Robert Grenier, the Canadian diver who made his mark in maritime archaeology when he discovered the oldest shipwreck ever found in his homeland’s waters, has died at the age of 88.
The underwater archaeologist’s work is acclaimed for having expanded understanding of early European maritime activity off North America’s Atlantic coast.
As head of Parks Canada’s marine archaeology section in 1978, Grenier led his team of divers in an underwater search of Labrador’s Red Bay, prompted by archival research in northern Spain’s Basque region.
This resulted in the discovery of a well-preserved 16m three-masted whaling ship believed to be the San Juan, which had sunk in 1565, and below it a chalupa, an 8m rowing boat.
The wrecks lay at a depth of little more than 9m but had remained largely intact beneath centuries of silt in the icy Labrador waters.
“I felt with my hands like a magician, just opening up a picture of the 16th century in Red Bay,” said Grenier of the experience, which marked the starting point of years of underwater fieldwork in the area. “To the Basques, this is the Holy Grail.”
World Heritage Site
“The collective body of knowledge gained from the years of research at Red Bay has dramatically changed the understanding of the beginning of large-scale and overseas whaling, as well as the knowledge of the early European history of North America, particularly the role that the Basque played in it,” says Parks Canada.
Red Bay, which had been a whaling port known to the Basques as Butus, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site as a result of the discovery.
Grenier was born in Trois-Rivières in Quebec in 1937 and had completed a master’s degree in classics before embarking on his career with Parks Canada.
The San Juan apart, he led or participated in numerous expeditions, including searches for historic wrecks such as HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in the Arctic in the 1990s and 2000s. He was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 2004 and served as president of UNESCO’s international scientific committee for the protection of underwater cultural heritage.
Grenier retired from Parks Canada in 2011 after more than four decades of service, and died on 3 January in Gatineau, Quebec.
A replica of the San Juan, currently under construction at the Albaola Maritime Culture Factory at Pasaia in Spain’s Basque region, is due to set sail for Red Bay in 2027.
