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Bay of Islands Dory
The Bay of Islands Dory, recognized by its bright orange hull and green trim, is a regionally unique boat that has been adapted by generations of boat builders for use in the local…
Swamp Boats of the Burin Peninsula
“As far as I know, most of the swampbottoms that were built, were built in Epworth. There were a couple of fellows down there: Ren Roberts was one man...”
Howard Childs
“We use mostly plywood for the sides, and we use local plank from the building supplies. We used to cut years ago, go in the woods and get it ourselves, but we used to have a problem getting someone to saw it. Most all the mills were…
Gordon Wheeler
“When we was young, there was no outboard motors. everywhere you went, you rowed. I think the first outboard motor… Uncle Ben had one there, a five [horsepower]. And he used to tell ya to slow down, you’re going too fast.” Gordon’s father…
Austin Childs
Aus fished for lobster with his brother Ben and Gordon Wheeler in an area on the west coast known as the Wild Shore. For the duration of the lobster season, they stay in camp and fished from Eel Hole, south of the Port-au-Port Peninsula…
Mike Sheehan
Mike Sheehan was born in Benoit's Cove in the Bay of Islands in 1937. “I lived just up past where the church is at,” he explained, “Everyone had their houses close to the water in them time, eh? I spent all my evenings down here, there used to a store over there. There’s still a store there now…”
Roy Dennis
Roy Dennis was born in 1932 in the community of John’s Beach, in the Bay of Islands on Newfoundland's west coast. Like his father Joseph, Roy grew up fishing for lobster, herring and cod. He built his first boat at age fourteen, using the skills he had learned from his grandfather…
Mick McCarthy
Born on Woods Island, Michael McCarthy, better known as Mick, is a carpenter, boat builder and fisherman. He was nearly a teenager when his family resettled to Benoit’s Cove in the 1960s, as part of the Government’s…
Sam Sheppard's Lark Harbour Dory
“I’ve been at it for... what? I’d say fifty years... longer than that… fifty-five years.” Born in 1947, Sam Sheppard was fifteen when he started fishing in the Bay of Islands and has spent his life on the water harvesting cod, lobster and other groundfish. Lobster has…
Grandy Dory
Born 1884 in Garnish Newfoundland, Stephen Leonard Grandy sparked a longstanding family preoccupation with dory construction which began with his employment with G & A Buffet Ltd., a company selling dories along the south coast of the Island. Stephen studied the design…