1 Known since the 1980s as a “French” shipwreck, the underwater remains of a wooden sailing ship at Isle aux Morts in southwest Newfoundland, near Port-aux-Basques, shed light on the transatlantic fishery as it extended into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the seventeenth century (Loewen and Delmas, 2012; Weyers, 2009; Barkham, 1984). Although this region was part of the French Shore, most of the ships that fished in this part of Newfoundland were Basque in origin, making this a plausible cultural affiliation for the shipwreck. However, seventeenth-century archaeological references for Basque sites around the Gulf of St. Lawrence are still few (Figure 1), in contrast to the sixteenth century and its emblematic whaling stations at Red Bay, Chateau Bay, and Middle Bay and the wreck of the San Juan lost at Red Bay in 1565, all of which provide a chronological anchor for the material culture associated with these transatlantic fishers. In analyzing the Isle aux Morts collection, we have sought to understand its origin within the changing dynamics of the seventeenth-century Newfoundland fishery (Figure 2). Although limited in scope, the collection contrasts with those from pre-1630 Basque sites (Grenier et al., 2007). It has some similarities, however, to the Petit-Mécatina collection, which may date in part to the seventeenth century (Herzog, 2011). This small but significant collection can henceforth be seen as a reference for Basque material culture in the mid-to later seventeenth century.

2 Research on the Isle aux Morts shipwreck (CjBs-1) began in 1981 with the discovery of an astrolabe by local recreational diver Wayne Mushrow, leading to two years of research headed by the Newfoundland Marine Archaeology Society (NMAS). 1 Located in southwest Newfoundland about 13 km from Cape Ray (Figure 3), the wreck was surveyed by underwater archaeologists in 1982 as part of operations that included the port area of Great Burin Harbour in Placentia Bay, also used in the seventeenth century by Basque fishers (NMAS, 1982: 196). 2 The first discoveries at Isle aux Morts were four iron cannons 3 and four anchors 4 scattered in about 10 metres of water. Sub-bottom vestiges were overlain by up to 50 cm of sediments, extending over a distance of about 26 metres and covering an area of about 820 square metres. Numerous artifacts were visible on the surface, including a French coin stamped “1638.” Following this inventory, the site was declared a provincial historic site in 1983 and two further investigations were conducted in 1983 and 1984.

3 The team’s 1983 investigation was led by Sheri O. Smith, with the aims of defining the site’s extent and ascertaining the wreck’s nature (Smith, 1983: 142). Smith reported that the wreck was preserved over a length of 26.5 metres, and was oriented east–west (Smith, 1983: 143). The cannons and the anchors, already seen in 1982, were mapped into a general site plan, along with visible architectural remains that showed the hull’s outline and identified the bow at the eastern end of the site. A test pit excavated near the bow brought 170 artifacts or fragments to light, and the report mentions the discovery of fishing tools that are not in the site’s collection.

4 The artifact inventory (Table 1) by Diana Baird 5 shows that wood remains represent the greater part of the recovered objects (96 items), followed by leather (31 items), ceramic (14 items), and metal (10 items) (NMAS, 1983: 19). Other inventoried materials include glass (3 items), ferrous concretions (2 items), sulphur (1 item), textile (2 items), and faunal remains (4 items). The wooden objects are mostly ship fragments, 6 as well as pulleys and sheaves, cask staves, stowage wedges, and fragments of a turned-wood porringer. An unidentified element may be part of the internal mechanism of a bilge pump. Leather shoe and boot fragments, metal elements including fishing weights, and ceramics were recovered during this campaign. The only faunal remains were a walrus tusk and the penis bone (baculum) of a marine mammal.

5 The NMAS returned to the site in the summer of 1984. Protection measures taken the previous year to preserve the remains (wooden hoarding and sandbags) were apparently not enough to protect the highest parts of the wreck from wave action and natural erosion. Several timber ends, as well as the cannons, projected out of the sediments. Various artifacts had become uncovered, including leather and planks. The area of test pits N1-E12 and S1-E14 (Figure 4), already disturbed by clandestine divers following the site’s 1981 discovery, had received the same treatment after the team’s departure in 1983. The baseline had been moved, concretions broken, and objects scattered around on the surface. Nevertheless, parts of the wreck remained undisturbed (Moir, Barron, and Wilansky, in NMAS, 1984: 14). Following a brief inspection in the summer of 1984, no other investigations were undertaken on the Isle aux Morts shipwreck due to a lack of funding. The team, however, made several recommendations in light of the wreck’s historic significance and the need to protect it until a fuller excavation could be conducted. When these investigations came to an end, the wreck’s origin still remained unknown. In a later assessment of the artifact assemblage, however, Amanda Crompton drew attention to the French provenance of some ceramics, including one piece from the Saintonge region (Crompton, 2001).

