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Captain Coubelongue Grave Site Municipal Heritage Site

Conche, Newfoundland and Labrador, A0K, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2007/12/19

Photo of Captain Coubelongue Grave Site, Conche, NL, 2004; FSHS/HFNL, 2008
Captain Coubelongue Grave Site, Conche, NL
Photo showing the Captain Coubelongue Grave Site, Conche, NL, circa 2003; FSHS/HFNL 2008
Captain Coubelongue Grave Site, Conche, NL
Photo showing the cross at the Captain Coubelongue Grave Site, Conche, NL, circa 2000; Courtesy C. Cochrane, 2008
Captain Coubelongue Grave Site, Conche, NL

Other Name(s)

n/a

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2009/03/30

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

Captain Coubelongue Gravesite Municipal Heritage Site is located near the beach at Sou’west (or Southwest) Crouse within the municipal boundaries of the Town of Conche. It is a single gravesite believed to date to 1873. Today the site has been surrounded with low fencing, and a short flight of stairs ascends the grassy bank to a cross at its center. A sign at the site explains its significance. The municipal heritage designation includes that area of fenced land at the site.

Heritage Value

The Coubelongue Gravesite has been designated a municipal heritage site by the Town of Conche because of its cultural, historic and aesthetic values.

The site’s cultural value lies in the local oral history of the Coubelongue brothers and how the single grave site came to be. According to the story, there were two brothers with the surname Coubelongue in the Conche area in the 1800s. While the younger brother had two seines to catch cod, the older one had only one seine and was very jealous. Nobody knows how the younger brother got two seines and became captain, because it was the norm for an older brother to advance more quickly than younger siblings. Captain Coubelongue, the younger brother, died very suddenly in North East Cape Rouge (now better known as Crouse) in 1873, reportedly at the age of about 33, but instead of burying his body at the cemetery at that place, his body was transported to Sou’west Crouse (now part of the Town of Conche) and buried alone in a single gravesite.

The site has historic value because of its connection to the Conche and Crouse areas as the onetime location of seasonal French fishing stations. The area lies along what is referred to as Newfoundland’s “French Shore” and was a major site of French fishing activities from 1713 to 1904, during which time French fishermen enjoyed treaty rights granted by the British. If the oral history holds true, the man buried at the Coubelongue Gravesite was a nineteenth century French fishing captain around the midpoint of these activities.

The Coubelongue Gravesite has aesthetic value because its appearance as a single gravesite marked with a single cross is striking, and the Town of Conche has erected interpretative information and done landscaping at the site to draw attention to its significance. Rather fittingly, the grave lies at the far end of a cobbled beach that was once used for drying cod.

Source: Town of Conche Council Meeting Minutes of 2007/12/19

Character-Defining Elements

-location of gravesite;
-the fact that it is a single gravesite;
-and the presence of a cross at the site.

Recognition

Jurisdiction

Newfoundland and Labrador

Recognition Authority

NL Municipality

Recognition Statute

Municipalities Act

Recognition Type

Municipal Heritage Building, Structure or Land

Recognition Date

2007/12/19

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

1873/01/01 to 1873/01/01

Theme - Category and Type

Developing Economies
Hunting and Gathering

Function - Category and Type

Current

Historic

Religion, Ritual and Funeral
Mortuary Site, Cemetery or Enclosure

Architect / Designer

n/a

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

Town of Conche
PO Box 59
Conche, NL A0K 1Y0

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

NL-4380

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

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