William Henry Whiteley

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William Henry Whiteley (5 June 1834–18 August 1903) is best known as the inventor of the cod trap, a large box-like device consisting of netting with an opening where the cod are directed by a long net extending to the shore, which he invented in 1865.

William Henry Whiteley was born and spent his youth in Boston, where he was apprenticed as a printer. After his father’s death in 1844 and his mother’s remarriage, the family moved to the southern Labrador coast. William learned to fish with his stepfather, James Buckle, and in his early twenties was operating his own small fishing business on the island of Bonne-Espérance, Quebec. In 1858 William Henry Whiteley travelled to England to claim his inheritance from a great-uncle. En route, he met and married Louisa Thompson. The couple returned to Labrador and he started up a major fishing business on Bonne-Espérance. The business employed a number of families in the cod, salmon, herring, and seal fisheries. He died in 1903 in St. John's, Newfoundland.