| Seamanship |
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In Seamanship you learned
to bend and hitch
Everything in the
Bosun's Manual.
Over the months
thumbs and fingers grow strong
To pierce the lays
of two–inch gantline hemp
Ply splices in the willing
fibre rope
Make heaving–lines with
monkey–fisted ends
Weave turksheads, bellropes,
gauds for dressing ship
Learning boats
from garboard strake
to gunwhale.
Rigging every purchase–tackle,
Luff on luff — Handy Billy,
Six–sheave hardwood rig–blocks
painters' stages,
Sailing, catamaran.
With palm and needle
you plied new sail–cloth
Sang chanteys as you stitched,
rejoiced in jute.
Here the kid learned balance—and how to read
The aesthetic message
of ships' ropework. |
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