THE SHIPYARD
The next day Captain Ben, true to his promise, took the children around to Stewart's Boat Shop where a fishing-boat was being built, and showed them just how the frame was made, the keel, the ribs, the stem, and sternpost, and how the planking was laid on. How everything was made as stiff and strong as possible so that the boat could stand the strain of being tossed about by heavy seas.
Bob followed it all with enthusiasm, for he was fond of carpentering and working with tools. He made up his mind that he would build a boat some day.
And now the Captain, having made everything clear with this small example which they could readily understand, proposed a visit to the shipyard, where a real life-sized ship was being built.
Here they found a busy gang of men hard at work, some with "broad axes" cutting down the planks to a line, "scoring" and "beating off"; others with "adzes" "dubbing," and even whipsawyers ripping logs.
On stagings about the great ship, which towered up as high as a house, more men were at work planking. The planks, hot from the steam boxes, carried up the "brow" staging on men's shoulders, to be clamped into place and bolted fast.
And how big it all was! This made the children open their eyes in wonder. They had already seen such vessels in the water, but had never appreciated how huge the hulls were, almost like a block of houses, or so it seemed to them.
Captain Hawes then showed them how this great ship was built on the same principle as the small boat they had just seen. And now if the children didn't really understand everything it wasn't the Captain's fault; the subject was rather a big one for beginners. But it was a great sight, and it wasn't everybody who had seen a ship being built, they knew that.
On the way home they rowed past sloops with a strange contrivance out on the end of the bowsprit; this Captain Hawes said was called a "pulpit." These boats went sword-fishing, and in the pulpit a man was stationed with lance in hand, while aloft in the rigging a "lookout" sighted the fish. When the boat was near enough, the man with the lance stood ready, and speared the fish as it passed. He promised to show them these big fish the next time a catch was brought in.
