Red Bay is one of the oldest occupied ports along the Labrador Straits. The earliest European occupants were Breton fishermen and Basque whalers during the 16th century. Four hundred years ago, Basque Whalers carried out a very large whaling fishery in Red Bay; at the time Red Bay was the largest whaling port in the world. This four hundred year old settlement not only possesses the oldest shipwreck north of the Caribbean (1565) but, because of the cold water, the best preserved shipwreck of the post medieval period anywhere in the world.