Members of the Portuguese navy were in St. John’s today to commemorate the lives of fellow sailors and fishermen lost at sea off Newfoundland and Labrador.
For hundreds of years, thousands of Portuguese fishermen and sailors worked in the waters off this province with the Portuguese White Fleet. Many of those who lost their lives were buried in Newfoundland, in graves marked only with a simple wooden cross.
The grave records were lost in a house fire, and only one sailor’s identity is known. Dionisio Esteves is buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in St. John’s. Esteves was newly-married and only 26 years old when he died.
Tears were shed during today’s ceremony, as members of the Portuguese community paid tribute.
A laying of the wreath in commemoration of the Portuguese sailors and fishermen that lost their lives off the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador took place today in St. John’s. Officers and crew of the OPV Viano do Castelo were in attendance @590VOCM pic.twitter.com/rhrXqHQkKq
— AmyFitzpatrickVOCM (@AmyVocm) September 13, 2019
Christina e Silva-Greening says her father, Manuel, came to Newfoundland from Portugal to work as a ship mechanic. He was tasked to the Portuguese draggers when they needed repairs.
She says that like many men who worked on the sea, her father spent the first 20 years of his marriage away for six months of the year. But when he moved to Newfoundland, he made sure that changed.
She says her strongest memory of her father when she was young was that he always came home for supper. He made sure they spent the mealtime together as a family.
