booktalesy Chapter 115 Bottom of the Ship
Chapter 115 Bottom of the Ship
Chapter 115 Bottom of the Ship
After the keel nails of the old tugboat were driven in, the boat crew worked for another three days.
The four rotten ship planks were removed and replaced with new ones, and usable ship parts were picked out from the old parts warehouse.
Ding Haifeng measured the thickness of each piece with a micrometer, and Ahai cut them according to the dimensions and inserted them.
The sewing process started from the bow and went to the stern. Lin Xiu'e and Xiao Zhou each squatted on one side, and the sound of the chisel hitting the hemp fibers echoed from beginning to end.
Ding Haisheng used welding rods to fill in the old scar on the ship's side that ran from the hull edge to the hull section. After the weld scar was ground down, it was smooth to the touch with a finger, as flat as the hull next to it.
On the morning of the fourth day, Hong Laowu squatted by the boat raft and used sandpaper to polish the bottom of the boat.
The barnacles on the bottom of the boat had long been scraped off, and the old anti-rust paint had turned white and brittle from being soaked in seawater.
The sandpaper made a swishing sound as it was pushed up, and the paint peeled off piece by piece.
He stopped sanding when he got to the middle of the boat's bottom, leaving the sandpaper on the bottom without picking it up.
There were several fine grooves on the wooden board where the anti-rust paint had peeled off.
The grooves are recessed along the wood grain, each about two fingers wide, with smooth edges, as if they were slowly rubbed out by something.
Old Fang walked over, a cigarette dangling from his lips, squatted down, and ran his palm over the bottom of the boat.
He took the cigarette out of his mouth and tapped the wooden board with the handle of his chisel.
The wooden planks made a dull sound, unlike the ones next to them.
"The bottom of the boat is corroded. Sea maggots." Old Fang stood up and placed the chisel on the side of the boat.
Sea maggots are small worms that burrow into wood and gnaw away bit by bit. They are not visible from the outside, and by the time they are discovered, the wood is already hollowed out.
The old tugboat sat under the crooked banyan tree for two years, its hull submerged in shallow water. When the tide went out, it would sit on the sand, and that's when the sea maggots crawled in.
The outer paint is intact, but the wood inside is already crumbling.
Hong Laowu put the sandpaper in his hand on the bottom of the boat, stood up and watched Lao Fang take the chisel and tap the wooden board twice more.
The dull thud of the wooden planks was carried away by the sea breeze, quite unlike the crisp sound produced by tapping the good wood next to them.
He squatted down and used his finger to trace the grooves along the wood grain.
The edges of the groove are soft; if you scratch them with your fingernail, wood chips will fall off.
He knew exactly what this meant. More than one plank at the bottom of the boat was rotten.
Four rotten ship planks have already been replaced. If a few more are needed, there might not be any readily available salvaged parts in the old parts warehouse.
Lin Xiu'e walked over from the boat raft, placed the chisel on the bottom of the boat, and used her palm to feel along the middle section towards the stern.
She started grouting the wood from the very first boat she repaired at the service station; she could tell if the wood was good or not just by touching it.
He touched the bottom of the boat about two feet behind the middle section, stopped, and gently chipped away at it with a chisel. Wood chips fell down, revealing honeycomb-like wormholes underneath.
"Three feet back from the middle section. It's rotten inside." She stood up and wiped her hands with her apron.
Ah-Kuang took the registration book off the worktable.
He squatted down beside the bottom of the boat, using calipers to measure the length and width of the rotten plank, silently reciting the specifications.
He had the list of scrapped ship planks in the old parts warehouse memorized. He could tell you how many were left on the fourth shelf, their size, and whether they were usable without having to look them up in a notebook.
He stood up after measuring the dimensions of the rotten board and closed the vernier calipers.
"Four pieces have rotted. Including the four that were replaced before, that makes a total of eight. There are still three scrap ship planks left in the old parts warehouse, not enough." His voice was not loud.
"Where can we get more if we don't have enough?" Old Hong squatted by the side of the boat, his hands on his knees.
Ding Haifeng stood up from under the window of the old parts warehouse.
He put the micrometer into the box, closed the lid, and then opened it again to take a look.
"I'll make a trip to Baishakou. Old Chen, the owner of the secondhand shop, might have some ship planks. He can spare a few old ship planks with all the proper paperwork."
When I delivered the bolts last time, he said there was still a batch of old boat planks salvaged from fishing boats scrapped by the county's aquatic products company in the warehouse, with all the necessary scrapping documents.
Old Fang put the cigarette back in his mouth and looked at the grooves on the bottom of the boat that had been eaten away by sea maggots.
The ship dismantling planks in the service station's old parts warehouse are collected by repairing a ship, and it takes several years to accumulate just over ten yuan.
Hong Laowu's old tugboat ate eight pieces right away, and the warehouse is almost empty.
