The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
William Henry Whiteley was born in Boston in 1834. He first went to Newfoundland around 1850 when he stowed away on a ship destined for Labrador. In 1859 he went to England and got married. Eventually Whiteley returned to Labrador, where he and his bride settled, in Bonne Esperance. They built a house that was so large that it was used as a navigation marker. While fishing in the area in the 1860's, Whiteley developed the idea for the cod trap. He worked on the design and in 1871 he tried it out for the first time. Some fishermen, however, were worried about the trap. They feared it would deplete the fish stock. For several years Whiteley campaigned to have his trap legalized and eventually succeeded. Whiteley was also a member of the Newfoundland Legislature from 1889-1901. He died in 1903. The community of Bonne Esperance diminished in population during the Depression and with the failure of the fishery in the area, in time, it became deserted. The Whiteley house remained for several years but eventually was ransacked and what remained, was torn down in 1971. Something to Ponder: To the world, you may be one person; but to one person, you may be the world!
