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Details of the 'Optimist' vessel
1995

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Captain Saunders fished for twenty years and coasted for five or six years. He fished and coasted in the summer and built boats during the winter. He built between fifty and sixty boats in his boatbuilding career.

It's important also to mention the wives, like Hattie Saunders, who took care of everything at home while their husbands were away making a living. They did whatever was required to keep things running smoothly at home.

Captain Saunders finished his schooner skippering days aboard the 'Marjorie Inkpen,' a 107-ton schooner which he ran for six months for Stephen Goodyear of Carmanville, trading from St. John's to St. Anthony carrying mainly general cargo and lumber.