There is a place around three miles from home (Little Heart’s Ease) called Gooseberry Cove and the people have two or three slang words that we don’t use. We call the crowd mighty pens because whenever you get talking to the men, they are sure to find some place in the conversation to say you mighty pen. Actually they mean you might depend.
For example, one sentence I’ve heard is, “You mighty pen, boy, I’ll be out dere early ‘nuf de mar’r marn.” (meaning the fishing grounds).
Source: Rosalind Drodge – collected for a Folklore Course at MUN in 1971.