Havre Aubert Cape

The waters off Havre-Aubert surround the southern part of the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Along the narrow shore of La Grave, Indigenous visitors from the mainland and Basque, Breton and Norman fishermen worked during the sixteenth century. The sandy and gravelly beach provided ground on which crews could dry their catches. Seasonal fishing connected these small shores with distant Atlantic ports before a permanent island community developed.

In 1762 Richard Gridley, formerly an officer and military engineer in British service, established a fishing and walrus-hunting enterprise with Acadian and Canadian families. They formed the first lasting settlement of the archipelago, probably living on Havre-Aubert while hunting farther northeast around Grosse-Île and Old Harry. Gridley operated the undertaking until 1765. Further refugees from the Acadian deportation enlarged the settled population. The surrounding sea supported both visiting crews and resident households, while the work of catching, drying and transporting marine products linked the island with outside suppliers and markets. Havre-Aubert's maritime history therefore developed around an identifiable working shore within the gulf.