to the building. In 2004 or 2005 he built a bridge ( or ramp) leading up to the store’s entrance. Prior to that time there were just two steps leading to the door, which would have had a rise of roughly one foot each. He made this change to accommodate his needs, to facilitate the movement of heavy equipment, such as motors, in and out of the store.
CLAIRE MCDOUGALL
JOHN DUCEY’S FISH STORE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): SOUTHWEST INTERIOR CORNER, WITH BRACES FOR SUSPENDING BOAT MOTORS; SOUTHERN SIDE, SEEN FROM A SLIGHT ELEVATION; WESTERN SIDE, SEEN FROM THE SHORE JUST BELOW.
John Ducey’s fish store is located near the shoreline in Keels, close to where the trap skiffs and other boats are drawn up out of the water. It was built in the early to mid- 1950s by Reg Chapman and Isaac Penny, and was purchased by the Ducey family in the early 1980s. The building’s primary function at the moment is as a storage facility- - housing dip nets, gill nets, balloons, squid jiggers, lump gear, graples, buoy ropes, boat motors, flakes, furniture, and a slide for hauling wood. But John also occasionally uses the space as a workshop when he repairs motors. The evidence of this work can be found in the southwest corner of the store, where several planks are nailed horizontally to create a series of braces. These serve as a place to suspend motors being kept in storage.
The rectangular structure was built from locally cut timber— a mix of fir, juniper, and spruce. The stud frame was sheathed on the outside by hand- sawed boards, which were then covered with sheets of plywood. One of the changes John made to the store-- not long after it was purchased-- was to replace the rotting plywood with new siding. At the same time, in about 1986, he boarded up several of the building’s windows, in order to keep them from breaking. ( The store’s location near the water means that wind is a major concern.) From the outside, the whitewashed building, with its low- pitched roof, looks much like other storage sheds in Keels. The interior, however, paints a different picture.
John Ducey’s
FISH STORE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 19
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 21
The bungalow began to appear in Keels in the mid- to- late twentieth century, and is now the preferred style for new houses, owing to its open floor plan, higher ceilings, and clearly defined use of space. Finishes are simple and clean, including matte painted walls, as well as doorways and windows framed in plain, white trim. On the south side, the shared spaces of the house, including the kitchen, dining room and living room are accessible by a little- used south- facing front door and an east- facing side door that leads out to a split- level deck added, in two stages, during the late 1990s. The three bedrooms and the bathroom are located along the north side and are accessible only by the central hallway opening onto the dining room. The floor plan has remained unchanged from the time the house was constructed, with no alterations or additions made.
The dining area seems to be the focal point of the house, being the most centrally located area and the most convenient in arrangement. A dining table with chairs, a stool and a rocking chair provide seating with a clear view of both the kitchen and living room. The living room presents a mixture of formal and informal space, the decor lending itself to the idea of a formal parlour, yet still making room for a comfortable couch and arm chairs, which cannot readily be seen from the doorways. The kitchen is a compact affair, all utilities and cooking space lining the walls and allowing easy access through it to the rest of the house.
ALICIA FARNHAM, CLAIRE MCDOUGALL, & NOAH MORRITT
PHONSE DUCEY’S HOUSE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): PHONSE DUCEY AT HIS DINING TABLE; EASTERN AND SOUTHERN FACADES; SOUTHERN FACADE, FROM AN ELEVATION.
Construction of Phonse and Marg Ducey’s house began in 1975, based on a design by Reg Chapman. Phonse and several other men from the community worked on the building over the course of several years, primarily during the fall months, following the end of the fishing season. The foundation consists of a wood frame elevated on cement blocks which are enclosed by plywood sheets, forming a crawlspace underneath the building. The timber for the frame, primarily fir, came from the woods around Keels, and was cut by Phonse. Of particular note is a double layer of insulation positioned both between the frame and the drywall on the interior walls, as well as between the frame and the vinyl siding on the exterior. The bulk of the construction was done by Phonse, Isaac Penny, Claude Welcher ( who installed drywall throughout the house), and Alvin Hobbs ( who tiled the ceilings). The low- pitched roof with overhanging eaves along the north and south sides is covered by asphalt shingles. The building was completed in 1980, at which point Phonse and Marg moved in with their three children.
Reg Chapman, the designer responsible for supervising the building work, divided the one- storey rectilinear bungalow into two distinct sections, separated by a centrally located hallway.
Phonse & Marg Ducey’s
HOUSE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 23
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 25
therefore, made it a convenient place to keep wood for the winter. The store itself was also fitted with a wood burning stove, and during periods of bad weather, it was used to dry squid. This was originally done in a house that Phonse purchased from Felix Penney and converted into a store, which years later, was again converted into a twine store used for knitting and repairing nets during the winter.
