| Summary: | Interview focused on swamp boats (or swamp bottom boats) common on the west side of Placentia Bay. "0:00:00 Gary started fishing around twenty years old. Before that, his father had swampbottom boats. Gary bought his own when he was about 21 years old and used it to fished with his brother-in-law, Andy Slaney, for about six or seven years. Purchased used from Jack Lundrigan, a coach for the Laurentian soccer team. Does not know who built it. 0:01:45 “They were amazing boats.” Gary had his swamp boat around the 70s. It was about twenty-two or twenty-three feet long. Estimates about five feet wide at midship. “Those things, they toss ya around, but they were wonderful [on the] ocean… I don’t know if anybody ever got lost is a swamp. You got in. You managed to make it home.” 0:03:40 Gary describes maintenance needed for wooden boat in the sprint, such as recorking the seams of the planks. Said his swamp did not have overlapping planks [maybe talking about a different boat?]. Used oakum and pitch to seal. 0:05:00 Crystal asked how far they were used along the coast. Gary says he thinks they were all over the island. 005:30 After the swamp he got a bigger boat - a punt type boat. Used with cod traps. 0:06:15 Swamp boats had an inboard engine. His had a fifteen horsepower Yanmar. “Years ago it used to be the old make and break, you the old Acadia engines?” 0:07:00 Gary started fishing with his father while still in school. Remembers fishing before on school days before going to school in the morning. 0:07:45 Gary’s father’s swampbottom boat was purchased from Adam Mullens [sp?]. “It was rickety to say the least. It was almost gone. But my dad and I, we patched it up and we used it.” 0:08:15 Used swamp to fish for cod and flounder using hook and line (trawl), handline with cod jigger. 0:09:20 Driver was used on stern of the boat to keep it into the wind, to keep it straight while hauling gear. 0:10:10 Crystal asks about steering rudder. Years ago used lines, but eventually got a wheel rigged up. “The most important ...
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