Fish on Friday: Feasting, Fasting, and the Discovery of the New World

For anyone interested in European arrivals and colonization of America, this book fills in many gaps. Doubly interesting to those interested in history of sea, commercial fishing, historic sailing vessels. The book has a few slow and repetitive spots in the middle but otherwise is pleasant to read and full of interesting information.

What led Christian Europe into the Western Hemisphere? According to Brian Fagan, it wasn't spices or even empire, but the need to respond to religious dogma. Over the centuries, the Roman Catholic church added fast and saint's days to the Christian calendar. Deprived of meat, which was hardly common fare in any case, the population became increasingly dependent on fish. Freshwater fish stocks were readily depleted, and those caught often failed to accept the curing techniques of the day. Ocean fish became the mainstay of many, and even those seemingly rich waters were erratic producers. In this interesting and informative history, Fagan depicts the fish, the ships that sought them and the business of the fisheries as they expanded across the Atlantic. Only the fishermen remain undefined. Fagan points out that many elements enter into any rendition of the fishing trade. Rising populations and increasing numbers of "fast days" were but two factors. Another was the hierarchical society emerging from the Middle Ages. The best fish, such as sturgeon and salmon, went to the aristocracy and senior church officers. The monastic orders, although declaring themselves frugal in policy, increasingly divided their population, with fish quality at meals following status. The poor were left with salt herring and coarse fish. Proper preservation was slow in developing, the author notes, and varied with the fish and location. Slow and unreliable transportation limited cartloads of fish no further than 150 kilometres from shore. Another major topic Fagan deals with is the almost minimal change in ship design over the centuries. Not until the Norsemen began to roam the eastern Atlantic did real seaworthy vessels emerge. These were fast, deep-water sailers, but had little carrying capacity. For fishing purposes, they were limited in catch size. Later ships, the buss, the dogger and the caravel, while lumbering hulks compared to the Norse knarr, could bring home a sizeable load. Shifting fish swarms, due to mostly unknown causes, drew secretive fishers to fresh sites. Fagan notes that while we know much about ships and the market for fish, who found which location remains an enigma. Fishermen keep close counsel on where they have gone to reap the sea's harvest, and much of the chronology of new discoveries of fish stocks isn't available. The Icelandic waters brought many fishers northwest from Europe, introducing them to new locations as competition and various taxes and regulations hampered expansion into the new scene. It is government accounts and pronouncements that offer the best clues to who was fishing where. From Iceland, storms, contrary winds or shifting ice drove many fishermen to Newfoundland and the great cod fisheries. Settlement in North America was slow and hesitant, the author notes, but drying and salting the catch was a spur to establishing communities. According to Fagan, once the Grand Banks fisheries were tapped, th

The author takes a seemingly simple question, where did the Christian custom of eating fish on specfic days come from, and assembles lots of interesting historical detail to support his answer. This book is written for a general audience, and would appeal to a range of readers. You could read this book as a sort of mystery story, as it is written in a popular and very readable style. (Actually, one of mysteries the author unravels is why haven't more people asked this question in the first place). If you are fond of history, you may find that a lot of the background information is familar to you, but it is combined in a novel way that will make you see familiar facts in a different light. If history is not your favorite subject, but you are interested in food and cooking,the book gives lots of interesting details about food production and eating habits in a variety of ancient and modern cultures. I enjoyed reading this book, although at times the author's love of sailing and fishng lore leads to long discussions of what seem to me to be minor points. But that's just a quibble. This book was educational and fun to read, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in history, religion, or food.

"Fish On Friday: Feasting, Fasting and the Discovery of the New World" by Brian Fagan is a complex journey through cultural, political, and even culinary history, examining the role of fish in Western European diet through Medieval times to the seventeenth century, exploring how that fish was supplied to European tables, and investigating how North Atlantic fishing fostered European "discovery" of North America. By the 14th century, meatless fasting days imposed by the Catholic Church -- not only limited to Fridays and Lent -- accounted for more than half the days of the calendar. While the common people may not have observed all such fasting with the same rigor as various monasteries, such a requirement created an enormous market for preserved fish, even beyond demands stemming from everyday eating and the need for easily transported (and reliably stored) foodstuffs to provision armies and ships' crews. Local freshwater fish supplies quickly proved inadequate and, over the centuries, the supply of fish shifted first to salted herring and, eventually and more satisfactorily, to salted and dried codfish, the latter known as "stockfish", originated by the Norse but later becoming a staple throughout Northern and Western Europe. The story of these fish supplies and how they fared against over-exploitation and climate change, and of the evolving technologies to catch and preserve the different fishes is complicated, encompassing activities in many lands over several centuries. Not the least fascinating -- and surprisingly obscure -- part of the tale involves the development of various types of seagoing vessels suited to best harvest the fish, especially in the stormy North Atlantic. The quest for fish led men to the waters off Ireland and Iceland and, perhaps, even further west. Fagan concludes that merchants of Bristol, England, in the decade preceding Columbus's 1492 transAtlantic voyage launched expeditions in the North Atlantic to search for the fabled island of Hy Brasil. The documentary history for what these expeditions actually accomplished is at best murky, but it seems reasonable to suppose that they extended at least to the rich fishing grounds on the banks off the eastern coast of North America and perhaps to Newfoundland itself or beyond. If so, information from these voyages almost certainly lay behind John Cabot's 1497 "discovery" of the North American mainland and maybe even Columbus's 1492 voyage (Columbus previously had tried unsuccessfully to gain the backing of Henry VII of England for an attempt to reach the Spice Islands across the Atlantic). Fagan's writing is informed by his personal experiences in sailing small craft in the very waters discussed in the text, and the text is broadened by the inclusion of various period fish recipes (Fagan strongly cautions against trying one of these recipes at home -- that for "garum", the Roman fish sauce produced by allowing spiced fish to rot to a liquid state).