The squid fishery began in July and continued into September and October, with large amounts of squid brought back to land to be dried. Drying was generally done on a flake, but during periods of bad weather, this was done inside using the heat of the wood stove, with squid hung on strings that ran across the rafters of the store. In recent years, the squid fishery has declined due to foreign competition. Although Phonse continues to catch lobster, crab, and other kinds of fish commercially, he no longer uses the store for drying squid. As a result, the interior wood stove has been removed. A wire mesh flake for drying salted cod, however, is occasionally used and located in front of the large door on the west wall. Today the building is used to store recycling, some equipment, and fire wood for the stove inside the house.
NOAH MORRITT
PHONSE DUCEY’S STORE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): FRONT FACADE, NORTH WALL; INTERIOR EAST AND SOUTH WALLS; WEST AND SOUTH WALLS ( NOTE THE LARGE WEST WALL DOOR AND CHIMNEY VISIBLE TOWARD THE EAST END OF THE ROOF).
Built sometime in the 1990s, Phonse Ducey’s store is typical of many mid- to- late twentieth century outbuildings in Keels. The structure is located to the southeast of Phonse and Marg’s house, adjacent to the driveway, which is located in the west section of Keels, across from St. Peter’s Anglican Church. The exterior walls are covered with white vinyl siding and the roof covering consists of asphalt shingles. A stainless- steel chimney is also visible toward the east side of the roof. The building is accessible through two doorways: one located toward the east corner of the north wall, and a larger one located on the west. The west door was originally built to allow for the storage of Phonse’s three- wheeler, which is no longer stored in the building. Unlike the exterior, the interior is unfinished, and both the wood studs and the particle board walls are visible. A semi- attached work bench is located along the north wall and a dividing wall is located to the left of the west door, and is used for general storage.
Originally constructed for stowing firewood, the building now serves as a more general storage space. Before an electric furnace was installed in the house, the Ducey’s relied on a wood- burning stove, and the store’s proximity to the house,
Phonse Ducey’s
STORE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 27
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 29
many days there making nets and mending those that had been torn during the fishing season.
Inside the store, there is a plethora of net making gear: large bags full of purchased mesh, piles of heavy ropes, wooden and plastic shuttles, floats for gill nets and different kinds of twine. A series of planks runs along from the top of the west window through the doorway to the northeast corner of the room with nails driven into it at approximately twelve inch intervals. When mending nets, the torn mesh would be hung from the nails, and the men would repair the holes using shuttles ( called needles) wound around with twine. Below the planks, a rope is hung, marked with twine every six inches or so. This assisted the men in attaching the nets to ropes at regular intervals. Depending on the purpose of the net, the mesh would be tied on at different places.
Every wall in the twine store is full of marks. Some are plans for nets with dimensions recorded, some are calculations to determine how many mesh holes long a net would have to be to reach the dimensions required. A list of nets lent out or purchased fills one wall of the former bedroom. All over and in between information has been jotted down about supplies needed and numbers to mark goals and the progression of work. In the entrance, names and dates of visitors are recorded, mostly children now grown who would have come in to visit and keep company with the men as they worked. Other fishermen would come and attend their nets there as well, with family and friends visiting and sharing a drink to liven up the tedious task of mending.
ERIN WHITNEY
PHONSE DUCEY’S TWINE STORE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): INTERIOR VIEW SHOWING PLANKS AND ROPE AS WELL AS DOORWAY EXTENSION; SOUTHWEST EXTERIOR VIEW SHOWING ENTRANCE AND DECK; NE EXTERIOR VIEW OF TWINE STORE SHOWING BACK OF BUILDING.
In 1934, a fire swept through the centre of Keels, taking with it many of the houses. Rumour has it that Felix Penny’s mother was out on her bridge reading the Bible while it spread and that’s why her house was saved. When Mrs. Penny later died, her son tore down the old house and built a new one for himself on the site. Reg Chapman, an experienced carpenter in the community, oversaw the building, assisted by Mr. Penny, Alvin Hobbs and a few other men of Keels. The building is estimated to have been erected in the early 1950s. Mr. Penny was a bachelor and lived there alone for about 25 years until his death.
Phonse Ducey purchased the house to use as his twine store for $ 500 in 1978. The original structure was based on a two room plan ( kitchen and bedroom) with a linney containing a small front porch and rear pantry. Phonse has opened up the doorway between the former kitchen and bedroom to make more space for net- making. The modern woodstove in the former kitchen has been disconnected from the chimney and is no longer in use. There is now no electricity or running water. Today, the house is rarely used, but during the time of the cod trap fishery, the space was extensively employed during the winter months, when Phonse and other fishermen would spend
Phonse Ducey’s
TWINE STORE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 31
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 33
the “ White Lily” and once served as a watering hole for the men of the community. The two stores differ in that Phonse’s is newer, with windows on only one side, and set on flatter ground, where the other store is over fifty years old, has six windows— at least half of them boarded over— and is set on significantly rockier ground. The so- called “ White Lily” originally had clapboard sheathing but has had pressboard added to it in recent decades to strengthen its aging walls. John’s fish store also lacks shelves, work table or pounds within.
