Title: The Seashore Book - Bob and Betty's Summer with Captain Hawes
Author: Smith, E. Boyd (Elmer Boyd), 1860-1943
Language: English
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                          =By E. Boyd Smith=


    THE EARLY LIFE OF MR. MAN. Illustrated in color.

    THE STORY OF NOAH'S ARK. Illustrated in color.

    THE STORY OF POCAHONTAS AND CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. Illustrated in color.

    THE RAILROAD BOOK. Illustrated in color.

    THE SEASHORE BOOK. Illustrated in color.

    THE FARM BOOK. Illustrated in color.


         Books specially illustrated in color by E. Boyd Smith

    IVANHOE. By Sir Walter Scott.

    TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST. By Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

    ROBINSON CRUSOE. By Daniel Defoe.


                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

                          BOSTON AND NEW YORK



                           THE SEASHORE BOOK

                      BOB AND BETTY'S SUMMER WITH
                             CAPTAIN HAWES

                  STORY AND PICTURES BY E. BOYD SMITH

                       HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

                          BOSTON AND NEW YORK


                            [Illustration]



                   COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY E. BOYD SMITH

         ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO REPRODUCE

                THIS BOOK OR PARTS THEREOF IN ANY FORM

                      _Published September 1912_


                          The Riverside Press

                        CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS

                        PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.



                           THE SEASHORE BOOK

                            [Illustration]



                             THE FIRST ROW


Now I will tell you how Bob and Betty spent the summer at the seashore
with Captain Ben Hawes. Captain Hawes was an old sailor. After forty
years' service on the high seas he had settled down ashore at Quohaug.

[Illustration]

Bluff and hearty, and with no end of sea yarns and stories of strange
adventures, and of foreign ports and peoples, he was more interesting
to the children than the most fascinating fairy book.

His home was a little museum of odds and ends brought from different
far-away lands, with everything arranged in shipshape order. The big
green parrot, who could call "Ship ahoy!" "All aboard!" delighted the
boy and girl. And the seashells, which gave the murmuring echo of the
ocean when you put them to your ear. And the curiosities of strange
sorts and shapes, from outlandish countries.

As their first day was fine and the bay smooth, Captain Hawes took
the children out for a row in his "sharpey." How delightful it was,
skimming so easily over the shining water. The shore, the docks, and
the vessels at the wharves were all so interesting from this view.

[Illustration]

He told them all about the different craft they passed, the fishermen,
the coal barges, the tramp steamers, how they sailed and where they
went to, and now, finding them such good listeners, for the Captain
liked to tell about ships and the sea, he launched forth into a general
history of things connected with sea life, from the first men, long,
long ago, who began poling about on rafts, to the coracle, and the
dugout. The dugouts were canoes hollowed out of tree trunks.

"Down in the South Seas the savages still make them; I've seen them
many a time," he explained; "and of course you've heard of our Indians'
birchbark canoes."

By and by the use of sails had developed, and boats and ships grew
bigger, and now the day of the steamboat had come.

"Now, I want you to know all about boats and ships," he added; "I'll
take you to the yards to-morrow, if it's fine, and show you how they
make them, so that when you go back home, where they don't know much
about such things, you can just tell them."

[Illustration]



                             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.

[Illustration]

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.

[Illustration]

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.

[Illustration]



                             DIGGING CLAMS


Though there were so many interesting things to see and learn by the
seashore, it was also an ideal place for play, and just now it seemed
to our boy and girl as though nothing else could compare with it.

Clam-digging was such sport. Captain Hawes took them down at low tide
to the soft mud and showed them how to dig the clams. And then the fun
of roasting them in the driftwood fire, and the picnic clam-bakes, with
the delicious chowder!

It was here the children met a future playmate, Patsey Quinn. Captain
Hawes jokingly called him a little water-rat, for Patsey had been
brought up along the shore and knew all about things. He proved to be a
most valuable companion to Bob and Betty, and the Captain could trust
him to look after them, for of course he knew just what was safe and
what wasn't.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

He took them on many expeditions along the beach, knew just where the
best clams and mussels were to be found, and where the crabs lived,
and how to catch them. Wading among the seaweed-covered rocks they had
lively times, occasionally getting their toes or fingers nipped, for
crabs object to being caught.

