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.
