Stage

When I moved to Lewisporte, my route to work involved walking along the harbour. It was then I first noticed the various pretty looking mini-houses out on private homeowner's docks. I had never seen them before, so I asked my colleagues about them. I asked if it was a shed for storing boat tools, just like how I helped my dad build a shed in our backyard to store garden tools and bikes. It turns out, it is called a stage, and it is equivalent to a fisherman's shed, except it functions more than just to store fishing and boat tools. The stage was the place where fisherman would clean and gut their fish before bringing them home. Inside the middle of the stage, there would be a table for the fisherman to work, and under or at the side of the table would be an opening in the dock directly exposing the water under the dock. This will be the hole where all the unwanted parts of the fish would trickle through straight into the ocean. These openings would make a great banquet hall for sea gulls and other predators!

Stages are usually painted on one bright solid colour with white trims. Sometimes on the doors of the stage you may see a painted white circle the size of a dinner plate. These circles were said to help fishermen find their docks by reflecting the light of the head beams and allowing the fisherman so spot out the stage structure in the fog or dim early morning or late evening light.