e planking, or skin, is let into the
rabbets, or side grooves, of the keel and firmly fastened to the ribs
throughout by hardwood pegs called treenails. The decks are, in
themselves, a source of weakness. The beams supporting them are like
the rafters of a house, which, of course, work the walls apart under
pressure from the floors--and here, as in every other detail, the
stability required for a house is nothing to what is required for a
ship. The way to overcome this difficulty is to make the decks and
beams so many bridges holding the sides together. At the point of
junction of every beam-end with a shelf-piece, waterway, and rib there
is an arrangement of bolts and dowellings (or dovetailings) which makes
the whole as solid as possible. An extra bolt through the waterway,
rib, and outside planking adds to the strength; and a knee, or angular
piece of wood or iron connecting the shelf with the under side of the
beam, almost completes the {88} beam-end connection. The final touches
are the clamps below the shelves and the spirketing above the
waterways, with short-stuff between the clamps of one deck and the
spirketing of the next below.

All this is only the merest suggestion of what is done for the main
part of the vessel's hull. The ends require many modifications,
because the shape there approaches a V, and so the floors cannot cross
the keel as holding bodies. But the breast-hooks forward and crutches
aft, the deck transom, which is the foundation for the deck abaft as
well as the assemblage of timbers uniting the stern to the body of the
vessel, with all the other parts that make up the ends, cannot be more
than mentioned here. Then come the decks, which are quite complex in
themselves, and still more complex by reason of the mast-holes and
hatchways cut out of them all, and the windlass, bitts, and capstan
built into the one that is exposed to the storm. To make sure that
whatever strength is taken out by cutting is restored in some other
way, and that the exposed deck which has to resist the strains put upon
the structures built into it is specially reinforced, the most careful
provision must be made for the mast-holes; for the hatchways {89} with
their coamings fore and aft on carlings that reach from beam to beam;
for the riding bitts, which are posts to hold the cable when the vessel
is at anchor, and which must therefore be immensely strong; for the
windlass, which in the merchant service often d