Despite the name, Phonse’s fish store is never used to store fish; it is exclusively intended for the storage of fishing paraphernalia. Surrounded by lobster pots, sitting just east of the slipway where Phonse’s boats are pulled up in the winter, the store is full of items both useful and otherwise. The interior southeast corner is piled so high with nets, buoys and markers that the pile is visible through the window nearest that corner. Also in the store are wooden slats, floatation devices, plastic barrels, buckets, and containers, ropes, pipes, trawls, and an old boat motor. Despite the appearance of disuse and disorganization, Phonse assures that many items are used season after season. As for the inoperative items, he says they get sorted through and taken to the dump every four or five years. And so continues the busy life of a fisherman in Keels.
ALICIA FARNHAM
PHONSE DUCEY’S FISH STORE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): INTERIOR NORTHEAST CORNER, SHOWING WORKBENCH, GRAPPLES, FLOATS, ROPES, JERRY CANS, AND A BOAT MOTOR; SOUTHWEST VIEW; SOUTHEAST VIEW WITH SLIPWAY BEHIND.
Although Phonse Ducey is past retirement age, his love of fishing and keeping busy see him out in his trap skiff or speed boat year after year catching various species of fish. His fish store and its contents give testimony to his many years of work.
Built sometime between 1985 and 1987 by Phonse himself, it is a simple structure of red painted pressboard and a framework of 2x4s exposed on the interior. The red paint imitates the style of older days when most fish stores were coloured with red ochre. On the south side, three windows allow light into the building, while a door closed with a wooden tab and a padlock keeps the stored items secure. Inside, a work bench occupies the west wall, covered in boxes, bottles, cans and useful knick- knacks. On the north wall are two shelves holding large wooden puncheons. On the same wall, to the left of the shelves, are two partitions boarded up part way to form two pounds. Pounds are generally used to store salt fish; however, these pounds hold dozens of jerry cans, wooden license tags, ropes, and nets. As in many other stores in the area, the rafter space is also used for storage, with long tools such as oars, jiggers, prongs, poles, and what- have- you, supported along the crossbeams or by twine strung from one wall to the other at ceiling height.
The only other fish store in use in Keels, owned by Phonse’s nephew, John Ducey, is known locally as
Phonse Ducey’s
FISH STORE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 35
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 37
built- in storage bins constructed of wooden 2X4 boards. The entrance is located on the north side. There is an exterior and interior door, both at a height of six feet, allowing one to enter the cellar without having to stoop – a boon for those hauling bags of potatoes in on their backs. There is a small entrance passageway separating the interior and the exterior doors, lending further insulation. Both doors contain small holes about three inches in diameter covered with a screen. According to Phonse, this was to ventilate the cellar to keep the vegetables from “ sweating”.
In the sixty years since the cellar was constructed, the turf insulation has encouraged a profusion of growth of grass, flowers, weeds, and even a few small trees on the roof. The exterior wooden structure has been replaced at least twice due to rotting boards; the most recent replacement was in 1990, after Phonse purchased the cellar from Kenneth Mesh ( at a cost of $ 400). Phonse bought wooden 2X4 boards from a sawmill in nearby Princeton, costing approximately $ 450, which were then placed vertically around the turf. The cellar is further supported by five spruce logs, likely locally obtained.
The cellar was used to store produce such as potatoes, turnips, carrots and cabbage grown in local gardens. Both Ducey families have recently given up gardening, but the cellar is still used to store produce bought from farmers in the Bonavista or Lethbridge areas.
KRISTIN CATHERWOOD
JOHN AND PHONCE DUCEY’S ROOT CELLAR ( LEFT TO RIGHT): ENTRANCE, NORTHWARD FACING; INTERIOR VIEW SHOWING BUILT- IN STORAGE BINS AND WHITE- PAINTED CEMENT WALLS; VIEW OF EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR DOORS ( NOTE THE AIR VENTS IN BOTH DOORS).
The root cellar owned by John and Phonse Ducey is located on the eastern outskirts of Keels. It was built in the early 1950s by Henry Thomas Curtis, a carpenter from the nearby community of King’s Cove for Kenneth Mesh. The bulk of the work done by Curtis consisted of pouring the cement for the interior structure. Roland Mesh, Kenneth’s brother, recalls that the cement was poured first, and left to set for several months. In the meantime, a wooden exterior structure was constructed of spruce split logs cut in the woods surrounding Keels. A space of five feet was left between the cement interior cellar structure and the exterior wooden structure. This space was then filled with turf.
