This short film is a montage based on footage taken by Father Yvon de Guengat, chaplain on the banks of Newfoundland and skipper of the “Saint-Yves”, a hospital ship chartered by the Société des Œuvres de Mer. The scenes are filmed on a 3-masted ship from Saint-Malo, in 1934, during the last years of cod fishing under sail. The Baie de Saint-Brieuc vessels that went out to sea at the beginning of the 20th century were of the same type.
You’ll only see what’s happening on deck: nearby icebergs, a boat-to-boat visit, the fishing of whelks for line bait, the preparation of the lines, the departure of the dories for fishing and their return, the stages of preparing the fish before it can be salted in the hold, the fog, the storm, the men…
These films are the property of Cinémathèque de Bretagne. With their kind permission.