6 The site reports allow only a summary description of the hull remains (Figure 4). In its 1983 report, the NMAS estimated that about 30 per cent of the hull had survived. The frame ends were visible along both the starboard (south) and port (north) sides. Those on the port side were in excellent condition, while their opposite numbers on the starboard side were more exposed and severely attacked by shipworm. A hull segment, possibly detached from the rest of the articulated remains, lay to the north of the port frames. Scattered futtocks and floor timbers, visible at the surface of the sea-floor sediments and detached from the main vestige, provided some clues to the wreck event. Their fracture close to the keel led archaeologists to suggest that a violent shock had shattered the hull and dislocated the front of the keelson. The bow (to the east) was heavily damaged. Conversely, the stern area (to the west) was in better condition and divers could observe the room and space of the frames — although no measures are recorded. In addition to the transversal frames, two lengthwise hull reinforcements were observed on the starboard (south) side. The edges of these timbers were bevelled and their curvature followed the internal shape of the hull. On their lower (north) edge, two dovetail mortises hand been cut 5 cm apart. The report also mentions ceiling planks, about 5 cm thick, that alternated with thicker timbers and may be footwales or beam shelves (Smith, 1983: 153).

7 At more than 26 metres in length, the Isle aux Morts ship was bigger than the San Juan, wrecked at Red Bay in 1565, which measured 14.73 metres at the keel and 22 metres between the tops of the stem and the sternpost (Loewen, 2007: 28). The San Juan had three masts, three decks, a cargo capacity of about 250 tons, and a draught of 4 metres when fully loaded. While the Isle aux Morts report contains no architectural clues to the wreck’s origin or date, the observation of detached and isolated floor timbers and futtocks may be a sign of the characteristic “floating futtock” frame structure of the San Juan and other Iberian wrecks of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries (Grenier et al., 2007; Oertling, 2001).

8 The NMAS report also provides clues to the circumstances of the disaster and the site’s formation process. Located about 20 metres from shore, the wreck is at the entrance of a small cove where shelter from high winds and heavy seas could be found. The anchors’ proximity to the bow indicates that they were on board at the time of the wreck, thus the vessel was underway and not moored at the time of the disaster. The ship appears to have been heading eastward, having cut through a gap in the barrier of reefs and islands on its way to the cove (Figure 5). Given the complexity of the channel, it is hard to imagine that the pilot had strayed here fortuitously; however, the closest fishing station known through historical maps was 10 kilometres away at Port-aux-Basques (Barkham, 1987; Weyers, 2009). In its underwater context, the wreck lies in a sandy “gulch” between east–west-trending rocky ridges that the ship may have struck while running for shelter. The site plan suggests that the hull is heavily tilted to the starboard (south). Since the port side projected higher up, it was more exposed and the hull fractured on this side, detaching its upper portion (Figure 5).

9 In contrast to the hull remains, the material culture from the site adds greatly to our understanding of the wreck’s origin and date. The Isle aux Morts shipwreck is unique for the temporal indicators recovered in three short reconnaissance surveys, especially the Mushrow astrolabes and the coins that provide a confident terminus post quem.

31 According to the historical record, the Basque transatlantic fisheries began in 1517 and lasted about two and a half centuries. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, this activity was characterized by a series of geographic displacements over time (Figure 16). Brad Loewen and Vincent Delmas have theorized these displacements as periods that were shaped by geo-political events (Loewen and Delmas, 2012). In the first period, until about 1580, cod fishers and whalers occupied the gateways to the Gulf, setting up seasonal stations in Placentia Bay, on Cape Breton Island, around Canso, and in the Strait of Belle Isle. Ships from Spain, which were the majority throughout the Basque fisheries, also played a geopolitical role in blocking French and English navigation farther west into the Gulf. Their control of access ended abruptly after the 1578 whaling season in the Strait of Belle Isle, opening the floodgates of European navigation into the Gulf (Loewen and Delmas, 2012). Moving westward in the wake of Malouin traders, Basques from Saint-Jean-de-Luz in Lapurdi set up whaling and trading stations at the mouth of the Saguenay (Turgeon, 1995). These events set in motion the second period of the Basque fisheries, from approximately 1580 to 1635. In these years, Basques occupied various places along the north shore of the Gulf, from Labrador to the Tadoussac region, as well as in the southern Gulf from Cape Breton Island to Chaleur Bay.

