Paimpol – the Iceland fishery
Paimpol's name comes from the Breton words penn (head) and pouill (pool): it stands at the head of a long sea inlet (at high tide, that’s the pool).
Paimpol had a rare advantage over other harbours in Brittany. Its harbour is the estuary of the little stream Quinic which runs into the south side of the sea inlet, and although the land rises to the north of the sea inlet, to the south the land is flat and hardly two metres above high tide. The mouth of the Quinic could be excavated into a large commercial harbour. It was given lock gates, which enabled it to accommodate the type of ocean-going ships which can’t sit on mudbanks at low tide. The flat land alongside the harbour enabled cargoes to be stacked on the quays. It encouraged the establishment of artisanal workshops including clothing, sails, rope and pulley manufacture. But the most important use of that flat land was in the construction of ocean-fishing vessels. Over the centuries Paimpol expertise in ship design became famous.
In the 15th century Paimpol built and manned boats which fished for cod far out in the Atlantic. When the Grand Banks off Newfoundland had been fished out of cod, the Paimpolais went further afield, into the freezing waters and furious gales off Iceland. That trade needed robust boats and robust crews, and Paimpol provided both. The “Goélette Paimpolaise” was a sturdy but graceful two-masted barque with a long jib-boom and six flying jibs, a practical ship bringing home a commercially-valuable catch.
Looking at Paimpol’s position on the map, at the end of a long inlet an Iceland fisher could only navigate at high tide, on an inlet facing east when departing fishermen wanted to go west, with an exit to the ocean involving navigating around Brehat and a myriad of other islands and rock banks in the strongest tides of Brittany, it is hard to believe the number of ships it fielded for the Iceland trade. The flat land round the harbour is one key to its success, but there must be something due to the local determination and ship design. It was the only Breton harbour involved in the Iceland fishery besides Saint-Malo.
Today, Paimpol has re-invented itself as a holiday destination. The old town is full of cafés, the place of the old factories has been taken by new hotels and holiday flats. A pleasant place, a hospitable population, but you can still find the boat-builders and the sea-clothing manufactory. You turn a corner and there is the goelette. Not a history to be forgotten.
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