Feltham, S. Sam Feltham using caulking iron and mallet, Glovertown

• Main Author: Braye, Crystal
• Other Authors: Feltham, Samuel L., Sam Feltham was born on Deer Island, Bonavista Bay on March 3, 1928. He learned how to build boats as a young boy, by watching older men while they built boats to use in the fisheries. He built his first full-size Rodney at the age of fifteen, the same year he went to work as a cook on a vessel in the Labrador fishery. Sam also spent one season on a coal delivery boat before going to work aboard the Winifred Lee in 1950. The Winifred Lee was a coastal boat that met the Kyle in Hopedale and go as far as Nutak, providing passenger and freight service along the northern Labrador coast. In the winter, Sam continued to build boats that were sold for use at Labrador posts. He has built more than 100 boats including rodneys, punts, dorys, motor boats, speed boats, and cabin cruisers.
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Objects; Architecture; building and construction; Boatbuilding; Boats; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/boatmuseum/id/106

This punt was completed in August 2012 and is one of more than 100 boats built by Sam Feltham. While Sam would normally cut his own wood, he finds it increasingly difficult to find suitable timbers. For this punt, Sam used store-bought spruce. Sam notes that the planks are thinner on this punt than he would have traditionally built with. Here, Sam used about 20 planks where he would have only used 7 or 8 wider planks in the past. For his frame, Sam used steamed juniper laths.