I’m from a small town in Northern Newfoundland. I was a kid in the 70’s-80’s. There were dozens of hand-barrows in use back then. There’s no secret behind them. They were used to carry loads between two people. This could be anything. Sometimes it was salt cod. Sometimes gillnets rolled up or cod traps. Could be boxes or supplies. Could be firewood or lumber. Could be groceries to stock the galley on the long-liner.
We used to have big families in Newfoundland and many kids to help out in the fishery. And also usually 2 to 6 members on a fishing crew. So we often worked together. Here in the US, most everyone is totally independent and don’t often work together, from what I can see, so this means of carrying things wouldn’t really make sense here. However, I entertain the thought of bringing it back all the time. I’d like to have a hand-barrow here. But I’d need a helper to use it.
They’re easy to make. Usually 2 pieces of up to 8 foot lumber for the handles. We would have used probably 2x3 fir (cos that’s what we had available), put a couple pieces of 2x3 maybe 2 feet wide across maybe 2 feet in from each end of the side “runners”. And then some 1x3 strapping screwed down on top. If you want to get fancy, you could rabbet them into the centre of the board. But they’d always be painted. Otherwise they won’t hold up long. We had one that was painted dark green with a red diamond pattern in the middle, like the colours on our motorboat/trap skiff. They’re useful for people who find it harmonious working together. Any questions you might about them, feel free to ask! All the best.