32 The material culture from these pre-1635 Basque sites has been extensively studied. Sites from the Strait of Belle Isle, especially Red Bay, have yielded a highly distinctive material culture that is widely associated with these first two Basque periods. It is associated with masonry ovens for transforming whale blubber into oil, and with the remains of seasonal buildings (nails, roof tiles, post holes, flooring, wooden wall remains) (Grenier et al., 2007). In the Tadoussac region, the smaller sites of Île-aux-Basques and Anse-à-la-Cave (Lalande, 1994) show several similarities to those in the Strait of Belle Isle, particularly the ceramics that originate in pottery centres in the Basque Country and elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula (Escribano-Ruiz and Barreiro Argüelles, 2016). Covering about a century, this highly distinctive material culture is found on Basque sites all along the north shore of the Gulf, from the Atlantic to the Saguenay (Delmas, 2018).

33 Also during the 1580–1635 period, the Basque cod fishery expanded from Placentia Bay to western Newfoundland, pioneering a series of ports in a south-to-north progression that continued into the third period of the Basque fisheries, from 1635 to 1713 (Figure 17). We find Basque cod-fishing ships in 1590 at Bay St. George and Port au Port (Ophor Portu), by the 1630s in the Bay of Islands (Tres Irlak) and at Port au Choix (Portutxoa), and by about 1650 at Ferolle (Echaide Portu) near the Strait of Belle Isle (Bélanger, 1971; de Gandía, 1942; Barkham, 1989). Newfoundland’s west coast became an exclusive Basque fishing ground, to such an extent that mapmakers in the 1670s and 1680s labelled it the “Côte Basque” (Egaña Goya, 1995). Basque presence in western Newfoundland is known from 1590 to 1730 approximately, and reached its apogee in the second half of the seventeenth century (Losier et al., this volume). Until now, archaeo-logical data on the Basque fisheries along this coast have been rare and preliminary, as they are for the 1635–1713 period in general throughout the Gulf (Loewen and Delmas, 2012). The Isle aux Morts shipwreck thus adds greatly to this sparsely documented chapter of Basque presence in Canada. In particular, it sheds light on potential shifts in seventeenth-century Basque material culture, which appears to vary in significant ways from that of the first two periods, prior to 1635.

34 Our interpretation of the Isle aux Morts wreck suggests that the ship, with a crew of possibly 40–50, was underway along the coast when it sought to enter a secluded cove that was known to a crew member, perhaps to seek shelter from high winds and heavy seas. The wreck event, based on datable pieces of material culture, can be narrowed down to the half-century from 1638 to about 1690. While the two astrolabes and the double tournois coin provide a terminus post quem of 1638, the date ranges of the Saintonge polychrome coarse earthenware and the majolica indicate a terminus ante quem of about 1690. The ship’s origin, or at least that of its outfit, is indicated by the French coins, the French and Portuguese astrolabes, and the ceramics from Saintonge, the Bordeaux hinterland, and possibly Muel in Aragon. Among the ceramics, the most diagnostic ceramic piece is the rare majolica bowl with its datable decor, whose occurrence at Isle aux Morts points to a Basque supply network.

35 We have thus paid special attention to the ceramic assemblage, from the perspective of recent research on the evolution of Basque material culture in the seventeenth century. Prior to about 1630, ceramics found on Basque sites in the northern Gulf mostly came from the Iberian Peninsula, in accordance with historical data showing that most Basque ships and crews came from Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia in Spain (Escribano-Ruiz and Barreiro Argüelles, 2016). Other research in the southern Gulf has shown that, after 1713, Basque-specific ceramics form a minority among common French wares on sites where Basque fishermen were present (Chrestien and Dufournier, 1994; Loewen and Delmas, 2012). For the intervening period, about 1630–1713, Vincent Delmas has suggested a certain “francisation” of Basque-related ceramics, based on his study of sites in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (Delmas, 2018). The Isle aux Morts assemblage may shed additional light on this seventeenth-century trend.

36 Delmas also remarks that each ceramic provenance on Basque sites along the North Shore correlates with a specific food-related function (Delmas, 2018). We may express this correlation in terms of “provenance-function categories.” In so doing we may link these categories to the theoretical contribution of Charles Dagneau, who tied maritime artifacts’ “ship-board functions” to one of three sources: the ship’s owner or captain, who provided the ship itself; the outfitter who provided equipment and supplies for the specific voyage; or the crew members who brought their personal belongings. By comparing different shipwrecks over time, Dagneau could track changes in the provenance of artifacts supplied by each of these actors, bringing greater precision to the longitudinal analysis of artifacts from ships (Dagneau, 2008).

