Here's why this historic bait bucket is in ship-shape
This authentic bait bucket spent decades as a decoration at the Newfoundland Store in Toronto
If you're hoping to catch a cod in this summer's recreational fishery, you'll probably use a rod and reel. Maybe a hand line. But back in the day, fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador had another trick up their sleeve: the bait bucket.
If you've never seen a bait bucket, you're not alone. Maureen Peters, a history curator at The Rooms, had never seen one intact.
"When there was something that was really functional, really important to the fishermen, it was used and used until it fell apart," Peters said
Then one day, a perfectly preserved bait bucket washed up at The Rooms. Like so many people from the province, the bucket had spent most of its working life on the mainland. In fact, if you used to spend time in Toronto, Peters says you may have seen it on the job.
"It was into the window display of the Toronto Newfoundland Store for a good 30 years," she said.
In Part II of our summer series Inside the Vault, Peters explains how this intricate object was used for fishing and fills in the story behind its second life in the Big Smoke.
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