Much of the turf was brought from Pigeon Island in Keels’ harbour, since turf was in short supply in the surrounding area of the community itself. The turf was dug by hand and loaded in punts ( a type of small boat often used for transporting fish), then brought to the family’s stage on Keels’ shore. The turf was hauled in wheelbarrows up to the cellar site where it was shovelled into the five foot space between the cement inner structure and wooden outer structure, as well as on the roof. The turf provides insulation which keeps the cellar cool in summer, but above freezing in winter, creating the necessary environment in which to store perishable foods.
The interior is composed of seven- inch thick cement walls. Around three of the interior walls there are
John & Phonse Ducey’s
ROOT CELLAR FISHING FOR TRADITION | 39
FISHING FOR TRADITION | 41
house facing the harbour may thus have had no door ( as with the Houlihan house). Sometime-- perhaps in the 1930s-- a new parlour was added, a five- sided bay room that originally contained windows on all three front sides. An exterior door from the parlour ( feature K) was later covered over. The partition between the downstairs parlour/ bedroom and kitchen was removed ( indicated by feature I in the floor plan) in 1963, and made into one large room. Sometime before 1940, the back kitchen which originally had a shed roof was altered, and another small storey was added after the shed roof was removed. This upper space was originally storage, but was converted in the 1960s to another bedroom, what was known as the porch loft. This loft served as a bedroom for Reg and his brother Alvin, and had a ceiling no higher than four feet, just enough to fit a bedstead.
Gord Hobbs died in 1981, and his widow, Annie, lived there along with her son Reg. Annie moved into a nursing home in the 1990s, and Reg continued to live there by himself. Along with the two Ducey families, Reg was the only fisherman actively engaged in prosecuting the inshore fishery in Keels after the Moratorium . Reg died in 2011. His house serves as a legacy to the minimal spaces that were considered sufficient for the early twentieth century Keels fishing family.
GERALD L. POCIUS
REG HOBBS HOUSE ( LEFT TO RIGHT): HOUSE AND OUTBUILDINGS; WEST GABLE END, WITH LATER PARLOUR ADDITION ON LEFT; BACK KITCHEN ( KRISTIN CATHERWOOD, NOAH MORRITT, ED MILLAR, CLAIRE MCDOUGALL, ERIN WHITNEY, ALICIA FARNHAM).
What is now known as the Reg Hobbs house was built by Eli Hobbs in the first decade or so of the twentieth century. Eli was born in 1876, and likely built the house by 1910. Eli died when he was 45 years old, and Andrew Hobbs ( Eli’s brother), bought the house from Eli’s widow, Phoebe, in 1924. Andrew’s son, Gordon Hobbs ( Reg’s grandfather), was five when he moved into the house.
The Reg Hobbs house contains a compact plan that was typical of early twentieth century fisher family’s houses elsewhere in Keels— similar, for example, to the Joe Moss house located on Moss’s Hill across the harbour. The Hobbs house originally consisted of a back kitchen, kitchen and parlour on the ground floor, and two bedrooms upstairs. The parlour— located at the northern end of the current kitchen— was later used as a bedroom. Like the Mickey Houlihan house in Keels ( now demolished), the Hobbs house had a stair running off the kitchen, rather than in a central hallway ( as with the Joe Moss house). The original entrance door to the Hobbs house was located on the west end of the back kitchen— where the current built- in cupboards are located. The north of the
Reg Hobbs’
HOUSE FISHING FOR TRADITION | 43
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ERIN WHITNEY PHOTOGRAPHING THE COMMUNITY STAGE; STIRLING WELCHER OUT FOR THE FOOD FISHERY, WITH JUNE FITZGERALD, KRISTIN CATHERWOOD AND ALICIA FARNHAM IN THE FAR BOAT; JOHN MANNION EXPLAINING THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF KEELS; CLASS IN KEELS’ ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL WITH GUHA SHANKAR; ED MILLAR OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL BEFORE THE FINAL PRESENTATION TO THE COMMUNITY; JOHN DUCEY ( R) EXPLAINS HIS FISH STORE TO BRIAN RICKS. 2013Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador1 Springdale StreetSt. John's, NL canadawww. heritagefoundation. cawww. mun. ca/ ichLayout and design by Graham Blair www. grahamblairdesigns. comMemorial University of NewfoundlandDepartment of Folklorewww. mun. ca/ folkloreiSBN 978- 0- 88901- 446- 6
ICH - Eastern Newfoundland
