In a large covered workshop on the coast of Spain sits Xabier Agote’s life’s work.
Teams of craftsmen are using hand tools to shape each wooden piece of a Spanish galleon.
It’s been hundreds of years since ships like this were built in the Basque Country, and learning how was one of the biggest challenges.
“We are recovering traditional tools, we are using the same type of woods like in the past, mostly oak trees from our nearby forests,” Agote told CBC News in a recent interview.
In the 1500s ships like this were common in towns like Pasaia.
Xabier Agote has dreamed of building a Spanish galleon ever since he heard about the discovery of the San Juan in Labrador. (Albaola Maritime Culture Factory)
Hundreds of Basque shipbuilders would build the ships, which would then head across the Atlantic to hunt whales.
They built the ships from experience and memory. The methods weren’t written down and so over the centuries the knowledge of exactly what the ships were like and how they were built was lost.
Help from a small town in Labrador
That all changed in the late 1970s, when Selma Barkham’s research led her to the town of Red Bay on Labrador’s south coast.
There at the bottom of the harbour, she found what is believed to be the wreck of the San Juan.
In December 1565, the ship was anchored in the harbour, its hold filled with 1,000 barrels of whale oil after a full season of hunting, ready to head back to Europe.
But it broke loose in a storm, sank and was undisturbed for hundreds of years until it was discovered.
The wreck is recognized as one of the best preserved of its era, and Parks Canada carefully recovered all 3,000 pieces of the ship, documenting them.
“They gave us the gift of the secrets of the 16th-century Basque ship building technology that was so important back then,” said Agote.
New workers had to learn traditional boat-building techniques to construct the ship the same way it was in the 1500s. (Albaola Maritime Culture Factory)
Turning that blueprint into a replica hasn’t been easy.
Agote created a school to teach the traditional techniques, a museum to tell the story, and got the backing of UNESCO.
A project that was supposed to take just a few years has now lasted more than a decade — but it’s almost done.
It still needs a mast and some rigging, but next year Agote plans to put it in the water.
And that’s just the beginning — in 2026, he plans to sail the ship back to Labrador.
Canada-bound in 2026
That voyage has drawn interest on both sides of the Atlantic, with Canadian and Spanish officials meeting in Spain last month to start planning the voyage.
Canada’s ambassador to Spain is excited about the potential
“We have this great history that most Canadians, and I would say most Spaniards, most Basque people don’t necessarily know about,” Wendy Drukier told CBC News.
“It’s just a great opportunity to deepen that knowledge and that relationship.”
Much of the knowledge of how Spanish galleons were built was largely lost until the wreck of the San Juan was uncovered in Red Bay, Labrador. (Albaola Maritime Culture Factory)
Gran Baya, as the Basques called what is now Red Bay, was a major centre for whaling, starting in the 1530s.
Whales were hunted for their fat, which would be rendered into oil, put into barrels and shipped to Europe, where it was used for lighting.
Xabier Agote and a team of craftsmen are using hand tools to rebuild a ship known as a spanish galleon. A ship believed to be the San Juan sank off Labrador’s south coast centuries ago but is being meticulously rebuilt with thousands of recovered pieces in a workshop in Spain. The CBC’s Peter Cowan has the whole story, including how two countries have bonded over a relic of the past — to build for the future.
Hundreds of years later, the red roofing tiles that were brought over as ballast in the ships still line the shores.
Cindy Gibbons was just a high school student when she started helping document the San Juan.
Now she’s Parks Canada’s cultural resource management adviser. She ran the heritage site in Red Bay for years.
“For me as, you know, someone who grew up in Red Bay and grew up with this site, I’m sure I echo the sentiments of a lot of people from that community that we’re really looking forward to this, she said.
“This is a very exciting project.”
Spanish officials and Canadian officials, including Labrador Affairs Minister Lisa Dempster, far left, met in Spain met in June to discuss plans to bring the San Juan over to Canada. (Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa)
The provincial minister of Labrador affairs is also excited about the possibility of strengthening ties between two similar peoples, divided by an ocean.
Lisa Dempster says she felt at home as soon as she arrived in Spain.
“With the Basque country I believe as Labradorians we share the adventurous spirit, we share the resilience, we share the strong work ethic, we’re sea people and that’s what unites us,” said Lisa Dempster.
Xabier Agote still has a lot of work to do. He has rope to braid, sails to weave and people to train.
But he’s committed to making sure his ship makes the voyage back to Canada.
“We want to celebrate a common heritage, a heritage that goes both ways of the Atlantic, so I think that’s the best way to get to know each other,” he said.
And when he does make the voyage, people in Labrador will be ready.
“When you leave this harbour, we’ll waiting in Red Bay on the wharf,” said Dempster.
Demands for government intervention in Air Canada labour talks could negatively affect airline competition in Canada, the CEO of travel company Transat AT Inc. said.
“The extension of such an extraordinary intervention to Air Canada would be an undeniable competitive advantage to the detriment of other Canadian airlines,” Annick Guérard told analysts on an earnings conference call on Thursday.
“The time and urgency is now. It is time to restore healthy competition in Canada,” she added.
Air Canada has asked the federal government to be ready to intervene and request arbitration as early as this weekend to avoid disruptions.
Comments on the potential Air Canada pilot strike or lock out came as Transat reported third-quarter financial results.
Guérard recalled Transat’s labour negotiations with its flight attendants earlier this year, which the company said it handled without asking for government intervention.
The airline’s 2,100 flight attendants voted 99 per cent in favour of a strike mandate and twice rejected tentative deals before approving a new collective agreement in late February.
As the collective agreement for Air Transat pilots ends in June next year, Guérard anticipates similar pressure to increase overall wages as seen in Air Canada’s negotiations, but reckons it will come out “as a win, win, win deal.”
“The pilots are preparing on their side, we are preparing on our side and we’re confident that we’re going to come up with a reasonable deal,” she told analysts when asked about the upcoming negotiations.
The parent company of Air Transat reported it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31. The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
It attributed reduced revenues to lower airline unit revenues, competition, industry-wide overcapacity and economic uncertainty.
Air Transat is also among the airlines facing challenges related to the recall of Pratt & Whitney turbofan jet engines for inspection and repair.
The recall has so far grounded six aircraft, Guérard said on the call.
“We have agreed to financial compensation for grounded aircraft during the 2023-2024 period,” she said. “Alongside this financial compensation, Pratt & Whitney will provide us with two additional spare engines, which we intend to monetize through a sell and lease back transaction.”
Looking ahead, the CEO said she expects consumer demand to remain somewhat uncertain amid high interest rates.
“We are currently seeing ongoing pricing pressure extending into the winter season,” she added. Air Transat is not planning on adding additional aircraft next year but anticipates stability.
“(2025) for us will be much more stable than 2024 in terms of fleet movements and operation, and this will definitely have a positive effect on cost and customer satisfaction as well,” the CEO told analysts.
“We are more and more moving away from all the disruption that we had to go through early in 2024,” she added.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
