Poole And The Newfoundland Dog

(The Poole Museum Society)

"There is a story that when Napoleon Bonaparte was escaping from Elba, he fell into the sea. In the darkness, the sailors could not find him but a Newfoundland dog that was in the boat jumped into the water and rescued the drowning emperor. Had the dog not possessed such skill and tenacity, the battle of Waterloo might never have happened. This remarkable breed probably originated from the ‘St. John’s’ dogs used by the native inhabitants of Newfoundland. By the time John Cabot landed on the coast of the island in the late 14th century, the Newfoundland dog had developed into huge animal with a black double coat, webbed feet and a massive head. Following Cabot’s voyage, European ships began to visit the island for the seasonal fishing and some of them carried dogs on board which bred with the native species. As Poole ships were involved in the fishing trade from the early 15th century, it is possible that Dorset dogs were among those transported across the Atlantic.

Different varieties gradually appeared, including brown, grey and black and white dogs. One black and white animal was later immortalised by Sir Edwin Landseer in his 1838 painting 'A Distinguished Member of Humane Society.' His subject was credited with having saved 20 people from drowning and was therefore adopted as a member of the Society. This variety soon acquired the name ‘Landseers.'

Life-saving was just one of the characteristics of the breed. Newfoundland dogs were intelligent, calm and loyal as well as being excellent water dogs and strong swimmers with a powerful instinct to retrieve objects and people. This made them invaluable to fishermen who would use them to haul in nets or retrieve fish. When fishermen were using a jigger (a weight with two unbaited hooks which was jiggled in the water), the fish would sometimes slip off the hook. The dogs were skilled at retrieving fish with their paws or jumping into the water to bring the fish ashore and pile it up as they had seen men do. They were also employed to pull sleds loaded with fish, nets, firewood, milk, mail and other goods across rough ground inaccessible to a pony. Trained dogs could even transport goods on their own without the owner having to go with them. It was said that a good dog could earn his owner’s keep during the winter months.

Not surprisingly, European captains began to bring Newfoundland dogs back with them across the Atlantic as a valuable side-line, demonstrating their skills at ports where they landed. The dogs were soon in demand for their novelty or as working and sporting animals. Portraits from the early 18th century onwards show the presence of Newfoundland dogs in wealthy households while sportsmen valued them for their ability to retrieve wildfowl from the sea.

In the late 18th century, Poole was became one of the leading ports for the Newfoundland trade and a major supply centre for dogs. Col. Peter Hawker in his ‘Instructions to Young Sportsmen’, first published in 1814, wrote that ‘Poole was of late years, the best place to buy Newfoundland dogs; either just imported or broken in, but now they are become much more scarce, owing (the sailors observe) to the strictures of those — tax-gathers.’ However, fifty years later the Rev. Thomas Pearce was still writing in ‘The Field’ about buying ‘several excellent dogs out of the Mountaineer of Poole, on her arrival from White Bay, St. John’s’ and mentioned ‘Snow', a dog I bought at the King’s Arms in Poole directly he landed in the autumn of 1859’. He also asserted that ‘those captains who pay any attention to dogs know very well where to procure good specimens and we who live near Poole know the right men to deal with.' Some dogs were brought in on commission and others sold at auctions or transported to London and elsewhere to be sold.

Newfoundland dogs were also used to pull carts as an alternative to horses or ponies. In the early 1800s, the dog-cart was ‘one of the usual sights of Poole . . . One two or three dogs were harnessed to a shallow cart of about two feet wide and a yard long, and these dogs were used for local haulage and domestic work around the narrow streets of Poole, as well as for fast relays in the delivery of fresh fish along the South Coast and even to London.’ Dog carts were a familiar sight in many towns but a rabies scare in London in the 1830s together with humanitarian considerations, caused them to be banned in the city in 1839. The following year, Poole’s first Liberal Council revised the byelaws to ban the use of dog-carts in Poole. However as late as 1853, James Bugden was prosecuted and fined in Poole Guildhall for using dogs for haulage. An Act of Parliament outlawed the practice throughout the country in 1855.

