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Folklorist David A. Taylor
2003
United States of America

Credits:
photo by Lora Bottinelli

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In January 1978, David A. Taylor, a 27-year-old graduate student in the
Department of Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, arrived in Winterton for the first time. He was hoping to write his master's thesis on boat building in Newfoundland, and he was looking for a suitable place to do his field research. He came to Winterton because fishermen and others he encountered in communities around the Avalon Peninsula told him that it had a strong reputation as the home of able boatbuilders.

In his writings, Winterton Boats & Boatbuilders 1997, he had the following to say about his experience:

"There, bottom - up and glistening in the weak rays of the winter sun, I saw an assortment of white - hulled fishing boats - rodneys, motorboats, trap skiffs and speedboats - and knew at once I had come to the right place."

"On my first day in the community I met Eleazor Reid, a soft-spoken fisherman who had built many boats for himself and others over his long career. After I explained that I was interested in learning about how he and other men built boats, he readily agreed to tell me and show me. In the months that followed, I tape-recorded interviews with him, observed and photographed his boat building activities, and traced moulds and other patterns that he used."

"Reid introduced me to others in the community who knew how to build boats - his brother Reuben; his nephews Charlie, Hubert and Wilson Reid; his neighbours Marcus French, Herbert Harnum and Lionel Piercey B and they in turn led me to others, including Wilson Downey, Chesley Gregory and Fred P. Hiscock. Gradually after more than two years of asking questions, taking photographs, watching boatbuilders in action, measuring boats and observing how fishermen used them, I began to feel that I was beginning to understand Winterton's boat building tradition from the perspective of the men who carried it on."

There are many circumstances in play during the building of a traditional boat. Basil Greenhill summarized these in his writings "Archaeology of the Boat: A New Introductory Study" when he stated:

"...a boat should be judged only in the light of the requirements for which she was built and the resources of the society which built her. To appreciate a boat one must be aware of the factors that gave rise to her building, the timber available, the general environment, the building traditions of the society which produced her and above all the purposes for which she was built."

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Boatbuilder, John Reid and son Charlie
circa 1958
Winterton, Newfoundland, Canada

Credits:
photo by Ralph Reid

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John Reid, a respected Winterton boatbuilder, was part of David A. Taylor's research. In this picture John Reid's son Charlie is shown watching the construction process. This is the way that skills and knowledge were traditionally passed down from one generation to the next.

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Fishermen and boatbuilders Reuben Reid and Herbert Harnum
November 1979
Winterton, Newfoundland, Canada