After a long, hard fishing season in Newfoundland and on the Grand Banks, the boats returned home towards the end of August or the beginning of September. Some of the ships did not return to Brittany and went directly to sell their cargo of cod in Marseille or other Mediterranean ports. They returned to their home port just before spring, loaded down with various goods (oil, soap, etc.), salt bought in Vendée for future campaigns and alcohol for the crew’s daily rations.

At the beginning of the 19th century, deep-sea fishing shipowners discovered a new Eldorado: Iceland. The crossing to Iceland was shorter than the one to Newfoundland, the campaign was longer, the fishing more profitable, but also more dangerous because storms were frequent and the coasts inhospitable. The ships used for Newfoundland were neither fast enough nor manoeuvrable enough for Icelandic waters, so the slimmer, faster, more manoeuvrable topsail schooner, the flagship of Paimpol’s shipyards from 1850 onwards, became the emblematic Icelandic ship described by Pierre Loti in “Fishermen of Iceland”. The sailors did not disembark and fished from the ship, the cod being prepared and salted on board.

Until the end of the 19th century, coastal shipping was an essential means of transport and communication, as the roads in Brittany were very poor or non-existent.

Everything was transported by boat: maerl (marine sediment used as a limestone amendment for agriculture), livestock, timber, vegetables, passengers, etc. The routes were coastal, but also across the Channel or up towards Northern Europe. Le Portrieux has always been a very active coastal shipping centre.

In 1800, cutters, fast single-masted sailing ships, provided a regular service to Jersey and Guernsey for the early produce trade and also to transport seasonal labour. They were replaced at the end of the 19th century by steamers and schooners. In 1857, the port’s traffic to the English Isles totalled 70 coastal vessels. To this must be added the dredging of limestone sands for agricultural and construction needs. All the department’s food exports to England pass through Portrieux. In 1858, 267 ships entered the port and 261 left, including 177 from England. 

At the beginning of the 20th century, the coal trade with Cardiff developed, in particular to fuel the lime kiln at Le Portrieux. 22,000 tonnes were unloaded in 1913. 

Two coasters, Le Léonard and Le Trégor, still transported cement and lime in the 1960s.

But competition from rail transport was strong (the Saint-Brieuc – Plouha railway line opened in 1905) and maritime trade in Portrieux almost completely disappeared in the middle of the 20th century, as in the other ports of the Côtes du Nord.

Coastal fishing has always been a way of life for many families in Portrieux. Every day, the sailors used their small dinghies, first sailing then motor boats, alone or in twos, to troll for fish often sold by their wives.

Henri Duhamel du Monceau’s “Traité général des pêches”, published in 1769, notes that in the Baie de Saint Brieuc, fishing was mainly by line and a little by net in 2 or 3 tonne boats: turbot, plaice, conger eel, pollack, mullet, sea eel, skate, sole, dogfish, red mullet and mackerel. Oysters were dredged and pots and traps were set.

From 1930 onwards, the boats were gradually motorised.

In the 1950s and 1960s, having exhausted the sea urchin beds, multi-skilled shellfish harvesters, armed with clam dredges and then scallops, developed a fishery that was both sustainable and profitable. To preserve the beds, scallop fishing is strictly limited. A fishing quota is set each year, taking into account the indices of abundance for future years, which ensures that the Bay of Saint-Brieuc remains one of the largest shellfish beds in France.

With the inauguration of the deep-water port in 1990, this fishery has become the flagship of Saint-Quay-Portrieux. 

Saint-Quay Port-d’Armor has become the largest shellfish port in France, welcoming 165 inshore vessels and 6 offshore vessels in 2022.

Since 1865, Portrieux has been home to a lifeboat station under the aegis of the SCSN (Société Centrale de Secours aux Naufragés). The Ponts et Chaussées built the dinghy shelter on the site of the current maritime cooperative.

The first canoes, launched in 1867, were rowed and sailed. They were not motorised until after the Second World War. The HSB (Hospitaliers Sauveteurs Bretons) took charge of the station until 1967, when their merger with the SCSN gave birth to the SNSM (Société Nationale de Secours en Mer). All these sea rescue structures, which save so many lives, are community-based and run by volunteers.

The Saint-Quay-Portrieux SNSM station has premises on the quayside of the Port d’Armor. Thanks to this facility, Saint-Quay-Portrieux is a “port of refuge”, able to send out the lifeboat at any time, day or night, regardless of the tides, and to receive all medical assistance. It is a permanent station with a first-class launch “Sainte Anne du Port” and a large semi-rigid. It has around forty volunteers and operates under the orders of CROSS CORSEN (Centre Régional Opérationnel de Surveillance et de Sauvetage pour la Bretagne Nord).