Newfoundland dogs were still being bred in the area and a large pack was owned by Mr Henry Richard Farquarson of Eastbury House, Tarrant Gunville, M.P. for South Dorset. He used to send carts down to Poole to collect dogs from the Newfoundland timber ships. Two kennel lads had the job of exercising the dogs and bitches in separate groups. One day around 1890, due to a misunderstanding, the two groups met up on Chettle Down. The usually placid dogs were not proof against the instinct to compete for the females and a big fight ensued. As a result, 45 dogs were killed or had to be put down. The incident is a rare example of aggression from this amiable, hard-working breed. Today, Newfoundland dogs are still bred and kept in the vicinity of Poole but their days of arriving on sailing ships from the other side of the Atlantic or drawing carts through the streets of the old town, are long gone."

Henry - One Year

Henry arrived one year ago today.

He is, like all Newfies, a wonder of infinite joy and love.

Mississippi-Missouri Largos

To And From The Dog From Newfoundland - Happy Halloween

The Ghostly Sighting Of An Ever-Faithful Newfoundland Dog

The ghost of a black Newfoundland dog has been seen many times at the St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland, sitting at the base of a memorial statue to Captain John McNeill Boyd who was lost in February, 1861 while attempting to rescue drowning seamen at Dun Laoghaire. The apparition is said to be that of Captain Boyd's devoted dog which has also been seen many times lying on his master's grave at nearby Glasnevin Cemetery.

On the night of Saturday 8th February, 1861, the Irish Sea was swept by one of the worst gales of the century. The harbour at Kingstown, now Dun Laoghaire, was littered with debris and the wreckage of battered vessels. Scores of bodies of drowned people were found on the shoreline. Among those who helped to recover the bodies and clear the wreckage was Captain Boyd, in command of the coastguard vessel Ajax. Three stricken vessels, the Neptune, the Industry and the Mary, were trying to get to the shelter of the harbour. The Neptune and the Industry were to be smashed against the rocks whilst the Mary was wrecked further along the coast at Sandymount. Captain Boyd and some of his men were on the rocks trying to rescue the men from the stricken vessels. Together with three of his men he was swept into the sea by a giant wave. When a lifeboat from the Ajax later went to search for Captain Boyd and the three other men, his faithful Newfoundland dog was in the rescue boat.

When the body of Captain Boyd was finally recovered it was brought ashore and he was given one of the biggest funerals ever seen in Dublin. During the funeral procession his faithful dog walked beside the coffin and followed it to Glasnevin Cemetery where Captain Boyd was interred. When the grave was filled in, the dog, so devoted to his master, lay on top and refused to be moved, eventually dying of hunger. Shortly afterwards the memorial statue to Captain Boyd was erected in the Cathedral by the people of Dublin.

Color Me Henry

The Dog From Newfoundland

(lewisclark.org)

