Sitting in a thick leather chair on the bridge of his newly launched fishing vessel this week, Matthew Petten has the look of a man who's endured an ocean full of adversity.

His eyes are heavy from a lack of sleep, many days of intense stress, and sadness over the fact that his father, noted Port de Grave fisherman Dwight Petten, is not at his side for a milestone moment in his life — the launch of what is likely the most expensive and largest fishing vessel ever built in Newfoundland and Labrador for the modern inshore sector.