stationer n Cp OED ~2 'one who has been some time on a particular station' naut, rare (1867); DC Nfld (1905-). See also STATION. Migratory fisherman from Conception Bay and the north-east coast who conducts summer fishery from a cove or harbour in northern Newfoundland and Labrador; also attrib.
1905 GRENFELL 113 A single crew remains on the schooner, and goes on a fishing trip further north. At the end of the voyage with all the fish, split and salted, stowed away in the hold, this solitary crew returns to the station. The men that have remained are called 'stationers'; the others are green-fish catchers. 1909 BROWNE 62 The fishery on the Labrador coast is prosecuted chiefly by men from the northern and eastern bays of Newfoundland, and they are divided into two classes: 'Floaters' . . . and 'Stationers'. . . The latter are located in some harbor, creek, or 'bight' where they own a 'Room.' 1924 ENGLAND 261 Thousands of outport men migrate almost as regularly as the seals themselves... If they pick some berth and settle down, they're called 'stationers,' 'squatters,' or 'roomers.' 1939 LODGE 52 'Stationers' on the Labrador are fishermen who work in groups of two or three in small boats which are left permanently on the coast, the fishermen themselves finding their way from and to Newfoundland on the coastal steamers. Their fishery is prosecuted in much the same fashion as the Newfoundland shore fishery. 1942 Little Bay Islands 14 Many stationers went to the French Shore each summer. 1953 Nfld Fish Develop Report 20 While almost 90 per cent of the floater crews and about 70 per cent of the stationer crews fish for cod only 60 per cent of the livyer crews fish for both salmon and cod. T 80-64 She went down [to Labrador] as a stationer, see, with the Carbonear people. T 141/63-652 An' then there's Cape Harrison—big place, and used to be filled years ago with stationers. 1967 FIRESTONE 29 The larger settlements on the Labrador side of the Strait, then, had quite an unstable population in contrast with those on the Newfoundland side as long as the stationer system lasted. In the latter the summer could find the arrival and departure of most of the population. 1970 PARSONS 28 While in Chateau Bay we met the first 'stationers' from Newfoundland. They were all residents of Carbonear, and were spending the summer fishing on the coast. One man had been making the annual voyage for over forty years and had never missed a summer. 1979 Salt Water, Fresh Water 319 I had a crew of five men and I had twenty-five stationers, that is, fishermen that go on the Labrador ... and I was bringing them home on the vessel, and we got caught in a gale of wind off St Anthony.
