Port-aux-Perdrix

Port-aux-Perdrix (/ˌpɔɹt oʊ ˈpɛəɹdɹiː/, French: /ˌpɔʁ o pɛʁˈdʁi/) is a unincorporated community located in Hauteterre county, Iylan Province, Rhodevus.

Port-aux-Perdrix Port Partridge
Village
Port-aux-Perdrix Harbour
Flag Coat of arms
Motto(s):  Nous endurerons English: We will endure
Port-aux-Perdrix's location in Iylan Province.
Country	Rhodevus
Province	Iylan Province
County	Hauteterre
Incorporated	1873
Government
• Type	County Council
• Body	Conseil du comté Hauteterre
• Warden	Rhéal Caron
Area
• Total	8.2 km2 (3.2 sq mi)
Elevation	3 m (10 ft)
Population  (2015)
• Total	639
• Density	78/km2 (200/sq mi)

It is situated on the southern shore of Partridge Bay (Baie du Perdrix), an inlet of the Lutetian Ocean on the eastern coast of the Saint-Jean peninsula. Port-aux-Perdrix was founded in 1873 by French-speaking settlers, who named it after the numerous partridges living in the forests around the bay. After reaching a peak population of 2,076 in 1925, Port-aux-Perdrix's population has gradually fallen, counting 639 residents in 2015. The village lies in the Francophone areas of Rhodevus, and a large majority of its inhabitants count French as their mother tongue. Port-aux-Perdrix relies heavily on fishing as a source of income and is the main employer in the community, though it is feared that the village's population will continue to decrease along with economic output, accelerated by the opening of a cannery in Baie St.-Paul, twelve kilometres southeast, pulling more jobs away from the community. The mayor and residents have pleaded government officials for funding and resources to keep the community alive.

History

The area Port-aux-Perdrix occupies today has been known and explored for thousands of years by indigenous peoples, who called it iqalukkuit, meaning "rivers of fish". The first explorers are believed to have come in the early 16th century, with the first definitive account of the area recorded in 1568 by Georges Éupéry de Montblanc. It is inferred that no indigenous settlements existed on the bay at this time, or rather that they were seasonal, as the main inhabited regions were south past Cap Sainte-Marie, and de Montblanc makes no mention of any encounter in his daybook.

Nous traversâmes aujourd'hui un point, je présume le Cap Sainte-Marie, à travers lequel y était une baie d'eau dans en terre boisée. Lors de l'entrée des eaux dociles, on voyait plusieurs gibiers à plumes. Nous montrerons notre camp ici ce soir- il y a sûrement un abondance de nourriture dans les eaux et à terre.

We rounded today a point, I presume to be the Cap Sainte-Marie, across which lay a bay of water in a forested land. Upon entering the calm waters, many gamebirds were seen. We make our camp here tonight; there is surely plentiful food to be found in the waters and in the land.

— Un racont des voyages au Nord et la vie de Georges Éupéry de Montblanc, 1523-1571

First Settlements

Notre-Dame-la-sauveuse-du-peuple-en-Port-aux-Perdrix Church in 2004.

Although first discovered in 1568, the bay was not settled until the early 1740s, by fishermen looking for a less crowded site to earn a living, mainly northwards from the larger city of Acadia. The first families to occupy the area were the Caron, Blanchet, and Chiasson families. As the settlement's population grew, the decision was made to fortify the community, beginning with a wooden rampart in 1755, providing a safe haven for small ships in the northern parts of Rhodevus, which proved to be important in the unrest that followed over the next century.

Jean-Baptiste Chiasson, a minister from Baie St.-Paul, established the church of Notre-Dame-la-sauveuse-du-peuple-en-Port-aux-Perdrix in 1869, taking the name for the church from the bay described by de Montblanc three centuries earlier. The church became the centre of the sprouting fishing community, with more than 30 families arriving in the next decade. The village was incorporated as a town on December 3, 1873, one of the first towns incorporated in Hauteterre County.

Raid on Icaloucouit

On the evening of August 4, 1742, the indigenous tribe local to the area raided the burgeoning settlement, which at that time counted 80 people, 50 of whom were fishermen. The raiders took 3 men hostage, and killed 2 more before retreating to their own settlement. A plaque commemorates the event, though opinion on the events that took place have changed over time. Until recently, it was seen as an example of native aggression towards settlers, but it is now being recognized as a symptom of a larger problem where the indigenous peoples gradually lost rights, land and possessions to the new settlers, without being able to mount any resistance.

