When the Pettens needed a new larger fishing boat, Henry Petten began to consider who they would hire to build her. “We’ll do it ourselves,” said his son Vernon. Having built a number of smaller boats, known as flats, Vernon Petten began…

“When I started fishing first, there was one fish in the water. That was cod,” said Vernon Petten, fisherman and boat builder from Port de Grave, Conception Bay. He started fishing when he was old enough to get aboard the boat…