'A very common and usuall trade': the relationship between cartographic perceptions and 'fishing' in the Davis Strait circa 1500-1550

Abstract

• FROM the time it was certain that one could sail westwards from Europe and reach land on the other side of the ocean, three kinds of European travellers headed west into the northern Atlantic: those searching for a north-west passage to the spices and silks of the Orient through what soon became known as an intervening American continent; those hoping to find gold or silver ashore in the New World; and those content to exploit everyday commodities obtainable from the eastern shore of North America and its adjacent waters.