Patsey taught his new friends how to fish, though they never got to be
as good fishermen as he was. They seemed to catch more sculpins than
anything else, and though sculpins were wonderful looking creatures
they were not, Patsey explained, very good eating; flounders and eels
were better. But Betty was afraid of eels. They squirmed so.

The seaweeds and shells interested the children, and the many-colored
pebbles, so nice and round, from being rolled by the sea, Patsey
knowingly explained.

He showed them how to throw flat stones along the surface of the water,
until they, too, could make them skip a number of times before sinking.

There was no end to the variety of amusements; every day seemed to
bring forth new ones, and the sunburned, healthy children enjoyed it
all to the full.

[Illustration]



                             THE SAIL LOFT


Nights, especially dark nights, the children watched with unfailing
interest the great flash-light from the lighthouse out on the point.
Captain Hawes had explained the uses of lighthouses, how they showed
the way to ships at night, like signs on street corners or crossroads,
and also warned them to keep away from the rocks. One day he rowed them
out, and the light-keeper took them up in the tower and proudly showed
them the powerful lamp with its complicated reflectors, and explained
it all. Betty admired the bright, shining appearance of things, and was
surprised to learn that the man himself looked after all this: she had
thought that only a housekeeper could keep up such a polish.

[Illustration]

Another time Captain Hawes took the children to Barry's sail loft,
where the sails for the new ship were being made. He had already told
them something about sailmaking, but knew they would understand better
by seeing the real things. The sail loft, like everything connected
with ships, proved interesting,--the broad clean floor, the men on
their low benches sewing the seams of the heavy canvas, forcing the
needles through with the stout leather "palms," instead of thimbles.
And all their neat tools, the "heavers," "stickers," "fids," "grummet
stamps," and such odd-named things.

[Illustration]

On the wall in one corner of the loft was a varied collection of bright
"clew irons" and "rings," "thimbles" and "cringles," which aroused the
children's curiosity. These, it was explained, were to be sewed into
the corners of the sails to hold the ropes for rigging. Here and there
compact, heavy rolls of canvas, sails completed, were lying by, ready
to be taken away and rigged to the tall masts and broad yards of the
ship; sails which later would look so light and graceful when carrying
the ship along.

The summer days were passing quickly to the children, and Captain Hawes
insisted that they must hurry and learn to swim, and with Patsey's help
they were at it daily. After the first cautious wadings and splashing
they enjoyed it immensely, and before the summer was really over
they had learned to keep their heads above water: not to swim far,
that would come with time and greater strength, but they had made a
beginning, and felt justly proud of the accomplishment.

[Illustration]



                             THE LOG BOOM


The two children, under the Captain's instruction, learned to row,
after a fashion, though the oars of the sharpey were rather heavy
for them, and sometimes would catch in the water with disconcerting
results. The Captain called it "catching a crab." But it was all great
fun, in spite of this.

Often Captain Hawes took them sailing in his catboat, the Mary Ann, and
one day ran up close to the log "boom" which belonged to the shipyard,
and showed them where the lumber came from, for the building of the
ship. He explained how it had been cut far up in the back forests and
rafted down the rivers to the sea. The great raft was now held in place
by a frame of logs outside the others fastened together with "dogs"
and chains. Here the children saw the men picking out the special
logs they needed, and doing various stunts, paddling and balancing
with boathooks. Some would even paddle off to the shipyard on a log,
balancing much like a tight-rope walker. But once in a while accidents
would happen, and they would get more than wet feet, to the great glee
of their comrades.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

When the logs reached the shipyard they were sawed into planks by the
"whipsawyers," or the machine saws, cut into shape, as they had already
seen, by axes and adzes, and fitted to their places in the building of
the ship.

You may be sure the children had to try this game of logging, and
they built themselves a raft, of loose boards lying along the beach,
and while Betty was the passenger Bob vigorously poled his raft about
in the shallows. Patsey Quinn, more ambitious, and used to frequent
wettings, boldly imitated the log-men in their balancing feats, not
without coming to grief occasionally, though it worried him but little;
being in the water to him was much the same as being out of it.

These were busy, happy days for the children; there was always plenty
to see or do. Patsey was curious to know about the things of the city,
but Bob and Betty felt perfectly sure, at least just now, that the
seashore was a much more interesting place.

