By Jocelyne Cormier

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

The Red Bay National Historical Site is setting its sights on securing a UNESCO world heritage site designation.

Cindy Gibbons, site supervisor, said a steering committee has been put in place to work towards getting the designation. It’s made up of representatives from the Town of Red Bay, the Labrador Straits Historical Development Corporation, the Labrador Straits Development Corporation and Destination Labrador.

‘It’s the recognition of the value of a UNESCO designation to the region and not just to this community and this site. Right now, it’s the next major goal for Parks Canada, in particular, and for the community. We all see it as crucial to the continuous development of the tourism industry,” Gibbons said.

Having a UNESCO world heritage designation would mean that Red Bay is an important part of the world’s heritage. World heritage sites belong to all the people of the world, regardless of the territory on which they are located.

Helping to make the case is a report by Parks Canada on the underwater archeology that has been carried out in Red Bay. Parks Canada presented the report to the provincial government at a ceremony in St. John’s in early April.

Gibbons said the report is the culmination of almost 30 years of research by Parks Canada’s underwater unit. The report is an important document because it complements both the information already known about the site and the way the Basque story is told.

“I think it will give us more information and help us tell the story better and that is the main point for me. The shipwrecks are an integral part of it, given their role in the westward expansion from Europe into North America.”

She said the report gives better insight into how ships were built in the 16th century and the technology that allowed them to make the Atlantic crossings. Gibbons said the committee is hoping to submit the proposal to the World Heritage Committee in January 2011. That gives the committee almost three years to prepare the proposal.

Robert Grenier, chief of underwater archeology for Parks Canada, said the report is a result of nearly 30 years of research on the Basque involvement in Red Bay about their whaling technology. He added the document is about their ships and shipbuilding technology, their seafaring, and their use of this territory, which is now called Canada.

“One shipwreck needed to be there to do this research. After all these years, there are four shipwrecks of the same period, seemingly from the same province. The first one, the San Juan, is by far the most important one in terms of quantity of remains and information to be gathered, including the ship structure as well as the cargo remains,” Grenier said. “It is by far the richest harbour anywhere in the world with 16th century Spanish galleons and I have to say well-preserved.”

(Jocelyne Cormier is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Northern Pen newspaper and a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)