I finally started the sanding and priming of the deck
but the weather’s not cooperating so it ain’t done.
However, today brought an amazing surprise. Paul had said that the caulking master
(apparently there was a caulking master in our midst and I did not know it) was
going to come re-caulk Jeff Brown, but then I was told that he couldn’t make
it, and besides, getting all that gunk out before stuffing new cotton back in would
take too much time. You will recall that
when I reefed out the putty I was told to keep the cotton and oakum in, but
when you do it right, you have to scrape all the crap out first before you can
put in the cotton. So we were just going
to jam it all back in there and apply something called 5200, which as far as I
can tell is a cross between Bondo and cement and long after the boat has
rotted, the stuff will still be intact.
But then this morning, Jake showed up, from Bath, Maine (He grew up in Noank and worked at the Seaport), complete
with his ancient tools, a bunch of good stories, and something he called “the
Samurai reefing hook” which made my little hook (remember the “hoofpick?”) look
like a Q-tip. It had a curved handle
that provides really good leverage so you just stick in in there and yank, and
Bob’s your uncle--all the gunk comes out like buttah.
This is Jake’s little stool, that I think he said was his
great-uncle’s. It holds the tools and
rocks back and forth so you can sit on it and maneuver along the keel fairly
easily. On top of it is the cotton caulk and the hammers.
But since Jeff’s on a trailer, Jake had the devil of a time
with the caulking hammers on the part of the seam that's in the middle.
Speaking of caulking hammers, they can make you deaf. I don’t know how Jake did it all day, and it
took about 8 hours—mostly because of that middle part where as you will recall
I had twisted myself into a pretzel to get the old seam compound out.
Did you know that Dred Scott was a master ship caulker in
the early 1800’s? African Americans in the
south were the only people who did caulking, because “no white man should touch
cotton.” Oy! So they got to be
incredible caulkers. And because the
hammering was so rhythmic, many sang while they worked. I wish there were some recordings of this but
I couldn’t find any. The closest I came was a chain gang song called “Long
John” which kind of matches the rhythm of the caulking hammers. I wish I could find an actual recording of
caulkers. 
Then it was time for the primer, which is a very festive
orange color and is applied with a special brush, which they don’t make anymore
but which Jake had in his box of tricks. I believe that I will be in charge of seam
cement, which comes next in a few days. Jake had recommended roofing tar but Paul made
a face, so seam cement it is.
Jake knew Uncle Jack, and had sailed on Jeff Brown years ago.
Imagine, spending 8 hours killing yourself out of reverence for an old
boat and the guy who built it.
Totally cool.
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