Twillingate, In Search of Ice Bergs

Twillingate embodies everything so many Newfoundland and Labrador outports are famous for: stunningly rugged coastline, historical, picturesque streets, and lush countryside roads. It is also known as the Ice Berg Capital due to the large number of bergs that find there way here in the spring.

This is what we came for, unfortunately the bergs were long gone when we got here and we did not see any.

Even though we were skunked on ice bergs, we still enjoyed everything this small town had to offer. Good, fresh seafood, colorful houses and people. We were also treated to a dinner show and a lobster dinner with mussels, delish!

One of the colorful characters we met was Cap't Dave. He was born and raised in the area as were his parents. He is a fisherman, lobsterman, and museum operator where he and his wife have made it there mission to preserve memorabilia, including buildings, boats and just about anything else to do with cod fishing. He said it was away of honoring his "mum" and "fadder." He definitely had his opinion on the politicians in Ottawa!

Whale skeleton assembled by Cap't Dave

The story behind the whale skeleton show the sort of person Cap't Dave is. He had heard of a whale that had died and washed up on a beach of an inhabited island. He contacted the government and got permission to dispose of the carcass. He towed the dead whale to a small uninhabited island where he let it lay for two years until the flesh and most of the meat was consumed by wildlife. He then gathered up the bones and reassembled them for display at his museum. He also did it again for another whale, that was the last one, he said it was a "blubbery mess to deal with and he don't need another skeleton."

Cap't Dave's Fishing Museum

When Cap't Dave was growing up his father was a cod fisherman, pretty much like everyone else in these small outport villages. His father was the elected head of the fishing commission in Twillingate and as such was responsible for allocating the fishing grounds to each of the fisherman for the year. Back then, fishermen used a "cod trap", it was a large net suspended between two buoys and weighted at the bottom it was place in the assigned area and the cod became entangled in it and were then harvested. Cap't Dave remembers all the fishermen gathering in the kitchen before the season was opened to get there allocated area. This was done by writing the area name on a wooden shingle and putting them in a bag. The bag was then passed around and each fisherman would reach in and pull out his area for the year. In this way each man had an equal chance of getting the best area that produced the most fish, it was called the "prime berth." This is what he calls his fishing museum that he and his wife started.

Mock-up of a fish processing plan of old on the Prime Berth property.

All the buildings on his property were either torn down at another location and reassembled at Prime Berth or built by Cap't Dave himself. His devotion to preserving the past is amazing. So many relics and treasures can be found in this small area.

Another of Cap't Dave's colorful creations

After an enjoyable stay in Twillingate, we will be heading to Bonavista to see whales and Puffins. Hope to see you down the road when we get there. Safe travels!