The
Galleon
I
remember watching him build this boat when my sister came down and pointed up
at the workbench.
“What’s
that, Daddy?” She asked.
“It’s
a boat skeleton.” He answered without looking up.
“Oooo,
you should leave it like that Daddy so we can put it out on Halloween and scare
people.”
“Isn’t
there something good on TV?”
The
Galleon, based loosely on the Golden Hind, was an early favorite of mine. My sister and I used to push boats
around on the living room floor and pretend to fire cannons at one
another. That is why this ship and
the Fair American have pirate flags.
He did this at my request.
My sister pushed around the Fair American and I pushed around the
Galleon. Then one day I issued a
command to my crew calling for “Ramming speed!” and there were no
sea battles after that. In fact, my
father broke up that battle faster than a referee at a boxing match and there
were no collisions.
The
notable features of this boat are the forecastle and the well developed crows
nests which are typical of galleons.
It sailed reasonably well downwind but struggled going upwind which is
also typical of galleons. To the best of my knowledge, it’s the only boat
he built where the capstain could be manually moved to raise and lower the
anchor. My father gave it to his
brother-in-law, my Uncle Lanny, to display in his barber shop. After it underwent a rather extensive
restoration, my uncle moved it into his house for better protection. He provided a picture of the boat at his
house.