[Illustration]



                             THE LAUNCHING


The children were always hearing about lobster fishing, for that was
an important industry at Quohaug, so Captain Hawes took them out in
his boat to see the fishermen at work hauling in their traps. The
fishing-beds were dotted with little buoys, each fisherman having his
own, with his private mark. To each buoy a trap was attached by a long
line. Down on the bottom the lobsters would crawl into the traps after
the bait, and then could not get out.

But Bob and Betty were disappointed to find these lobsters as they came
out of the water a dull green instead of the beautiful bright red they
expected. Captain Hawes explained that they would come out red after
they were boiled.

To-day was the day set for the launching of one of the new ships the
children had seen almost finished in the shipyard on their first visit.
High tide was the time set, and the whole village turned out to see the
event. Captain Hawes had told them that they would soon see the ship
floating out in the bay; but this was hard to believe; how would it be
possible to move that big mass? "Just you wait and you'll see," the
Captain assured them.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

At the yard everybody was eager and excited. Captain Hawes put the
children up on a tall wooden "horse" where they could get a good view.

The ship, all decked with gay, fluttering flags, had been wedged into
her "cradle." The ways down which she was to slide were well greased,
and the builder was waiting for the tide to be at its highest.

At last the moment had come. The signal was given. Busy workmen with
sledges, under the ship struck blow on blow, setting up the lifting
wedges, and knocking away the few remaining props; then scampered back
out of danger.

Slowly at first, the great ship "came to life," then began to move.
Slowly but steadily gaining speed, she began to slide down the ways.
Fast and faster, gaining momentum, she rushed, as though really
alive, gracefully sliding, into the sea. Then sped far out into the
deep water, where she floated on an even keel. From being a mass of
planks and beams she now seemed to be a great living creature, and
the lookers-on cheered her and waved their hats, as she proudly took
her place on the sea, where she would pass the rest of her life. Bob
and Betty were so impressed that even the yacht race they saw that
afternoon, though a fine sight, seemed tame after the launching.

[Illustration]



                               THE WRECK


To the children the restless sea with its many changes was a new sight.
One day it would be flat and calm and shiny, like a big mirror. Again
quickly changing with a breeze to blues of various shades. Again it
would be broken with white-caps and spray, as the wind grew stronger.

And it was so big! And Captain Hawes assured them that it was even
bigger than it looked, telling them that if they went away out there to
the distant edge by the sky, they would still see another just as far
off, and so on for many, many days before they would get to the other
side of the ocean.

When the winds blew high and the waves dashed against the rocks and
tossed up the white spray, he would take them down to the beach to
watch the storm, and see the surf roll in. Of course this was a time
for rubber boots, "oilskins," and "sou'westers," such as the seafaring
people wear.

[Illustration]

One day during a gale, a "nor'easter," when they could hardly stand
alone, they saw a schooner wrecked out on the rocks. Everybody on
shore was greatly excited. And the life-boat with its hardy crew
put off to the rescue of the sailors, who could be seen clinging to
the rigging, waiting for help. They were all saved, but the vessel was
lost, and dashed high up against the rocks.

[Illustration]

A few days later, when the storm had passed and the sea became calm
again, Captain Hawes rowed the children out to the rocky point to see
the wreck. Here the stranded schooner lay firmly wedged among the
rocks. Her masts were gone, her back was broken, and her bow splintered
in pieces, rigging and tatters of sails hung about in confusion. And
the good craft, which such a short time before had been sailing so
proudly, was now but a worthless hulk.

Such was often the end of a good many stout vessels, the Captain told
the children; this was the chance of the sea. And then, once started,
he told them long and thrilling tales of his different voyages and
adventures, and the wrecks he had known, and been in.

[Illustration]



                              THE RIGGERS


This life by the sea made an endless appeal to the children's
imagination, and offered a never-failing amount of wonderful things to
see and learn about.

"Now," said Captain Hawes one day, "we'll go over to the wharf and see
the riggers fitting up the new ship we saw launched."

You may be sure the children were willing. Captain Hawes, who knew
everybody and was welcome everywhere, took them on board and showed
them everything, from the bow to the stern. And all about the ship was
so neat and well made it was a constant marvel to the children. High up
in the rigging men were swarming, "reeving" on "stays" and "shrouds,"
and no end of "running" rigging, doing the most wonderful circus stunts
in the most matter-of-fact way, far up on dizzy heights. The children
fairly held their breath to watch them.

