Standards and pennants were used, and possibly the two-armed iron anchor (for the Romans used it), so the children can cut out pennants and anchors for their ships.
Children delight in naming their ships and should be given some of the 'real' old names to choose from. These old names generally referred to the figure-head, which was of wood or metal, in the shape of the head of a dragon, deer, bird or other animal—e.g. Dragon, Serpent, Raven, Deer of the Surf, Sea-king's Deer, Horse of the Sea, Sea-bird, etc. To support the boat two pieces of cardboard are cut and folded, as N P O Q (Fig. 171). The cardboard must be half cut with a pen-knife along the line R S, so that it can be bent easily.
Fig. 171
The portion N R P S is gummed to the back of the ship, R S O Q bent at right angles to N P R S forms the support, with corner S T Q cut off, so that the ship tilts a little backward.
A Ph[oe]nician Warship, 480 B.C. (Fig. 172). This is made, as the viking ship, from oblong A B C D; pieces of paper, E and F, with railings drawn on them, are gummed on each end; a stern ornament, G, is cut out of paper and gummed at one end. (When a vessel was captured in olden days this was kept as a trophy.)
Fig. 172
Small circles are drawn along the side of the ship to represent the holes for the oars, or holes may be made in the cardboard and matches or strips of cardboard passed through for oars.