# Question regarding Europeans "secretly" fishing in Atlantic waters close to North America pre-1492 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661 "2016-05-02T02:35:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/21 "2016-05-02T16:34:02Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The amount of salt involved would be the same whether the fish was being caught in Newfoundland or somewhere else. But then why would they travel farther if they didn’t expect to catch any more fish than they would close to home? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/22 "2016-05-02T16:34:40Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > there’s a lot of evidence that Vikings were there pre-1492. Not from a contemporary perspective. The Vikings went to the island of Iceland, the island of Greenland, and the island of Vinland. They sailed along the shores of other now-Canadian islands and may have sailed by or landed on easternmost Quebec. Even so, there’s no good evidence that they thought they had been to another continent rather than a string of raggedy, cold, and dangerous islands in the far north. Columbus wouldn’t have thought they had any connection with his goal. He wanted a western route to tropical Asia. A few frozen islands around the Arctic was the antithesis of the proof he looked for. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/23 "2016-05-02T16:44:26Z")
Read Farley Mowat’s “Sea of Slaughter” for a description of the extremely abundant wildlife in the Gulf of St Lawrence - cod schools so thick that “you could practically walk on them”, and codfish 6 feet long and more. Basically, a fortune in fish, theirs for the taking. The one though was that the Basque fishermen knew of this motherlode but kept it secret to avoid having the whole rest of Europe invading their favourite fishing hole. If they didn’t know about it before Columbus, they sure were there pretty soon after him. I remember reading archaeological investigations of remains of temporary landing sites and fish processing plants with Basque terra cotta tiles as part of the construction, from the very early 1500’s in Newfoundland and Labrador. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/24 "2016-05-02T17:07:03Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Yes that brings me to the question of how far south of L’Anse à Meadows “Vinland” extended and whether the debate over the etymology has been laid to rest : The consensus seems to be that “Vin” should be translated as “meadow”, not “wine”. It’s pretty sure that L’Anse aux Meadows was not Vinland, Vinland has yet to be found. it may be underwater. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/25 "2016-05-02T17:08:09Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > But then why would they travel farther if they didn’t expect to catch any more fish than they would close to home? In better fishing grounds, you catch the same number of fish in a shorter time period. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/26 "2016-05-02T17:08:47Z")
> [@davidmich](#): > > Yes that brings me to the question of how far south of L’Anse à Meadows “Vinland” extended and whether the debate over the etymology has been laid to rest : The consensus seems to be that “Vin” should be translated as “meadow”, not “wine”. A recent episode of NOVA investigated a possible Viking settlement south of L’Anse aux Meadows, closer to the mainland. It’s very reasonable to assume the Vikings at some point sailed to the mainland, possibly setting foot on shore. Beyond that is a lot of speculation. However, this new possible settlement was found using radar to locate possible structures. With technology like that in play, and if the Vikings ever did build structures on the mainland, then at some point strong evidence may be found. Even if the Vikings didn’t ever set foot on the mainland I think they deserve credit for reaching North America before Columbus did. IIRC Columbus never reached the mainland until his third voyage. The lure of gold and fairer weather would probably have led to more Viking exploration, they just didn’t find anyplace better to live than home even with the clever marketing of ‘Green’ and ‘Meadow’ lands. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/27 "2016-05-02T17:22:42Z")
Some interesting evidence has turned up in, of all places, Toronto! > **[Mantle Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_Site,_Wendat_(Huron)_Ancestral_Village)** > > The "Jean-Baptiste Lainé" or Mantle site in the town of Whitchurch–Stouffville, north-east of Toronto, is the largest and most complex ancestral Wendat-Huron village to be excavated to date in the Lower Great Lakes region. The site's southeastern access point is at the intersection of Mantle Avenue and Byers Pond Way. > Formerly thought to have been active 1500-1530, the prime period of the site has been shifted to 1587-1623, based on radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis. This has influenced n... > **[How did Huron-Wendat get “cursed” European axe a century before European...](https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2012/07/07/how_did_huronwendat_get_cursed_european_axe_a_century_before_european_contact.html)** > > Metal stamp of a long-dead Basque ironmonger connects medieval village in Spain to pre-contact Huron-Wendat town in Ontario In summary: a part of an axe, with a Basque maker’s mark, was found deliberately buried in a Huron village circa 1500-1530, located in what is now a suburb of Toronto. This still doesn’t solve the question, as its burial post-dates Columbus, but it is interesting just how far the material travelled via internal trade. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/28 "2016-05-02T17:30:48Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The catch was salted, something which has been done on-ship for centuries. No need for a land base. A land base means the catch can be landed, then preserved by salting and drying, making it possible to sail back home with a larger catch/cargo than if the fish was preserved on board. Sending lone fishing vessels right across the Atlantic would have been quite risky and difficult, given the state of shipbuilding technology at that time. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/29 "2016-05-02T17:47:08Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > A land base means the catch can be landed, then preserved by salting and drying, making it possible to sail back home with a larger catch/cargo than if the fish was preserved on board. > > Sending lone fishing vessels right across the Atlantic would have been quite risky and difficult, given the state of shipbuilding technology at that time. Even in the 1800s,[fish were salted aboard ship.](http://www.newfoundlandshipbuilding.com/shipbuildingtoday/miscellaneous/documents/early_days_of_offshore_fishing.htm) The fish was first placed in brine, then split and given a first salting in the hold, and then given a second salting before being packed away. It wasn’t dried. The Banks are far enough off shore that it wouldn’t have been practical to move back and forth to shore just to salt the fish. Time shuttling back and forth would also severely limit the time you could spend catching fish. The Grand Banks were so extremely productive that it was worthwhile to sail there to fish from Europe in the early 1500s. It would have been just as attractive and feasible in the mid 1400s. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/30 "2016-05-02T17:55:20Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > A land base means the catch can be landed, then preserved by salting and drying, making it possible to sail back home with a larger catch/cargo than if the fish was preserved on board. > > Sending lone fishing vessels right across the Atlantic would have been quite risky and difficult, given the state of shipbuilding technology at that time. However, by the 1510s and 20s the French and Portuguese were regularly sending small fleets to the Grand Banks, and there wasn’t all _that_ much change in shipbuilding technology between say the 1470s/80s and 1510. Moreover, there is some evidence that the French preferred to eat “green-cured” fish (that is, packed in brine) rather than the “dry-cured” (split, salted and dried) cod more popular elsewhere. This preference is cited (see, e.g., [here](http://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/exploration/16th-century-fishery.php)) as one reason why the French did not pose much challenge to English territorial claims in Newfoundland: the French didn’t need to process on land to the same extent as the English. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/31 "2016-05-02T18:29:41Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > However, by the 1510s and 20s the French and Portuguese were regularly sending small fleets to the Grand Banks, and there wasn’t all _that_ much change in shipbuilding technology between say the 1470s/80s and 1510… Yes there was. That is almost exactly the point of development of the Caravel -a revolution in Iberian ship design. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/32 "2016-05-02T18:40:50Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Yes there was. That is almost exactly the point of development of the Caravel -a revolution in Iberian ship design. The caravel was developed by about 1450, however, and would already have been available to fishermen in the late 1400s. Two of Columbus’s ships may have been caravels. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/33 "2016-05-02T18:48:48Z")
Farley Mowat’s “Sea of Slaughter” discusses a lot on how the fisheries collapsed through willful blindness by the Fisheries department over the second half of the 20th century. Before that, fish - especially cod - were so incredibly abundant in the Grand Banks and Gulf of St. Lawrence simply because they had not been systematically exploited. A few hundred Basque caravels would have been nothing compared to the factory fishing of recent decades. Early explorers reported that the fish were so thick, you could almost walk on them when passing through giant schools of cod. Other fish, seals, and wildlife in general were incredibly abundant, since the local natives did not have significant sea-going technology. Presumably the limiting factor to filling up a ship was fishing technique and the travel distance. Logically, the Basques would have been secretive about heir good fortune. I have yet to hear of anyone approaching this from the opposite tack - were the Basque fishing ports consistently rolling in the riches from fortunate large catches in the late 1400s? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/34 "2016-05-02T19:12:19Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Farley Mowat’s “Sea of Slaughter” discusses a lot on how the fisheries collapsed through willful blindness by the Fisheries department over the second half of the 20th century. Before that, fish - especially cod - were so incredibly abundant in the Grand Banks and Gulf of St. Lawrence simply because they had not been systematically exploited. A few hundred Basque caravels would have been nothing compared to the factory fishing of recent decades. > > Early explorers reported that the fish were so thick, you could almost walk on them when passing through giant schools of cod. Other fish, seals, and wildlife in general were incredibly abundant, since the local natives did not have significant sea-going technology. > > Presumably the limiting factor to filling up a ship was fishing technique and the travel distance. Logically, the Basques would have been secretive about heir good fortune. I have yet to hear of anyone approaching this from the opposite tack - were the Basque fishing ports consistently rolling in the riches from fortunate large catches in the late 1400s? The only reference I have found was in a popular history book: Cod—The Fish that Changed the World [https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kurlansky-cod.html](https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/k/kurlansky-cod.html) Here’s an extract from the NYT of the first chapter: > [@](#): > > Catholicism gave the Basques their great opportunity. The medieval church imposed fast days on which sexual intercourse and the eating of flesh were forbidden, but eating “cold” foods was permitted. Because fish came from water, it was deemed cold, as were waterfowl and whale, but meat was considered hot food. The Basques were already selling whale meat to Catholics on “lean days,” which, since Friday was the day of Christ’s crucifixion, included all Fridays, the forty days of Lent, and various other days of note on the religious calendar. In total, meat was forbidden for almost half the days of the year, and those lean days eventually became salt cod days. Cod became almost a religious icon–a mythological crusader for Christian observance. > > The Basques were getting richer every Friday. But where was all this cod coming from? The Basques, who had never even said where they came from, kept their secret. By the fifteenth century, this was no longer easy to do, because cod had become widely recognized as a highly profitable commodity and commercial interests around Europe were looking for new cod grounds. There were cod off of Iceland and in the North Sea, but the Scandinavians, who had been fishing cod in those waters for thousands of years, had not seen the Basques. The British, who had been fishing for cod well offshore since Roman times, did not run across Basque fishermen even in the fourteenth century, when British fishermen began venturing up to Icelandic waters. The Bretons, who tried to follow the Basques, began talking of a land across the sea. > > In the 1480s, a conflict was brewing between Bristol merchants and the Hanseatic League. The league had been formed in thirteenth-century Lubeck to regulate trade and stand up for the interests of the merchant class in northern German towns. Hanse means “fellowship” in Middle High German. This fellowship organized town by town and spread throughout northern Europe, including London. By controlling the mouths of all the major rivers that ran north from central Europe, from the Rhine to the Vistula, the league was able to control much of European trade and especially Baltic trade. By the fourteenth century, it had chapters as far north as Iceland, as far east as Riga, south to the Ukraine, and west to Venice. > > For many years, the league was seen as a positive force in northern Europe. It stood up against the abuses of monarchs, stopped piracy, dredged channels, and built lighthouses. In England, league members were called Easterlings because they came from the east, and their good reputation is reflected in the word sterling, which comes from Easterling and means “of assured value.” > > But the league grew increasingly abusive of its power and ruthless in defense of trade monopolies. In 1381, mobs rose up in England and hunted down Hanseatics, killing anyone who could not say bread and cheese with an English accent. > > The Hanseatics monopolized the Baltic herring trade and in the fifteenth century attempted to do the same with dried cod. By then, dried cod had become an important product in Bristol. Bristol’s well-protected but difficult-to-navigate harbor had greatly expanded as a trade center because of its location between Iceland and the Mediterranean. It had become a leading port for dried cod from Iceland and wine, especially sherry, from Spain. But in 1475, the Hanseatic League cut off Bristol merchants from buying Icelandic cod. > > Thomas Croft, a wealthy Bristol customs official, trying to find a new source of cod, went into partnership with John Jay, a Bristol merchant who had what was at the time a Bristol obsession: He believed that somewhere in the Atlantic was an island called Hy-Brasil. In 1480, Jay sent his first ship in search of this island, which he hoped would offer a new fishing base for cod. In 1481, Jay and Croft outfitted two more ships, the Trinity and the George. No record exists of the result of this enterprise. Croft and Jay were as silent as the Basques. They made no announcement of the discovery of Hy-Brasil, and history has written off the voyage as a failure. But they did find enough cod so that in 1490, when the Hanseatic League offered to negotiate to reopen the Iceland trade, Croft and Jay simply weren’t interested anymore. > > Where was their cod coming from? It arrived in Bristol dried, and drying cannot be done on a ship deck. Since their ships sailed out of the Bristol Channel and traveled far west of Ireland and there was no land for drying fish west of Ireland–Jay had still not