19/08/2020

In Folha, codfish and the secret of America's existence.

Foto: Wikimedia Commons

Reproduction of Marcelo Viana's column in Folha de S.Paulo.

In search of new lands and riches, from the 8th century onwards the Vikings made numerous sea voyages westward. They had learned to preserve cod by drying it in the wind, which ensured nutritious food during long sea voyages.

Around the year 1000, they arrived on the coast of Canada, where they settled: traces of a Norse settlement were found in Newfoundland . But their presence was short-lived, and soon the secret of America's existence was lost again to the Europeans, until the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Or was it?

In medieval Europe, subject to numerous religious restrictions on the consumption of land animal meat, there was a strong demand for whale meat. Fishermen from the Basque Country in northern Spain were the first commercial suppliers, starting as early as the 7th century. Initially, they hunted in their own Bay of Biscay, but they expanded their range. In this way, they came into contact with the Vikings, from whom they may have learned some tricks.

The Basques also used cod as a travel supply, but they made an important advance: in addition to drying it, they salted the fish, which improves the flavor and increases its shelf life. Advances in shipbuilding made increasingly longer voyages possible.

With the demand for cod growing in Europe, the Basques became its largest suppliers. Many others fished for it, especially in the North Sea and off the coast of Iceland, but no one saw the Basques there. Where did they get access to so much fish? The suspicion is that they knew about the rich cod banks of Canada, but they jealously guarded the secret.

My Portuguese ancestors also had a good nose for this, of course. Although more occupied with the South Atlantic (Africa, Brazil), in the search for a sea route to India, they did explore the north. In 1473, the navigator João Vaz Corte-Real (1420-1496) was sent by King Afonso V to Denmark to participate in an expedition aimed at re-establishing the country's connection with Greenland, broken at the beginning of the century with the abandonment of the Viking colonies. From there, he is said to have organized expeditions to the coast of North America, in particular "discovering" Newfoundland.

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