[Illustration]

Out on the yards sailors were "bending on" the new sails, the sails
Bob and Betty had seen being made at the sail loft. The whole work
seemed to them a wonderful confusion of lines and ropes and pulleys and
tackle. Captain Hawes tried to explain what each rope meant and how it
was used. But there were too many; it was all too confusing. Each
rope, he told them, had its own name; every sailor had to know them to
be able to do his work.

[Illustration]

The riggers built trim little rope ladders from the rail to the
crosstrees by lashing small "ratlines" to the heavy "shrouds." The
"stays" and "shrouds," of course, were to hold the great masts
in place. The children wondered at it all, but didn't pretend to
understand it, though Bob was especially interested, for climbing he
understood, and such climbing was far ahead of anything the biggest boy
in his school could do.

They delighted in the cook's kitchen, the "galley." Such a compact,
neat little room, where the most ingenious shelves and lockers were
arranged, in which to hold everything needed in the way of dishes and
pots and pans. The stove was chained down solidly so that no storm
might upset it and cause fire, the cook explained.

To Betty, the "galley" was the most interesting thing about the ship;
it pleased her housekeeping instincts, though it did seem strange to
see a sailor cook.

[Illustration]



                                WHALING


The city children never wearied of Captain Hawes's stories of his
voyages, and the Captain, with such good listeners, never wearied
telling of them,--a perfect combination.

He told of how when a young man he used to go whaling. "Of course you
know what whales are, big sea animals, you couldn't call them fish,
often sixty or seventy feet long, 'as long as a big house,' huge
creatures who lived in the northern or southern seas, though once in a
while a stray one had been known to come into the Sound, not far from
here."

Now the children were really excited. "Oh, if only one should happen to
come this summer!" The Captain said that would be just a chance; it was
hardly a thing you could count on.

[Illustration]

When the ship reached the far-away seas where whales were to be found,
"lookouts" were stationed aloft at the masthead to watch for them.
When one was sighted the lookout shouted, "There she blows"; for the
whales have a habit of blowing up spray when they come to the surface
to breathe, then the boats were lowered and away the sailors went
after the whale. When they came up with him they rowed as close as they
dared, and the harpooner in the bow of the boat hurled his harpoon into
the big creature's side.

[Illustration]

The whale at once made a great commotion, slashing about and beating
up the water, then diving deep down. The sailors "paid out" the rope
attached to the harpoon as the whale went down. Sometimes they had to
cut it to keep from being dragged under. But when this didn't happen
the whale would come up after a while and start away dragging the boat
along at a terrific speed. In time he would get tired and the boat
would again be rowed near, and a lance thrust into his side until he
was quite dead.

It was all exciting and dangerous work, for sometimes the whale would
attack the boat and splinter it to pieces with a blow of his tail, and
the men, often badly hurt, be thrown into the sea, and sometimes lost.
The dead whale was towed off to the ship, here he was moored to the
side, and the body cut up. The great pieces of fat blubber "tried out,"
that is, melted in pots over the fire on the deck, and the oil run off
into barrels and stowed away in the hold.

[Illustration]



                           LOADING THE SHIP


Captain Hawes made the children a little toy schooner which they
sailed in the coves along the beach. He showed them just how to "trim"
the sails and set the rudder, so that the boat would "tack" and sail
against the wind, "on the wind," he called it.

About this time they heard that the new ship, now all rigged and with
all sails in place, had been taken to the neighboring port and was
taking on her cargo for a long voyage. As they wanted to see the ship
again, the Captain took them on this little journey to see the work
being done at the docks.

Loading a ship is always a strenuous and hurly-burly affair, with much
bustle, shouting, hauling, pushing, and pulling. The children, under
Patsey's lead, found a good point of vantage on top of some boxes, and
watched the work.

[Illustration]

Busy "stevedores," who had charge, were hurrying the "longshoremen,"
who rolled barrels, and carried bags up the gangplank into the ship, to
be snugly stowed away between decks. Bales and boxes were being hoisted
over the rail, to be lowered through the hatches into the hold. The
donkey engine buzzed, the mate shouted orders, and everything, to
the children, seemed confusion, but it was orderly confusion, for the
work was rapidly going ahead. The great quantity of goods which went
aboard astonished Bob and Betty; they had never seen so many boxes,
barrels, bales, and bags before. And yet this was only the beginning,
for the Captain told them that even at this rate it would still take
many days to load the ship.