found Hy-Brasil–it was suppposed that Croft and Jay were buying the fish somewhere. Since it was illegal for a customs official to engage in foreign trade, Croft was prosecuted. Claiming that he had gotten the cod far out in the Atlantic, he was acquitted without any secrets being revealed. > > To the glee of the British press, a letter has recently been discovered. The letter had been sent to Christopher Columbus, a decade after the Croft affair in Bristol, while Columbus was taking bows for his discovery of America. The letter, from Bristol merchants, alleged that he knew perfectly well that they had been to America already. It is not known if Columbus ever replied. He didn’t need to. Fishermen were keeping their secrets, while explorers were telling the world. Columbus had claimed the entire new world for Spain. The NYT review: [A Nice Kettle of Fish](https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/970921.21benjamt.html) > [@](#): > > As for history, both Columbus and John Cabot were almost undoubtedly aware of the Grand Banks. The kings and queens who underwrote their voyages were hot for the Asian spice trade but were happy when each returned with news of riches of another kind: teeming schools of codfish almost unimaginable to already depleted European fisheries. If fishermen weren’t fishermen, with an intuitive need to not reveal their honey holes, the planet might have been explored earlier. Some 35 years later, Jacques Cartier planted a cross on the Gaspe Peninsula, claiming the territory for France – even as he noted about a thousand Basque fishing boats working just offshore. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/35 "2016-05-02T21:16:52Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > But then why would they travel farther if they didn’t expect to catch any more fish than they would close to home? The amount of salt carried would have been however much was needed to preserve as much fish as the ship could carry. The amount of fish the ship could carry was not a function of where it was being fished. And **Mangetout** , I’ve never heard of salting cod and herring on land. Anchovies and sardines yes, because those are day-trippers, but not cod or herring. Those were salted on the ships within our lifetime (and still might, but I’m not sure what effect the anasakis regulations have had). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/36 "2016-05-02T21:22:58Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > But then why would they travel farther if they didn’t expect to catch any more fish than they would close to home? Because they could fill their ship much faster in rich fishing grounds than they could where there were less fish, even taking travel time into account. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/37 "2016-05-02T22:23:44Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > The amount of salt carried would have been however much was needed to preserve as much fish as the ship could carry. > > The amount of fish the ship could carry was not a function of where it was being fished. > > And **Mangetout** , I’ve never heard of salting cod and herring on land. Anchovies and sardines yes, because those are day-trippers, but not cod or herring. Those were salted on the ships within our lifetime (and still might, but I’m not sure what effect the anasakis regulations have had). Maybe not salting alone, but salting, then air drying on land is common (and has been for centuries) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/38 "2016-05-02T23:21:40Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > A recent episode of NOVA investigated a possible Viking settlement south of L’Anse aux Meadows, closer to the mainland. This is [Point Rosee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Rosee) on the southwestern corner of Newfoundland. That’s actually not as close to the mainland, but is a lot closer to Nova Scotia. There’s evidence that the Norse Greenlanders engaged in considerable trade with the natives, including a [trading post on Baffin Island](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121019-viking-outpost-second-new-canada-science-sutherland/) and hints of others including possibly one in northern Labrador. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/39 "2016-05-03T02:23:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > It’s pretty sure that L’Anse aux Meadows was not Vinland, Vinland has yet to be found. it may be underwater. Yes. It seems certain that L’Anse aux Meadows was just a way station for a settlement further south. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661/40 "2016-05-03T05:31:15Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Maybe not salting alone, but salting, then air drying on land is common (and has been for centuries) Yeah well, wouldn’t work for Basque fishermen… you leave something on land in the Basque country and it gets wet. A reason why chistorra is sold uncured and has to be cooked thoroughly (unlike dry chorizo) is that it’s simply not possible to cure it, given the weather patterns in the areas where it’s traditionally made; the nearest dry-curing areas are one or two days from the coast by pre-motors-travel. One of the reasons why many meats which were traditionally nothing more than meat and pepper or meat and salt now have “drying agents” is that they’re being made in places where the weather is not dry enough. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-europeans-secretly-fishing-in-atlantic-waters-close-to-north-america-pre-1492/753661.md?page=3)