The Rhodeve Empire

The people in Port-aux-Perdrix did not learn of the events that took place in 1754, where Emilia Hart gained power and transformed Rhodevus into an empire, until nearly 3 years after the transformation took place. By this time, Rhodevus had begun engaging in naval warfare across Sunalaya, and international trade became much more lucrative. Goods in Rhodevus became cheaper and more affordable for the people in Port-aux-Perdrix, which led to a higher quality of life and a population increase in the years thereafter.

The Rhodeve Collapse

Port-aux-Perdrix is furthermore known as the final resting place of two naval military commanders, Wulffe Lindholm from Talvistova and NAME from PLACE, renowned for their skills during the Rhodeve Collapse of 1840 to 1845. Although now famous partly because of the collapse, Port-aux-Perdrix was unaffected by the conflict, counting only an estimated 100 to 120 people during that time period. Notably, a farmer from the outskirts of Rome, Herbert Lemaître, was the first to bring hardier crops north to Port-aux-Perdrix, allowing the cultivation of wheat and rye in the short summers, leading to a more stable and varied food supply. Descendants of Lemaître still run the original farm about two kilometres north of the village centre.

1920s Boom Town, the World Wars and the Great Depression

During both world wars, Port-aux-Perdrix was hit hard by food and supply rationing. Prices increased exponentially for household items, making everyday life less affordable. In a sense, the Great Depression never ended in Rhodeve fishing towns as it had for the rest of the country. The aid given by the government in the 1930s simply was not adequate to regulate prices. Fish prices stayed low as the market was oversaturated, a trend that began in the 1920s, and prices for other goods such as manufactured items and refined foods stayed high, as the demand was higher than the smaller workforce could provide.

In contrast, the 1920s is considered the heyday of Port-aux-Perdrix and the fishing industry. The international economy was strong, and products could be exported all over the globe. Fishing became more lucrative than ever, and more people could afford items previously considered luxuries, like oranges from tropical regions or fresh apples in the winter. Industrial companies began to capitalize on the leftover fish that could not be sold by canning it and shipping it out across the globe, providing a source of employment for the coastal towns. For the first time in its history, the employment rate in Port-aux-Perdrix hit nearly one hundred percent, peaking at 99.1% in early 1928. As the world markets became saturated with manufactured goods, however, prices steadily dropped, and by September 1929 the world economy was in freefall, culminating in the largest stock market crash in history.

All but one of the canning plants near Port-aux-Perdrix closed between 1930 and 1933, putting nearly 1000 people out of work. They soon went back to fishing like they had done previously, but the prices were not suitable for sustainable fishing in the long-term, and more fish needed to be sold in order to survive. This led to the first depopulation of fish in the bay, where a sharp drop in both numbers and diversity affected the local ecosystems, and put many out of work again. By the time of the arrival of the government's unemployment insurance in 1934, the unemployment rate in Port-aux-Perdrix had hit nearly 40%. Both the fish stocks and the local economy would never recover until the early 2000s. In 1935, after losing a quarter of its population in the last decade, Port-aux-Perdrix was unincorporated and made a community, governed from Kikitamouk, the seat of the county.

The depression continued along the coast until the end of the Second World War, but the conflict had no real effect on the community until conscription was introduced in 1943. Of the nearly 1200 residents, 12 went to fight for the Rhodeve army, one of whom, Bernard Gâchon, was famous for using his whaling harpoon in the field of battle. Bernard Gâchon was killed on the 6th of November, 1944. Of the twelve who fought during the war, only 6 came back to the community afterwards.

Slow Decline

Since 1945, the community has slowly lost people to outmigration, especially to other areas of Rhodevus, in search of a job. Since 1920, the population of the village has been more than halved. The economy of the area has tried to diversify without much success, although the government now runs a tourist program that covers all of the eastern coast of Iylan province, contributing to a recent foray by the county into a cottage resort. Since the opening of a cannery in nearby Baie St.-Paul, more and more people plan on leaving the village, as did the former warden of the county, Gilles de Rochambeau, who grew up in Port-aux-Perdrix.

The citizens of the community have been requesting help from the government to help them survive ever since the moratorium on fishing in 1998, which devastated the town. Fish stocks remain low, but the allowances are strict and not enough to survive. The community has requested aid in opening a factory, of any kind, near the village so that their way of life can persist. The government has been reluctant to offer any aid, presenting instead the idea that they may need to move soon in order to subsist. The community is now petitioning international governments for aid in finding a company interested in opening a factory near them.