This is the story of my grandfather, Captain John Hann Blackmore, more often called Skipper Johnny “Black.” He was born on Patrick’s Island, Bonavista Bay, in 1881, and lived in Templeman, Bonavista Bay, until 1925 when he and his family moved to Port Union, Trinity Bay. He was a fisherman, a Labrador skipper, a ship builder, an Arctic explorer. He was a folk hero in his time, a man of the people who prospered in a rugged environment. Following Captain John’s passing in 1970 at age 89, Arthur Sweetland, editor of The Fishermen’s Advocate newspaper, described him as, “Born with the sea in his blood and with a natural instinct very few possessed he became one of the greatest fishing skippers of the century.”