"The breed of these handsome and powerful dogs, now (in 1840) common in Great Britain, wrote Col. Smith, especially the hound, 'and therefore differs somewhat from the original indigenous race of [North] America.' Newfoundlands of the 1840s in England were larger than those of the original stock in the American colonies, and were generally white with black spots. The original Newfoundland was smaller, the body more slender, forehead more arched, the muzzle sharper, and 'nearly all of a totally black colour, excepting a bright rust coloured spot above each eye, some fulvous [reddish-yellow, tawny] towards the nose, throat, and upon the joints; there was also a little white about the feet, and in the end of the tail. But those superficial details aside, the breed bore some unique attributes that clearly fitted it for a large, mostly water-borne expedition that expected to meet new strangers frequently. The 'true breed of this race, Smith continued, 'is almost semi-palmated; and, consequently, they swim, dive, and endure the water, better and longer than any other dog in existence.' Joining the chorus of praise and admiration for the breed, he emphasized, 'no dog is better qualified to serve in harness, or fitter to watch and guard property on shore, or vessels in the coasting trade, rivers, or canals. As a waterdog, he can be taught to execute almost any command; and his kind disposition makes training easy, when used in the field. Smith also invoked the history of these dogs not as pets but seasonal helpmates to generations of fishermen in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland from sometime in the 1400s until the end of the 20th century. Before the 1840s, he wrote, there may have been as many as 2,000 of them around the seaport of St. John's, Newfoundland. Throughout the entire annual cod-fishing season, for nearly 300 years, they were left to shift for themselves while their masters were out on the Grand Banks. Traditionally regarded as descendants of wild dogs and wolves, they were allowed to remain starving, diseased, and even dangerous to the human population. When the fishermen returned, the surviving dogs took up their work again, pulling carts or sleds loaded with firewood, fish for the table, and other bulk supplies until the next cod season began. Aware of the steadily growing fear of epizoötics of rabies in heavily populated areas in America as well as Europe, Col. Smith added the note that that dreaded disease did not afflict the untended Newfies, but only that a kind of plague, originating in the neglect and misery they suffered, occasionally destroyed great numbers of them.

EARLY 1800's BREED: The Newfoundland dog, wrote the British naturalist William Taplin (1740?-1807) in 1803, was 'not known amongst us, till imported from that country whose name it continues to bear.' The Newfoundland 'in a state of purity, uncontaminated by the blood of any inferior race," he declared, "is one of the most majestic and awefully [impressively] attracting of all the canine variety.' Taplin continued with a paean to the breed: 'Docile beyond conception, and affectionate beyond description, the Newfoundland dog is easily taught almost every thing within the power of the human mind to inculcate, of which his own strength and frame are capable. Equally sagacious as energetic, he patiently perseveres in whatever he undertakes, and never relinquishes the attempt so long as there remains the most distant hope, or possibility of success . . . . The sagacity of this animal is so palpably blended with a peculiarly attentive attachment to the human species, and such an instantaneous sense of impending danger, that the inactive mind, lulled to an apathy, becomes immediately roused to action in the contemplation.' Philip Reinagle (1749-1815), the artist who created this portrait, was known primarily for his landscapes and depictions of familiar animals, especially sporting scenes containing dogs and birds. He created all the drawings for the engravings in Taplin's descriptive catalog of sporting dogs. He places an oversized dog against a background of exaggerated mountain crags, with the added dramatic detail of a working dog team that is just large enough to convey a message, even though it foreshortens the perspective.

WORKING DOG: The Newfoundland dog, wrote Taplin, 'is habitually used in its native country, for the purposes of draught. They are easily broken in, and soon inured to the trammels of harness; three, four, or five are used in a sledge or other vehicle, and will convey a load of some hundreds weight for many miles with great ease.'

LAND OF THE NEWFIE: Geographically, the most easterly part of North America is the island called Newfoundland. Named Terre-Neuve— literally 'land-new,' or 'New-(found)-land'—by 15th century explorers. Northwest of Newfoundland, across the Strait of Belle Isle, is Labrador, the larger mainland, peninsular part of the old entities which, in 2001 were politically merged into the province of Newfoundland-Labrador. West of Newfoundland-Labrador is the Gulf of St. Lawrence; to the southwest beyond Cabot Strait are Cape Breton Island and peninsular Nova Scotia ('New Scotland'). East and south of Newfoundland-Labrador are the plankton-rich waters of the historic, world famous fishing ground known as the Grand Banks—where the Newfoundland dog honed its water skills in behalf of fishermen from the nearby provinces and New England. Since 1990, a wide variety of technological "advances" have led to over-fishing and a corresponding decline of commercially viable fish populations.

A key observation here: "there was also a little white about the feet, and in the end of the tail."

Happy National Black Dog Day

And to the browns, grays, black and whites and the IS!

(Karazan Music Of The Night - Andrew)