Basque whalers, the courage prevalent in Basque nature

Christine Bender, a US writer of Basque heritage, was born in Idaho, surrounded by mountains and vast expansions of land. It was during part of her high school and college years when she lived in Los Angeles and San Diego that she fell in love with the ocean.

Since then, her work as a writer has also been closely related to the sea. Her first book, Challenge the Wind, tells the story of Domingo Laca, a young Basque sailor, during a journey on the Santa Maria. Her second book, Sails of Fortune, details the heroic voyage of Magellan and Juan Sebastian de Elcano.

Her latest book, The Whaler's Forge, tells of the first Basque whaling ship to reach Red Bay, Canada. One of the harpooners, Kepa de Mendieta, becomes the victim of a terrible accident, and when his ship leaves to return to the Basque Country, Kepa is left behind. The story unveils his struggle to survive in a strange and dangerous new land.

Whalers, a theme that is lately in vogue following the publication of Guillermo Zubiaga's comic on the subject, captured Christine's interest while she was researching Challenge The Wind  and she came across the discoveries of four 16th century Basque whaling galleons in Red Bay, Labrador. "This intrigued me, and I eventually decided to make my third book about these whalers", Christine says in an exclusive interview for eitb.com.

For Christine, whalers depict the boldness, strength, and courage that is prevalent in the Basque temperament. "The whalers had to possess these traits to face the very real, and often deadly, challenges of their trade. Their lives were hard, to say the least, but if they managed to stay alive and well the rewards often kept their families and villages prosperous", Christine says.

"This was a powerful, dynamic time for the Basques, one in which they were respected by the world for their talents as captains, navigators, whalers, and ship builders", the Basque-American writer adds.

A year-long research

Conducting research to complete the book took about a year. First, Christine visited Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, to meet with the experts who worked on the Red Bay discoveries. From there, she went to Red Bay to study the finds in person, including the grave sites of over 140 Basque whalers.

Then she went to Grand Manan Island off the coast of New Brunswick to study the North Atlantic right whales, the whales most hunted by the early Basques. Most recently, she also joined a team of archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution to participate in an active dig at Hare Harbour, Quebec. "Here discoveries are still being made about the Basque whalers and their interaction with the Innu and Inuit Indians", the writer says.

Basques in America

Christine is among those who truly believe that Basque whalers arrived in America before Columbus. According to the US writer, records that date from 1380 to 1433 show large shipments of beaver pelts being unloaded from Basque ships during a period when beavers were almost extinct in Europe. Also, the pelts were described as being stored in rolls, which is how pelts were treated by the Algonquin Indians tribes from the east coast of North America. "If the Basques were trading for animal pelts with the Indians by 1380, it's quite possible the whalers and fishermen arrived before then, and well before Columbus", Christine adds.

The Whaler's forge is written in English but Christine would love to have this and her other two books translated into Spanish and Basque. "Often I have people ask for them in the translated form but I've been unable to make that happen so far", she says.

Some months after the publication of her third book, Christine is already thinking of her next project, a story about Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the founder of San Diego. "The Maritime Museum of San Diego is building a replica of his 1542 galleon, and we hope to launch the book when we launch the ship. I'm very excited about this project", Christine says.