e or small vessel that navigates the ocean with
sails. In nautical language it refers solely to a vessel having three
masts, each consisting of a lower-mast, a top-mast, and a
top-gallant-mast. At present we use the term _ship_ in the familiar
sense.

Elaborate and complicated drawings having been prepared, the shipbuilder
begins his work.

The _keel_ is the first part of a ship that is laid. It is the beam
which runs along the bottom of a boat or ship from one end to the other.
In large ships the keel consists of several pieces joined together.
Its uses are, to cause the ship to preserve a direct course in its
passage through the water; to check the leeway which every vessel has a
tendency to make; and to moderate the rolling motion. The keel is also
the ground-work, or foundation, on which the whole superstructure is
reared, and is, therefore, immensely strong and solid. The best wood
for keels is teak, as it is not liable to split.

Having laid the keel firmly on a bed of wooden blocks, in such a
position that the ship when finished may slide into the water stern
foremost, the shipbuilder proceeds next to erect the stem and stern
posts.

The _stem-post_ rises from the _front_ end of the keel, not quite
perpendicularly from it, but sloping a little outwards. It is formed of
one or more pieces of wood, according to the size of the ship; but no
matter how many pieces may be used, it is always a uniform single beam
in appearance. To this the ends of the planks of the ship are
afterwards fastened. Its outer edge is called the _cut-water_, and the
part of the ship around it is named the _bow_.

The _stern-post_ rises from the opposite end of the keel, and also
slopes a little outwards. To it are fastened the ends of the planking
and the framework of the stern part of the ship. To it also is attached
that little but most important part of a vessel, the _rudder_. The
rudder, or helm, is a small piece of timber extending along the back of
the stern-post, and hung movably upon it by means of what may be called
large iron hooks-and-eyes. By means of the rudder the mariner guides
the ship in whatever direction he pleases. The contrast between the
insignificant size of the rudder and its immense importance is very
striking. Its power over the ship is thus referred to in
Scripture,--"Behold also the ships, which, though they be so great, and
are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very smal