Jean-Charles LévesqueTerre-neuva's grandson

Jean-Charles Lévesque

Petit Jean et la Grande Pêche

Discover the portrait of Petit Jean – real name Jean-charles Lévesque – a resident of Granville’s Haute Ville, grandson of Terre-neuvas and passionate about thehistory of the Grande Pêche.

To meet

Petit Jean

Where does your interest in the world of Grande Pêche come from?

When I was young, my grandmother used to say to me “your grandfather went to Canada”. My grandfather was on the François-Charles, and his brother-in-law was captain of La Thérèsa, the penultimate Newfoundlander. Little by little, I began to take an interest in the Grande Pêche, and in particular the presence of fishermen in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. I had also started a correspondence with Madame Lefèvre, who was a local schoolteacher and who taught me all sorts of things about the area. And in 1985, I got fed up with my job at EDF, so I went to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. I can’t tell you how my parents and wife reacted! And it was on this trip that I discovered that my grandfather hadn’t gone to Canada, as my grandmother used to say, but to Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon! And that was my greatest joy at the time: I have to tell you that when I got there, I had a lump in my throat, I was so moved. In Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, I stayed in the archives for 80 days, tracing all the families of Norman origin, particularly from Sud-Manche. It was a real work of passion.

In fact, you've written several books on the subject!

Yes, I did my first book in 1982, a book of postcards about the Grande Pêche(Granville and fishing in the days of the Terre-neuvas). I did it mainly for the local population, and it was a great success! After that, I wrote a second one on Granville(Granville, images et traditions du passé), before doing another on the Grande Pêche at the request of the people of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon(Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, des images et des hommes). I made them a promise about that, and the true granvillais has only one word: when he says, he says! On top of that, I’m taking a census of all the boats in Granville: I’ve now counted 2,000 boats, including some that didn’t leave Granville but Le Havre. Because of the “problem” of the tides in Granville, it was sometimes necessary for certain boats to be fitted out in the port of Le Havre: In those days, you often had ships up to twice the tonnage of the Marité. For example, the Jacques-Cœur was 760 tons (compared with 249 for the Marité). But all these ships were owned by Granville shipowning families. I also dealt with the disappearance of sailors: of course there were shipwrecks, some 350 out of the 2,000 boats found. But there were also dementia, melancholy and alcohol problems. Not forgetting the deaths in the dories, due to fog, wind or other causes.

When you bought the house you now live in, did you take an interest in the family who used to live there?

So I did some research on the Dry family – an old privateering family, who in the 1700s were related to the Couraye-Duparc family, and who armed quite a few boats. But my big problem is that I’m only interested in the little people who fished. I’m also interested in shipowners, but I don’t necessarily rely on the history of privateers and the big names. It’s easier for me to turn to the working people, the workers of the sea. After all, if it hadn’t been for the crews, there’d have been no Grande Pêche.

Have you always lived in the Upper Town?

I’ll have you know that I was expatriated at one point: I made a thirty-kilometer trip to Avranches! But there was no sea. So I kept coming back to Granville.

How do you see your role today as a descendant of terre-neuvas?

It’s up to us to re-establish the importance of the Grande Pêche in Granville, and the importance of Norman settlement in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. At one time, Granville and Saint-Malo accounted for 60% of French cod fishing! So I often give talks, especially at events like the Festival des Voiles du Travail. And what’s interesting at these conferences is that there’s a lot of discussion: every family living within a 40km radius of Granville had a Newfoundlander among their ancestors. And many sailors came from the hinterland, from Mortain to Barneville-Carteret. That’s another reason why I’m interested in the little people.

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