Herring Neck – “Birthplace of the Fishermen’s Protective Union”

Today the community of Herring Neck is rather quiet and seems out of the way, even though linked to the rest of Newfoundland by roads and causeways. For a rich history, though, few communities on Newfoundland’s Northeast Coast can compare to Herring Neck. It is located at the extreme northeast of New World Island (NWI) in Notre Dame Bay. Herring Neck is made up of a number of smaller settlements. Exactly which communities comprise Herring Neck has changed over the years, but since 1981 they have been Sunnyside, Merritt’s Harbour, Salt Harbour and Ship Island. Nearby Cobb’s Arm and Too Good Arm have also been considered part of Herring Neck, but today are normally thought of as separate communities. Herring Neck could only be reached by boat until the first roads were built in the 1950s. The community was first called Goshen’s Arm; “Herring Neck” then referred to today’s Pike’s Arm and Green Cove. The economy has always been based on fishing, an activity encouraged by a sheltered harbour. With its hilly terrain ­ in some places rising to 150 feet, or forty-six metres ­ and exposed bedrock, large-scale farming was never an option. There is a plentiful supply of coniferous trees nearby, and in 1940 three sawmills were operating in the area.

Herring Neck was one of the first places on New World Island visited by Europeans. It is likely that French and Portuguese fishers were active in the area by the 1500s; English vessels might have been fishing the grounds off Herring Neck then as well. The name Herring Neck probably derived from the early fishers’ practice of carrying loads of herring (Clupea harengus) across the narrow neck of Pike’s Arm. Herring were plentiful, but were hauled overland to avoid the Arm’s treacherous headwaters. Reportedly the Beothuk Indians frequented the area, although these Natives may have been Mi’Kmaq (Micmac).

Herring Neck’s first settler is believed to be one Jimmy Chant in the 1760s. By the 1790s he was joined by a family named Walsh. As of the 1857 census the population of the area then called Herring Neck was 610. There were eighty-eight families residing in eighty-one dwellings. Twenty years later Herring Neck’s resident fishers were listed as Daniel and Edward Blandford, Samuel and William Card, Charles Cullen, Thomas Daily, Joseph Kearly, Henry Mills, William Mursell, John Warren, and T. Woodford. The population peaked at about 1,000 persons in the 1880s, remaining steady until the 1930s-40s when a decline set in. In its early days Herring Neck was mainly an inshore fishery centre, but the Labrador fishery became more important by the late nineteenth century. Around 1900 Herring Neck sent ten schooners to Labrador, the number rising to twenty-five before declining in the Depression era (1929-39). By the end of World War II Herring Neck’s traditional Labrador fishery was all but gone.

Herring Neck was a centre of merchant activity connected with the fishery. In 1871 the community had four merchant houses, with E.J. Duder maintaining a branch there until the firm’s bankruptcy in the 1890s. Duders’ premises were taken over by George Carter and other successors until they too went out of business in the 1960s. The community’s first general store was Mundys, which later became Howells & Sons, and finally Herring Neck General Store. Even in the heyday of the merchant businesses, all wasn’t smooth sailing. The Twillingate Sun reported on a major fire suffered by one of Herring Neck’s merchants in 1949:

One of the most serious fires to occur on the Northeast coast for many years was experienced at Herring Neck…when the premises of Earle Sons & Company were almost completely destroyed. The value of the buildings and their contents lost to the flames is estimated at around seventy five thousand dollars. Some insurance was carried but the company has sustained a very heavy blow as the greater part of their winter supplies had been received and stored before the disaster…

The first sign of fire was noted by men on the wharf a few minutes after nine in the morning, when flames were seen through the window of the storage room. The alarm was raised immediately and an effort made to fight the blaze at the point of origin, but flames forced them outside where a ladder was raised to the window but nothing could be done there as a few seconds later flame burst through. [Two men] then mounted the roof and chopped holes through which they poured water passed to them by a bucket brigade. For a few minutes it appeared that the fire could be controlled by this means but such was not the case. The fire had gained so much headway before discovery that the interior of [the] building was soon a mass of flames. With the aid of a small pumping engine…and the bucket brigade men worked furiously to save the nearby buildings but the fire could not be got under control until practically the whole premises had been destroyed.

…[T]he amount snatched from the flames was insignificant compared to that lost, among which are included four hundred quintals of fish, some thirty-five tons of coal, and nearly all the contents of the various buildings…We understand the firm is making provisions to supply its dealers through the winter by building and stocking a small supply store to serve until rebuilding of the premises can be undertaken next year.

…….

Herring Neck was the birthplace William Ford Coaker’s Fisherman’s Protective Union (FPU), and a building in the community played a central role in this event. Herring Neck’s Loyal Orange Lodge, number 116, was built in 1904 by Thomas Blandford. Strangely for an Orange Lodge, it was patterned after St. John’s Roman Catholic Basilica. Local lodge members provided free labour during construction. In 1931 a pair of spires on the sides of the entrance were shortened since they often cracked during very high winds, causing leaks which damaged the floor. Like most Orange Lodges, the structure served not only the Orangemen, but the community in general. It was the site of dances, concerts, wedding receptions, and was even used as a kind of town hall. In its role as a meeting place it launched Coaker’s FPU in November 1912. The Herring Neck LOL was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1998.

Although Herring Neck’s Orange Lodge is very important from the standpoint of Newfoundland history, to the early settlers churches were more necessary than societal halls. Herring Neck’s original inhabitants had no regular clergy. The first Church of England church, St. Mary’s, was built in the 1830s. It continued in use until 1870 when it was destroyed by fire. In 1875 a new St. Mary’s was completed to replace the original, while around this time a Methodist congregation was established. In 1910 the Methodists built a church, thought to have been their second, on Ship Island. The church’s builder was probably a local carpenter named George Blandford. This church was abandoned, along with Ship Island itself, in the 1960s. By the 1891 census 246 of 942 residents of Herring Neck were Methodist. As of 1910 there were about 100 members of the Salvation Army, and a new citadel was built for their worship.

Churches were soon followed by schools, the first opening at Herring Neck under John Moss sometime between 1846 and 1848. A new school was soon set up in competition with Moss’s establishment. Although the community had two schools in the 1850s, there was still no official school building. Pupils studying at Salt Harbour did so in a private residence, while the others met in a small store (shed). A new school house was erected by 1880 and others were added as the population grew. A number of these local schools were used until a new integrated school was opened at Newville in the 1970s.

For many years Herring Neck had its own fresh-fish plant, opened in 1972. Constructed by the Twillingate Island/New World Island Development Association, the plant had a number of owners over the years, processing species like cod, capelin, herring, turbot and mackerel, all of which were fresh frozen. Unfortunately, Herring Neck’s fish plant was downsized in 1991 and ceased operations in 2004.

Given such economic setbacks, many youths have left the community in search of better opportunities. Herring Neck is still home to about 200 people, many of whom continue to make their living in various fisheries. Community spirit is still very evident. One project, for example, has seen the area around Herring Neck Pond turned into a day park. The pond has its own boardwalk with facilities for swimmers and picnickers; a walking trail extends from the pond to a nearby lookout. Atop the lookout is a beautiful view extending from southern Change Islands to Friday’s Bay. Future plans may include a camping area and other amenities.

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