"When, at length, the excavations were finished," continued Mr. George, "they began at the bottom, and laid foundations deep and strong, and then built up very thick and solid walls all along the sides of the basins, up to the level of the top of the ground, and then made streets and quays along the margin, and built the sheds and warehouses, and the work was done."
"But then, how could they get the ships in?" asked Rollo.
"Ah, yes," said Mr. George; "I forgot about that. It was necessary to have passage ways leading in from the river, with walls and gates, and with drawbridges over them."
"What do they want the drawbridges for?" asked Rollo.
"So that the people that are at work there can go across," said Mr. George. "The people who live along the bank of the river, between the basin and the bank, would of course have occasion to pass to and fro, and they must have a bridge across the outlet of the docks. But then, this bridge, if it were permanent, would be in the way of the ships in passing in and out; and so it must be made a drawbridge.
"Then, besides," continued Mr. George, "they need drawbridges across the passage ways within the docks; for the workmen have to go back and forth continually, in prosecuting the work of loading and unloading the ships and in warping them in and out."
"Yes," said Rollo. "There is a vessel that they are warping in now."
Rollo understood very well what was meant by warping; but as many of the readers of this book may live far from the sea, or may, from other causes, have not had opportunities to learn much about the manoeuvring of ships, I ought to explain that this term denotes a mode of moving vessels for short distances by means of a line, either rope or cable, which is fastened at one end outside the ship, and then is drawn in at the other by the sailors on board. When this operation is performed in a dock, for example, one end of the line is carried forward some little distance towards the direction in which they wish the vessel to go, and is made fast there to a pile, or ring, or post, or some other suitable fixture on the quay, or on board another vessel. The other end of the line, which has remained all the time on board the ship, is now attached to the capstan or the windlass, and the line is drawn in. By this means the vessel is pulled ahead.
Vessels are sometimes warped for short distances up a river, when the wind and current are both against her, so that she cannot proceed in any other way. In this case the outer end of the line is often fastened to a tree.
In the arctic seas a ship is often warped through loose ice, or along narrow and crooked channels of open water, by means of posts set in the larger and more solid floes. When she is drawn up pretty near to one of these posts, the line is taken off and carried forward to another post, which the sailors have, in the mean time, been getting ready upon another floe farther ahead.
Warping is, of course, a very slow way of getting along, and is only practicable for short distances, and is most frequently employed in confined situations, where it would be unsafe to go fast. You would think, too, that this process could only be resorted to near a shore, or a quay, or a great field of ice, where posts could be set to attach the lines to; but this, as will appear presently, is a mistake.
The warping which had attracted Rollo's attention was for the purpose of bringing a ship up alongside of the quay at the place where she was to be unloaded. The ship had just come into the dock.
"She has just come in," said Rollo, "I verily believe. I wish we had been here a little sooner, so as to have seen her come through the drawbridges."
Just at this instant the rope leading from the ship, which had been drawn very tense, was suddenly slacked on board the ship, and the middle of it fell into the water.
"What does that mean?" asked Rollo.
"They are going to fasten it in a new place, I suppose," said Mr. George. "Yes, there's the boat."
There was a boat, with two men in it, just then coming up to the part of the quay where the end of the line had been fastened. A man on the quay cast off the line, and threw the end down on board the boat. The boatmen, after taking it in, rowed forward to another place, and there fastened it again. As soon as they had fastened it, they called out to the men on board the ship, "HAUL AWAY!" and then a moment afterwards the middle of the rope could be seen gradually rising out of the water until it was drawn straight and tense as before; and then the ship began to move on, though very slowly, towards the place where they wished to bring her.
"That's a good way to get her to her place," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I don't know how seamen could manage their vessels in docks and harbors without this process of warping."
"I suppose they can't warp any where but in docks and harbors," said Rollo.
"Why not?" asked Mr. George.
"Because," replied Rollo, "unless there was a quay or a shore close by, they would not have any thing to fasten the line to."
Mr. George then explained to Rollo that they could warp a vessel among the ice in the arctic regions by fastening the line to posts set for the purpose in the great floes.
"O, of course they can do that," said Rollo. "The ice, in that case, is just the same as a shore; I mean where there is not any shore at all."
"Well," said Mr. George, "they can warp where there is not any shore at all, provided that the water is not too deep. In that case they take a small anchor in a boat, and row forward to the length of the line, and then drop the anchor, and so warp to that."
"Yes," said Rollo; "I see. I did not think of that plan. But when they have brought the vessel up to where the anchor is, what do they do then?"
"Why, in the mean time," said Mr. George, "the sailors in the boat have taken another anchor, and have gone forward with it to a new station; and so, when the ship has come up near enough to the first anchor, they shift the line and then proceed to warp to the second."
Rollo was much interested in these explanations; though, as most other boys would have been in his situation, he was a little disappointed to find himself mistaken in the opinion which he had advanced so confidently, that warping would be impracticable except in the immediate vicinity of the shore. Indeed, it often happens with boys, when they begin to reach what may be called the reasoning age, that, in the conversations which they hold with those older and better informed than themselves, you can see very plainly that their curiosity and their appetite for knowledge are mingled in a very singular way with the pleasure of maintaining an argument with their interlocutor, and of conquering him in it. It was strikingly so with Rollo on this occasion.
"Yes," said he, after reflecting a moment on what his uncle had said, "yes; I see how they can warp by means of anchors, where there is a bottom which they can take hold of by them; but that is just the same as a shore. It makes no difference whether the line is fastened to an anchor on the bottom, or to a post or a tree on the land. One thing I am sure of, at any rate; and that is, that it would not be possible for them to warp a ship when it is out in the open sea."
"It would certainly seem at first view that they could not," replied Mr. George, quietly; "and yet they can."
"How do they do it?" asked Rollo, much surprised.
"It is not very often that they wish to do it," said Mr. George; "but they can do it, in this way: They have a sort of float, which is made in some respects on the principle of an umbrella. The sailors take one or two of these floats in a boat, with lines from the ship attached to them, and after rowing forward a considerable distance, they throw them over into the water. The men at the capstan then, on board the ship, heave away, and the lines, in pulling upon the floats, pull them open, and cause them to take hold of the water in such a manner that the ship can be drawn up towards them. Of course the floats do not take hold of the water enough to make them entirely immovable. They are drawn in, in some degree, towards the ship; but the ship is drawn forward much more towards them."