37 Using Dagneau’s approach, we may associate each “provenance-function category” of ceramics on Basque fishing sites either with the voyage’s outfitter or with its crew members. (We are assuming that the ship’s owner did not supply any of the pottery on board.) Among the crew members, the officers formed a recognizable subgroup because of their higher economic status and social cohesion. Thus we can hypothesize that if the ship’s oufitter and crew came from the same region, the ceramics associated with each of them also came from this region. However, if the ship’s owner or captain recruited his crew in one region and obtained his outfit in a different region, we may expect the ceramics contributed by the crew and the outfitter also to come from different regions. In this way, we may use provenance-function categories among ceramics to detect regional shifts in crewing and outfitting practices. Specifically, we may ask which ceramic categories underwent a “francisation” in the seventeenth century, and which categories remained Iberian in origin.

38 On Basque sites in the northern Gulf prior to about 1630, ceramic vessels containing specialty foods came from Andalusia, Portugal, Bearn, and Lower Normandy. These specialty foods appear in the outfitting lists of Basque ships, as items supplied by an outfitter for the voyage. Other function-provenance categories were also likely part of the ship’s outfit. Cooking pots likely came from the Zamora region of León, while coarse earthenware jugs and pitchers that contained condiments and brought drinks to the table came from Basque potters in Bizkaia and Araba. These containers were likely supplied for use by rank-andfile crew members. In contrast, the officers’ table was graced with majolica from Muel, Talavera de la Reina in Castille, and Araba in the Basque Country. These finer objects may have belonged to the officers themselves, or were provided by the captain as part of a favoured arrangement (Escribano-Ruiz and Barreiro Argüelles, 2016; Delmas, 2018).

39 The pre-1630 ceramic spectrum is quite different from the material found at Isle aux Morts. On this circa 1638–90 site in southwest Newfoundland, the cooking pot is from Sadirac in the Bordeaux hinterland, while the pharmaceutical pot is from Saintonge near La Rochelle. These containers belonged to the ship’s general outfit, and thus their provenances suggest a shift from Iberian to French outfitters in the Basque transatlantic fishery. In another seventeenth-century Basque context at Petit-Mécatina, Vincent Delmas has noted Norman stoneware containing specialty foods and French green-glazed coarse earthenware cooking pots that may be from Sadirac (Delmas, 2018). Here as well, French provenances occurred among objects that were part of the ship’s general outfit. While preliminary, these findings tend to show that the “francisation” suggested by Vincent Delmas was most apparent in the pottery supplied by the outfitters of Basque transatlantic voyages.

40 Historical studies of cross-border agreements within the Basque region show that the French Marine, during the seventeenth-century wars, allowed Basque fishing and whaling ships from Spain to sail for New France under a French flag, in exchange for purchasing supplies and unloading their catch in a French port (Turgeon, 1995; Loewen and Delmas, 2012). Saint-Jean-de-Luz became the centre of this cross-border outfitting industry, contributing to the port’s growth and prosperity in the seventeenth century (Azpiazu, 2000). In this way, geopolitical factors can be linked to changes in Basque outfitting practices that are visible in the ceramic record.

41 In contrast, the fine majolica bowl found at Isle aux Morts, used for individual food consumption, probably came from Muel (Aragon), and we may associate it with the ship’s crew and likely its officers. Thus, this particular “provenance-function category” shows no change since the sixteenth century, suggesting that the ship’s crew or at least the officers were recruited in Spain. Other findings of seventeenth-century personal belongings also show a pattern of Iberian provenances. At Île Nue de Mingan, an otherwise unknown style of majolica, likely from Iberia, has been reported (Drouin, 1988). At Petit-Mécatina, individual plates appear for the first time in the Basque ceramic repertoire, in the form of a yellow-glazed plate from Bilbao (Escribano-Ruiz, 2014: 245). These findings suggest that Basque crew members continued to bring Iberian ceramics on board, and likely continued to come from Spain. Such an interpretation is supported by historical data showing that a majority of Basque fishing crews originated in Gipuzkoa in the seventeenth century (Turgeon, 1995).

42 In this analysis of the Isle aux Morts assemblage, the chafing dish is a special case. Its provenance remains unknown, and it has no functional equivalent on Basque sites prior to 1630. Like the majolica bowl, it was likely set on the officers’ table, but since it had a collective function of warming a shared pot it may have been provided by the captain personally. Several seventeenth-century sites, including Petit-Mécatina and a looted underwater site at Rivière-Saint-Paul, have yielded chafing dishes, some of which lack a provenance while others can be assigned to Saintonge (Loewen, 2017: 174). Confirming this refinement in Basque shipboard dining habits, individual ceramic plates also became part the sailors’ table settings.

43 After so many years of slumber, the Isle aux Morts site’s condition needs to be re-evaluated, notably to verify whether the anchors and cannons, essential to understanding the site, have been preserved. It is also necessary to pursue the test pits begun in the western part of the site. More data are needed about the ship’s architecture, its organization, and its identity in order to reconstruct the life of this ship and its crew.