Samuel

Samuel
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Samuel (no last name is ever given) was an old black man in Twillingate, Florida in 1971. He had been fishing in the waters around town for up to eighty years. He was remarkable for how little he would speak and being something of a hermit, but as he once said "I likes to talk to folks. I just don’t take to workin’ close with ‘em as all."^Roc3-10 When he'd open up, he could talk about birds, fish, the sea and all he'd seen. He could even be inspired to chat about religion.

Samuel was first described with an "old wooden rowboat, with an Evinrude outboard of uncertain age pushing it, being run up the river by an old black man named Samuel, who was of equally undetermined age." It was also mentioned that "Samuel had forgotten more about boatmanship at the age of five than Mark and Jackie had ever known."^Roc3-9 When prepared for fishing, his old rowboat would be filled with nets, lines, poles, buckets and a anchor made from a tin-can filled with cement. He helped moved the shantyboat that Mark Gravengood and Jackie Archer lived in during their time in Twillingate.

Samuel had a little shack he would live in on occasion, but preferred to spend his time in the salt marshes. In the last week of November 1971, his boat was found adrift with no sign of him. It was Brother Erasmus that said "Don’t think he would have wanted us to find him. I think he’d wanted to have been buried in the sea."^Roc3-11 His disappearance was the final act that helped Mark and Jackie conclude it was time to return to Spearfish Lake.