The reason for the search of this vessel was the finding of a document the archivist Barkham discovered in Spain, that a whaler named SAN JUAN had sank in the harbour of Red Bay (a small bay on the south coast of Labrador in the Strait of Belle Isle) in 1565.
The document indicated that two highly paid harpooners, the Echaniz brothers had complained to a notary that they had not received their proper share of the salvage of the SAN JUAN cargo lost just before its departure for Spain, when it was moored with a full load of 900 till barrels of whale oil.
The remains of what marine archeologists believe is the Basque whaler SAN JUAN were found on Labour Day 1978 by Bruce Bennet.
The wreck was covered with oily cask remains, lying 30m from the north shore of Saddle Island her stern near to the shore in 6m. of water, her bow pointing north at the bottom of a slope in 18m of water.
SAN JUAN was a three masted ship close to 250 tons cargo capacity, with a length of 22m. at the weatherdeck level. She seemed to have had three full decks including a false deck or the deck located in the hold below the waterline. Her draught has been estimated between 3 and 3.5m. Beam 7.5m. length of keel 14.75m. A full transom called square tuck, typical of the ships of the period, the planking fixed in a chevron pattern up to the top of the rudder, with a single gunport or loading port cut into it.
The rudder was made from a single piece of oak. The two castles seem to have been built of soft wood planks, the rest of the ships superstructure being built from white oak, with the exception of the keel which was of beech. The keelson was made from a single piece of oak with notches cut on its lower face to lock over the floor timbers.
The hold of the ship was full of oak barrels, 225 litre wooden containers with wooden hoops.
The ship on the Canadian stamp shows the 1‑10 scale model of the SAN JUAN constructed piece by piece on the evidence of archaeological drawings.
The Red Bay had been an important shore whaling station for the Basque whaling fleet during the 16th Cent. More wrecks have been found in this Bay also a lot of whale bones. As a result of the examination of these bones it is now known that Basque whalers hunted the Right and Bowhead whales, both of which no longer inhabit the Labrador waters.
The whaling season was from the end of June to the middle of October for the Basques whalers in the Labrador and Newfoundland waters. Some whalers were staying longer till the beginning of January but this was very risky for the vessels, the Strait of Belle Isle is mostly frozen over in January.
I was passing this Belle Isle Strait at one time just before Christmas, bound for Europe, after loading a cargo of frozen fish in a small port on the north west coast of Newfoundland. The seawater was then 1 deg below zero and all the inlet cooling water pipes in the engine room of my ship were covered on the outside with ice, an interesting sight.
Article by Auke Palmhof, Log Book June 1990.
(Research:- Ships and Shipwrecks of the Americas.)
Canada SG1248