THE MEN BEHIND THE SHIPS
The Williams shipyard benefited from local labor, both skilled and unskilled, and the area
around the shipyard became a shipyard village or community. Not including the sawmill,
ironworks and grist mill workers, the Williams yard may have employed as many as 50 men
and boys at any given time depending on the size and stage of construction of each vessel.
Using the construction of the “Henry Hill” at the Williams yard as an example, historian John
Goff describes the varied artisans, noting 57 separate individuals were paid for tasks ranging
from hauling lumber to the site, to cutting trunnels, to finishing metal work, to finishing the
mahogany bright work. These activities took place either at the Falls River Cove site or at a
second Williams family shipyard, located at the end of New City Street.
Shipyard work required skilled labor, such as carpenters and joiners. Ship carpenters shaped
the timbers of the frame to fit with others, binding them with wooden pegs called treenails
or trunnels. Called shipwrights, these workers literally shaped and put the frame of the ship
together. Skilled borers drilled the thousands of holes needed to peg the ship parts together
with augers (hand drills) and trained dubbers used an adze to smooth and finish off the many
sections of timbers that made up the frame. Caulkers inserted oakum (shredded and tarred
hemp fibers) between the planks that made up the outer and inner skin of the ship,
pounding the oakum in with caulking irons and wooden mallets. Other craftsmen included
painters and blacksmiths, the latter provided the hundreds of iron parts needed from the
Williams ironworks.
Ezra Williams House, 1803
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