The usually quiet Fortune Bay, frequently filled with the sound of lonely schooners heading out the bay during the 19th century, was a much different place in 1891 as ships commissioned by the Newfoundland Government lined up across the Bay as far out as St. Pierre blocking the entrance. Fisherman who wished to defy the laws of the land to fight for their families and livelihoods would have to sneak past the wall in order to sell their catch. The men of the bay took their young sons and defiantly worked against the wind as they sailed against the powers that be. The revolution was headed by small man, named Tommy Hynes after his father, whom drew the ire of the Newfoundland Government, and motivated thousands of fisherman around the bay.

During the late 1880s, tensions came to a height in Fortune Bay, Newfoundland as the government issued an ill-conceived Bait Act which sought to end Americans fishing in Newfoundland waters. However, the Act ended up limiting the rights of inshore fisherman to barter and sell their catches to foreigners limiting their consumer base and barred them from fishing close to shore where the rich bait of Newfoundland would swim. The Bait Act was completed due to, as the Honourable G. Rendell put it in February 18 1888, “at present fifteen or twenty persons are striving to draw a living out of that which formerly supported ten.” Continuing he explained that there must be a way to conserve the fish that support the main livelihood of the people of Newfoundland. A familiar topic to Newfoundlanders today which came to a height just over 100 years later. As a result, the government decided to enforce it in the words of Rendell, “because if allowed to remain dormant, we should exhibit as a laughing stock to all concerned”, thereby putting the appearance of the Newfoundland government over its own people.

Fisherman around the island seemed to have supported the Act but it was the inshore fisherman whom relied on selling their bait to foreigners to feed their families that were adamantly opposed. They were restricted from the rich herring and capelin waters and were unable to receive adequate prices for their fish and were heavily prosecuted by the government who wished to not become the “laughing stock” of the world. The fisherman struggled for three years immediately following the initiation of the act. During these years, fisherman had successfully “ran the blockade” as described in the Evening Telegram at the time. As more fisherman defied the government, the tighter the restrictions came. The foreigners needed bait on the Banks. They offered higher prices due to the absence of bait and the fisherman needed the money to support their families. Thus, an open defiance ensued at a height in 1891 as families starved around the bay. As their children looked to them with worried eyes and distraught with hunger, the fishermen had to do something.

Thomas Hynes was one of those fishermen fighting for his families’ survival. Born in 1831 to an Irish-born father and Mi’kmaq mother on the “The Neck” of English Harbour East, he was middle aged when he defied the government to take back his livelihood, the fishery. According to reports at the time, more than sixty boats had defied the Act, and Thomas Hynes was listed as one of the ringleaders who encouraged the fisherman to fight the law. Oral history states that he had been doing so for years while evading capture by the incoming rangers. He was known as a skilled escape artist, often evading capture by the police in one area of Fortune Bay while

he watched from a hilltop chewing tobacco.  During this time as described by oral history and detailed completely in Otto Lawrence’s book “The Bay in the Boy”, Tommy had been working outside when 9 policemen, hiding within the trees of Bay L’Argent, had surrounded him, boxing him in. Tommy sang out to his friend John House, a giant man of over 7 foot, and soon John came running down and legend has it, fought and took out all the policeman by himself. Tommy evading capture once again made his way through the woods to St. Bernard’s.

Eventually, the law caught up on Tommy and he was forced to give in to the police in St. Jacques. He was arrested along with 7 other ringleaders including his first cousin Daniel McCarthy of Head of Bay (Now Terrenceville), and were taken onboard the SS Conscript which was heavily armed with dozens of policemen to St. John’s for trial. While the others were let off with the crimes, Tommy confessed his guilt and was charged for disobeying the Bait Act, however as word spread across St. John’s and beyond, of the fishermen’s plight, pressure began to rise on the government to release Tommy from jail. He was eventually released and the loosening of the Bait Act began to unravel, and while it was still illegal, the fisherman were given more and more leverage to sell their fish to foreigners in St. Pierre and beyond.                 

Several years later the ship on which Tommy was arrested changed its name to the SS Virginia Lake and became a sealing vessel. During this time Tommy coincidently became a seal fisherman on the ship and 17 years later (1908) since being arrested in 1891, he was sealing on this very same ship, in Notre Dame Bay and suddenly passed away well into his 70s. His obituary published not long after his death described him as well-respected in the bay and would be missed by all. The ship which had both en-captured him and brought wealth to his family suffered a similar fate the year after his death, and was caught on fire while on the Labrador.