The Young Ship-Builders of Elm Island

by Elijah Kellogg

Long before night he had decided to build a boat that could not split in two, and also the material he would use. There were some large straight-grained sticks of cedar on the beach, which had been cut to put into the Ark, that would make excellent plank. As soon as he left off work at night, he hurried through his chores, then took his axe and went into the woods.

During his visits to Boston and Portland, he had spent most of his leisure time in the ship-yards and boat-builders’ shops. During his last visit he had seen three boats in different stages of progress. One of them had the stem and stern-post fastened to the keel, and a couple of floor timbers put on; another was completely timbered, and one streak of plank, the one next to the top, put on. He asked the builder why that one alone was put on. He said that was the binding streak, which kept the boat in shape, and confined all the timbers, and that now the boat might be laid by, and finished at any time, as she would not get out of shape; that the top streak was left off in order that the sheer (crook) of the boat might be taken out of that.

Although he did not even then think seriously of trying to build a boat, or do anything more than fasten the West Wind together and secure her with knees, yet his mechanical turn led him to measure the depth, length, and breadth of beam of this boat, the distance apart of the timbers, and the size of them, and to notice the manner in which they steamed the plank to bend them. He also perceived that the transom of a boat (square end of the stern), instead of being made of timber, and covered like that of a vessel, was made either of one or two pieces of plank, and fastened to the stern-post.

Thus he knew what material he wanted. Finding an oak, the body of which would afford material for stern, keel, transom, and thwarts, and the limbs make knees and breast-hooks, he cut it down, and hauled it to the beach, intending to lash the cedar to it, and towing them both to the mill, have them sawed to answer his purpose.

“I wouldn’t go to all that trouble,” said Ben. “The first rainy day that comes, we will take them into the barn, and saw them with the whip-saw.” (During the winter Charlie had learned to saw with it.) He decided to build her in the barn, where were a large workshop and bench, and he could work there rainy days.

He built an arch, with stones and clay mortar, near the barn, set the small sap kettle in it, and made a steam box to steam his planks, in order to bend them. His next operation was to haul the two halves of the West Wind to the barn, and fasten them together. With pieces of thin board he took the exact shape of her side in different places—in the middle, a little forward of that, then nearly to the stem forward, and nearly to the stern aft. These moulds reversed would answer equally well for the other side.

The first rainy day, Ben helped him saw out his oak and cedar; he stuck the cedar up to season. The next two days being too wet to hoe, he made the keel, stem, and stern-post by that of the old boat, and put in the deadwood.

The extreme ends of a boat or vessel, being too thin to admit of timbering, are filled up by putting in knees and timber, which afford support to both the stem and stern-post, and a place to fasten the upright timbers that form the extremity of the bow and stern. This is firmly bolted to the keel, and called the deadwood.

Taking the shape of the stern, he by this cut out his transom from a whole piece of plank, and secured it to the stern-post. There is quite a difference between the timbering of a vessel and a boat. The timbers, which form what is called a frame in ship-building, reaching from the keel to the top, are numerous, and are named floor timbers, futtocks, top timbers, and naval timbers, or ground futtocks. The floor timbers are placed at right angles with the keel, forming the flat bottom or floor of a vessel, which gives her buoyancy and stability to carry sail, and the other timbers are fastened to these, the futtocks first, forming the curvature of the side, and the top timbers last. But a boat has only two timbers in a frame. The boat-builder puts his floor timbers on the keel, and fastens them there, then makes all the rest of the frame in one piece, which he calls a naval timber, which laps by the floor timber to the keel, is fastened to it, and forms the side. Builders now make their timbers out of plank, which they steam and bend to suit them. They pursued this course in England, and some other parts of Europe, even at that period; but in this country they used the natural crooks, branches, and roots of trees, and even to this day, in Maine, boats are built in this way, though not by professional builders. They use natural crooks for breast hooks, knees, and floor timbers, and sometimes for sharp risers, and the V-shaped timbers that form the ends, but bend all the rest. Some of them bend knees and breast hooks by slitting the timber to let one part crowd by the other; thus they can make the angle to suit them. And latterly, at East Boston, a ship has been built in which all those great timbers that make the frame and knees of a vessel were steamed and bent.