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or so and everything
     was on fire again. The fuel tanks were down in the engine room, a 50-litre tank
     on either side of the engine. We had our speedboat in tow, so my two sons,
     Denley and Derrick, along with my shareman, Lloyd Burden, and I left the boat in
     fear of the tanks exploding, and we headed to Indian Tickle. We lost everything,
     including our nets. We had planned to set them the next morning once the storm
     had passed.
    Job and Rosetta Sainsbury from Cartwright were fishing in Indian Tickle. They
     took us in until the coastal boat came in from farther up north to take us back
     to St. Anthony. My wife was waiting on the wharf to take us home to St. Lunaire
     again. If it wasn’t for Job and Rosetta, I don’t know what we would have done.
     They fed us and made room for us in their small summer home. People like that
     don’t get forgotten very easily.
    My wife, Irene, was on the wharf waiting for us. When the boat had docked,
     there were my two sons, Denley and Derrick, our shareman Lloyd Burden, and
     myself. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs, and I don’t remember the
     captain’s name. We were all treated quite well duringour journey
     back home. At some point during the night one of the mates came to us and
     invited us to have breakfast with the captain. He must have known our boat was
     burning, because he wasn’t supposed to call in at Indian Tickle that particular
     trip. But the captain and his crew came in to pick us up and take us back to St.
     Anthony. At first I was hesitant to sit and eat with a man, a captain, rather, of
     such a large ship as the one owned by the Canadian National Railway. I felt too
     small, too unworthy to eat with someone of his authority. However, we did have a
     great meal. I wish I had kept a record of all of that, the name of the coastal
     boat and the captain’s name, but it’s too late for that now. Denley and Derrick
     must have enjoyed the company, as they talked about dining with the captain for
     some time after.
    We arrived home safe and sound, but there was no rest for the weary. We had
     just a 20-foot speedboat, with a 40-HP Mariner outboard motor, and a few
     gillnets. We didn’t have a gurdy to haul in the nets, and hauling in gillnets in
     twenty to thirty fathoms of water by hand is not easy. We did get it done,
     though, and managed to make enough money to qualify for EI and get us through
     the winter.
    The following spring, we bought a 45-foot longliner called the Sherman
     Elaine from Mr. John Short of Cook’s Harbour. He had bought himself a
     newer and larger boat, so he sold us the older one at a very good price,
     somewherearound $7,000 if I remember correctly. We finished
     fishing at Belle Isle in the straits, and gillnetted at Cook’s Harbour. We had
     some issues getting our larger boat registered with the Department of Fisheries
     and Oceans (DFO), since we were only permitted up to a 34’11” boat. DFO didn’t
     like the idea of us going to a 45-footer.
    Shortly after, I was called to an appeals board meeting in St. Anthony, where
     officers from across Atlantic Canada came to hear the stories first-hand from the
     local fishermen struggling with some of the rules laid out by DFO. I told them
     about the recent loss of my 34’11” boat, the Trudy Irene .
    “She was only two years old and we lost everything. We had gillnets and enough
     insurance to cover what was owed on her to the Fisheries Loans Board. All we
     were left with was the clothes we were wearing.”
    They must have felt sorry for us, because they approved the registry for
     our 45-foot Sherman Elaine .
    Fishing was not easy. Most often we would face some sort of trouble while
     fishing cod traps at Belle Isle. One time, we were on our way home to St. Lunaire
     with a full load of fish iced in the hold, when all of a sudden the motor stopped
     running. I thought it strange, because she was working so well up to that. I
     went to the