Materials Required:—

A block of soft wood ten or twelve inches long, about three inches wide and two inches deep, nine post cards, three skewers or old wooden knitting-pins, a cork, a piece of heavy wire, dressmakers' eyelets, some small staples, fine string, a gimlet, a sharp penknife, small tacks, scissors, mucilage.

This is the simplest sort of a ship to model in wood; all wooden boats require carefulness in their modelling and balance. This can be made from six to twelve inches long, and in soft wood. Let your block of wood be about four times its width, roughly speaking. Rule a line up to center of your block to mark the keel and cut away from this with a very sharp knife to the curving outlines of the deck which must be drawn on the top side of the block. It would be impossible, in the space allowed for diagrams, to give details for modelling the body of the boat, but any boy can shape it if he is careful and observes, from pictures or actual boats or models, how to do it. When the body of the vessel is shaped and smoothed down with a file and sandpaper, take a piece of heavy thick wire, and bend it at either end and sharpen the ends into points with a file and hammer it into the keel; or, if preferred, a deep groove may be cut with a gouge and a strip of lead inserted. The rudder suggested here can be made either of wood, or of a double piece of tin with a piece of thick wire hammered in at the fold and left with one end projecting, so that it fits through a hole in the stem and forms a tiller. The rudder must have a hole pierced at the lower corner, and into this fix a small staple which must work loosely in its hole, and after the rudder is fixed in position this staple must be hammered into the stern of the boat. Figure 95 A shows the stern end with rudder fixed into place. Next cut a bowsprit of wood and with two staples fix it firmly on to the deck. Take three pieces of cork or three half reels, and glue or nail them to the deck—this will make a good hold for the masts. Then along each side of the boat at intervals fasten on a strong dressmaker's "eye" (for a hook) with its two small loops bent so that they overlap; the nail can be set through this. These eyelets are meant to hold the "stays" which keep the masts steady. Now take nine postcards, and about half an inch from the edge in the middle of each long side cut neatly a hole big enough to slip your masts through, with a strong needle, a piece of strong thin string or stout linen thread, knotting it with a large knot at the end. Lay the post cards flat so that they just touch and set the mast through the holes—a long wooden knitting-pin makes a capital mast—and the knob can be left on to finish it at the top. About one inch or more above the top sails make a slight groove round the mast, and round this bind tightly the threads laced through the cards, tightened so that each card bends a little; carry down these threads or stays now to the eyelets and fasten them firmly. Take another stay to the bowsprit and lash it down and carry it on to meet the front of the keel, and fasten it in with a tiny tack or a pin. Gum on small paper flags to the masts. This makes quite a good little sailing ship and it is not difficult to make.