[Illustration]

When the first of the cargo went aboard, the vessel sat high out of
the water, but when all should be in and stowed safely away, she
would settle deep down to her "water line." This was where the green
and black paint met. All this had been planned before she was built,
Captain Hawes explained; the ship designer knew just how she should sit
in the water when loaded; there was no guesswork about it.

The ship was to go on an Eastern voyage. He had often been out there,
away off in the China seas, where strange craft came about you: junks
with their odd, high sails, their yellow sailors with "pigtails" down
their backs, everything so different from our part of the world.

[Illustration]



                             BURNED AT SEA


In the evenings, as Captain Hawes sat smoking his pipe, he would tell
the children of strange lands he had visited in his voyages, and then
suggest that they look up these places in their geographies, and this
study, which before was a task, took on a new interest for Bob and
Betty. China and Greenland now meant so much more.

Telling about Iceland and Greenland, he said that up there in those
parts, where almost everything that wasn't snow was ice, certain
animals lived which couldn't be found anywhere else, like the big white
polar bear, and the walrus.

"Why, we know a polar bear," Betty broke in. Why, of course, he was an
old acquaintance. They had often seen him in Central Park.

"Well, now, that's good," said the Captain; "now you'll remember where
he came from. I've been up his way more than once."

Often whalers chased the "right" whale away up there; dangerous seas to
work in, as icebergs were plenty and the risk of striking them in the
fog was great.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

But the thing which sailors dreaded most was fire at sea. This seldom
happened, but when it did it was bad. Once his ship was burned at night
among the icebergs. There was nothing to do but take to the boats and
escape to shore, which luckily was near. They lost everything but the
clothes they wore, and a small amount of provisions. And there, while
they looked on, the ship went up in a sheet of flame, and that was
the last of her. The Captain said they felt pretty blue and lonely
out there far away from the rest of the world, with no means to get
away but the small boats. Fortunately they soon managed to reach an
Eskimo village. These Eskimos are the natives who live there always,
short people, dressed all in heavy, warm furs, who build themselves
snow houses, where in the coldest weather they keep comfortably warm.
They live by hunting and fishing. They spear seals from their skin
canoes,--"kayaks,"--and fish through holes in the ice. These are the
people you hear the explorers tell about when they go on expeditions to
the North Pole. Captain Hawes thought they were the strangest people he
had ever met. As whalers often put in up in these parts, the Captain
and his mates did not have too hard a time, and were picked up by a
passing ship and brought home.

[Illustration]



                          THE SHIP SAILS AWAY


Summer was passing quickly now, and it would soon be time for the "long
vacation" to come to an end.

Before they had to go the Sachem--that was the name of the new
ship--was ready to put to sea. The children had admired her
"figure-head," an Indian chief, gilded and painted in bright colors.
The ship had taken on her whole cargo, the hatches were closed, and
everything made tight and taut for her long voyage. She was bound for
the Far East, the Captain told them. First she would touch at some
South American ports, then go across the ocean to Africa, stopping at
Cape Town, and other less important ports, then around the Cape and
up the Indian Ocean to India; then to China and Japan. With the goods
she had taken aboard she would trade with the different ports, either
selling or exchanging what she had for the things made or raised in
those far-away countries, which she would bring back home to sell in
our markets. This was the way, Captain Hawes explained, that we got
many good things that we couldn't raise in our own country.

[Illustration]

The day the ship sailed, everybody turned out to wish her a good
voyage.

[Illustration]

With all sails set she was a beautiful sight; a gentle land breeze
filled her sails and slowly and gracefully she drew away, headed for
the open sea. The steamers and the tugs in the bay whistled salutes.

Captain Hawes, with a sigh, told the children that probably that was
the last square-rigged ship they were likely to see leaving this
port, as the old-style ship was now almost a thing of the past. The
"fore-and-aft" rig was more practical and generally used where sailing
vessels were still employed. But even they were all giving way before
steam. Nowadays steamers, freighters, did nearly all the carrying trade.

They watched the ship till far, far away, as the sun was setting, she
showed as a small black spot on the horizon.

And now it was time to leave Quohaug, for this summer vacation was
ended. At home again they were just in time to see the review of the
country's war fleet on the Hudson. This was the latest development
of sea power, great, massive steel vessels, with no sails, driven by
steam. They were grandly impressive, but just wait till you hear Bob
and Betty tell of Quohaug and then you will know what ships with sails
mean.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]





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