...When he decided to go to sea, Benjamin never considered anything other than a sailing ship. He spent a few years in school; he worked as a butcher's delivery boy and later spent time as an apprentice carpenter. He liked working wood, and he had an easy coordination between hand and eye that made the saw, chisel and plane ride smoothly in his hands as he fashioned a dovetail joint, scarfed a repair or squinted and planed fair the curve of a bannister. All the time, however, he thought about going to sea. It was in the family and had been for generations. The little, walled harbour at Carrickfergus often drew him down to look at the trading and fishing smaacks floating there or dried out at low tide, the dour Norsman castle, with its English troops, shadowing him. On a clear day, he could see the Down shore across the loch and, in the foreground, the square-rigged ships towing in and out. Sometimes, he saw a wind ship run out under sail before a fair Westerly towards the sea, courses and topsails set, men aloft loosing topgallants and royals or on deck hoisting staysails. His family couldn't afford to pay to apprentcie him aboard ship, but when he was old enough to go as a hand, he took up the old family trade...
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