Red Bay was founded by Basque sailors in the 16th century at the northeastern tip of Canada, on the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle. It is now an archaeological site that has the earliest, most complete, and best-preserved evidence of whaling by Europeans. The people who started the station in the 1530s called it Gran Baya. It was used as a base for coastal hunting, butchering, rendering whale fat by heating to make oil, and storing. It became a big place to get whale oil, which was shipped to Europe and used to light homes there. The site, which was only used during the summer, has the remains of rendering ovens, cooperages, wharves, temporary living quarters, a cemetery, and ships and whale bones that are still underwater. The station was used for about 70 years until there were no more whales in the area. Image by PxHere is licensed under CC0 Public Domain.