"Fifth Brother. What do you want to do with this boat after it's repaired?" Old Fang took the cigarette out of his mouth.
"Fishing. My dad used to use it to fish."
"This is a good ship. The keel has been repaired, and the frame is undamaged. But after sitting for two years, the hull is corroded more than expected."
After replacing eight rotten planks, the old parts warehouse was almost empty. The service station repairs boats to help fishermen, not just you.
"You get four old planks, the rest the service station has to save for the next ship." Old Fang squatted down and drew a line on a rotten plank at the bottom of the ship with his finger. "Four planks from the warehouse. Four short."
Ding Haifeng walked out of the old parts warehouse, holding an old enamel mug in his hand.
He stood under the loquat tree and placed the jar on the stone slab.
"Mr. Chen, the owner of the secondhand shop, said that he had a total of six pieces of ship dismantling planks in his possession, and the scrapping procedures were complete."
He said he owed the service station a favor.
When the service station returned the copper gaskets they borrowed last time, they cleaned each one thoroughly, wrapped them in oiled paper, and wrote the return date on them. He said they had never seen anything like it at the docks.
He gave the service station the six old ship planks for free. But he had one condition.
"What are the conditions?" Jiang Haiping leaned against the loquat tree trunk.
He said that if the service station encounters fishermen who are like his relatives when repairing boats in the future...
If the boat is damaged and repairs are unaffordable, and debts cannot be repaid, the boat can only be used as collateral. The service station will help if it can.
He said his younger brother had used a boat to pay off a debt, but later the boat was gone, and so was he. Ding Haifeng picked up his enamel mug and took a sip of water.
The courtyard was quiet for a few seconds.
The sea breeze blew the damp cloth drying at the kitchen door onto the wall.
Ah Hai squatted beside the diesel engine, holding a torque wrench in his hand, looking back at the loquat tree.
Ah-Guang turned to the page of the register with the old ship plank, leaving his pen untouched in the middle of the book.
Old Fang squatted down by the boat raft, took the cigarette out of his mouth, and flicked off the ash.
He stared at the grooves gnawed out by sea maggots on the bottom of the boat and remained silent for a long while.
"The service station accepted Boss Chen's conditions. In the future, if the service station can't afford to repair a boat, we'll help them out as much as we can."
This rule is added to the service station's regulations. Ah Guang, write it clearly on a separate page in the register.
"Understood." Ah Guang turned to the last page of the register and wrote neatly on the first line: "Service Station Old Parts Assistance System. If old parts are purchased as donations, they will be given priority to fishermen who cannot afford the repair costs."
The donor's wishes are recorded. After he finished writing, he looked up at Jiang Haiping, who nodded.
Ding Haifeng placed the enamel mug on the stone slab, stood up, and walked towards the courtyard gate.
When the old bicycle was ridden out of the yard, the chain creaked and rattled for a while, and the sand stuck to the rear fender was blown off by the sea breeze.
He rode the road to Baishakou several times; he could ride it back and forth with his eyes closed.
Ding Haifeng returned in the evening, with six old boat planks tied tightly to the back seat of his car with hemp rope.
He parked the car next to the loquat tree and unloaded the planks one by one, placing them on the stone slab.
Boss Chen followed behind him on an old tricycle, with a small bucket of anti-rust paint in the back.
Old Master Chen was in his early fifties, his skin roughened by the sea breeze, his knuckles thick, and his fingernails embedded with indelible rust.
He entered the yard and glanced at the tugboats. Steel plates were clamped to the keel of the old tugboat, secured by eight bolts.
The old scar on the ship's side, which ran from the hull edge to the hull, has been filled with welding rods and polished to be as flat as the hull next to it.
"I saw that boat when I was a child. My fifth brother's father took me out to sea in it once. The wind was strong that day, and the boat was rocking violently. I was vomiting while leaning against the side of the boat, and his father used a towel to wipe my face."
When I got back, my dad said, "You owe them money for a boat trip. I've returned the bolts and the planks. The anti-rust paint is new; consider it interest I owed my dad."
Mr. Chen unloaded the anti-rust paint from the tricycle and placed it on the side of the boat.
Hong Laowu squatted by the boat raft, watching Boss Chen place the anti-rust paint at his feet.
He stood up, wiped his hands on his pants a couple of times, walked up to Boss Chen, and stopped without saying a word.
Old Master Chen waved his hand, walked around the yard, and looked at the four basins of tung oil putty covered with damp cloths on the windowsill of the kitchen.
I glanced at Ah Hai, who was squatting on the ground in the workshop wiping torque wrenches, and at the neatly stacked registers on the workbench.
He walked to the loquat tree, bent down and picked up the crooked piece of seashell from Ah Guang's broken seashell circle, pressing it back into place until it was flat before straightening up.
"This tree was planted from a loquat seed brought by Wang Cunzhi, right? He gave me a few before, but I couldn't grow them." Boss Chen patted the sand off his hands.