St Helier harbour is the main harbour in Jersey, its located on the south coast of the island and occupies a large amount of the coast in St Helier. It was constructed in the early 19th century. The harbour is split into different parts given the names of Old Harbour, Elizabeth Harbour and The Main Harbour.

origins of St. Helier Harbour can be traced back to the 16th century. With St. Helier being on the south-eastern coast of jersey, it gave it protection from storms meaning it was an ideal site for fishermen. St. Helier became increasingly important as a centre for trade and fishing.

The harbour facilitated the exchange of goods with France and England, and local fishermen relied on it for their catch. In the 18th century the harbour having improvements such as expanding it to fit larger vessels to aid with the trade and fishing. The Albert pier was established in 1853 and it became an essential addition to the harbour. It allowed larger vehicles to dock directly in St Helier harbour. This improved the functionality of the harbour and increased the capacity. The harbour played a critical role in troop and supply movements during both World Wars, particularly during the German occupation in WWII. The islands were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, and most island-based ships went to England in June 1940. Initially a number of fishing and private boats, then later smaller craft, made the perilous journey with over 200 escaping islanders.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the harbor underwent significant upgrades to accommodate modern shipping needs, enhance security, and improve facilities for passengers and cargo. Different parts of the harbour are places for personal boats and that has to dock creating excellent views of the many different boats and

The harbour increases jersey tourist numbers with its ferry services that travel to the other Channel Islands and the mainland. Many events can be held at the harbour including the boat show which is a popular attraction on the island

What was the involvement of Jersey mariners in the Canadian cod-fisheries and the Transatlantic carrying trade?

A few hundred years ago, the first islanders went to plunder the cod-rich seas of the American and Canadian coast. Fisherman travelled to these parts and, by 1580, around 10,000 European fishermen were making the transatlantic voyage to the area each year to fish for cod. between 60 and 70 Jersey vessels, manned by up to 2,000 Jersey men and boys (10% of the entire population), were involved in the trade. By 1763, Jersey was shipping more Newfoundland cod than any other British port.

Fishing out in sea was usually pretty easy to catch the Cod however, getting closer to shore was far more difficult. Though it was a challenge, this was commonly where they would be fishing since here was where the Channel Island fishermen got their biggest catches. Some men were employed to catch the cod, others carried fish to the processing site, where others cut off the heads.

The cod trade significantly impacted the economy of Jersey, opening up jobs and providing income for many islanders. The trade routes established during this period laid the groundwork for future maritime commerce.

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the cod trade began to decline due to overfishing,

Jersey went through a financial crisis and the Jersey Banking Company collapsed as a result of fraud and embezzlement. head offices relocated to Canada where assets were beyond the reach of Jersey creditors, and as the cod industry went into decline.

Which ports did Jersey ships sail to and trade with?

Fisherman originally belonging to the channel islands were amongst these people and  by the 1750s Jersey fishermen participated in this lucrative trade, catching cod and exporting it to Europe, particularly to countries like Portugal and Spain. they had set up trade routes between Canada, Europe and America. Cod was traded in Europe, South America, North America, in the Mediterranean, and Africa. 

What type of goods did Jersey merchants exchange for cod-fish?

Jersey traded the cod for things such as rum, molasses, coffee, brazil and mahogany. Fortunes made through the North Atlantic cod trade were most probably the wealth for the construction of some 18th and 19th century houses in Jersey’s town and countryside.

Jersey cod-merchants also exported cod-fish to British colonies in the West Indies and later Brazil too in exchange for plantation goods, such as sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, coffee and tobacco which it brought to markets in America, Europe and the UK (inc. Jersey). 

I printed out my images from Adobe InDesign and created my zine:

To do this, I had to ensure that all the pages matched up, specifically the images that I had put onto a double-page spread so that the full picture was together. Then, I had to make sure that both edges of the sheet were aligned, then use a tool called a paper bone:

This enabled me to get a smooth and precise fold in the centre of the paper. By doing this, all my images would line up perfectly in the middle so that I could staple them easily, but it also meant that either side would be even so that my zine wouldn’t look wonky. One I had folded all the pages, I stapled them down the spine.

Then, I used a knife to slice off the white edges to get a clean and even edge so that it would look more professional and smooth.

After I created my zine, I created a virtual gallery to showcase my images using Artsteps so I could show my work in two mediums – physically and digitally.

EVALUATION AND CRITIQUE:

Overall, I am quite pleased with the outcomes I have produced within the topic of Jersey’s maritime history. Initially when we were researching the islands maritime history, I didn’t really enjoy it as I found it fairly tedious and dull, however when we began doing photoshoots I began to gain a little bit of motivation. In the first photoshoot we took down at Société Jersiaise Photographic Archive and St Helier Harbour, my expectations were that I was going to try and highlight Jersey’s fishing culture and history. Whilst some of my images were very successful (for example capturing a seagull flying), I don’t feel that I could be entirely creative with this as I didn’t particularly notice any specific details that I thought would be beneficial to my work and didn’t explore the area entirely. Due to this, many of my images were similar. However, my second photoshoot was where I think I was able to really get engrossed in my work and seek out unnoticed aspects of the harbour, leading to me having a vast selection of images to select from. Here, I was able to make the topic my own by exploring the harbour in detail instead of just taking images of the parts that were the most visible or just shooting pictures of the boats at the harbour in an unstructured way like I had in the majority of my images during the first photoshoot. As well as this, I made colour and texture the foundation of my images so that when I did go to create my zine, this would make it easier for me to form a narrative behind my images. As this shoot was taken down at the Maritime Museum, The Fresh Fish Company and around the Marina, this let me know that I had many options to choose from when deciding what I wanted my zine to be about. Despite that, while the images I took at the Maritime Museum provided a high amount of historical value and contextual importance into my work, I didn’t want to use any of them within my work or experiment with them any further because it didn’t fit in with my intentions behind this topic and were not as effective as the other photos I took, yet I am still glad that I did include them in my blogpost because this ensured I had that awareness behind what I was creating instead of doing it blindly. As a result of my images being successful, I ended up planning to create two zines with two separate After this, I began to prepare to create my zine by researching about narratives and sequencing, trying to spark a story by describing both my zines intentions with 3 words, a sentence and then a paragraph. I think this activity was really beneficial to me because it made me sit and think properly about what I wanted to produce and how I wanted to use the topic of Jersey’s maritime history, a topic that didn’t excite me at all, to create an artistic zine. Once I had figured this out, I found it quite a straightforward process in beginning to choose what images I was going to put in my zine. What helped me decide further was physically creating final selections by printing out various images in both black and white and colour. I think this activity was also really valuable because it meant I had to be critical about my work as I used process of elimination and be realistic about what images worked with each other and which ones didn’t. Once I started using InDesign, everything came together smoothly and I found it easy to show the storyline I had intended. I am really happy with how my zines came out, however if I did this again I would have liked to have made a black and white version and layout my images in a different way, with images overlapping the page or multiple on one page, or using text. I didn’t do this in my zines because I wanted each image to speak for itself, however it would’ve been good to do this because then I would have more variety in my work.

Zine

The final layout was:

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Final prints

For final prints I choose these 5 images:

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I wanted 1 A3, 4 A4s and 1 A5. For A3 I choose the landed boat. A5 was the tower and all the rest were A4.

Evaluation: