As the shipwrights and specialists at Maine’s Brooklin Boat Yard (BBY) buzz around the three boats inside the main shed, one solitary figure remains stationed at the bow of the 49-foot river boat in the middle of the building. Seated on an inverted 5-gallon bucket atop the staging, Reed Hayden steadily pounds away with a mallet and chisel to carve an intricate, incised scroll pattern into the bow.
It may have been commonplace in the Age of Sail to see a man fearlessly driving a sharp chisel into a brandnew hull, but in the 21st century, ship carvers have become a rarity.
Ship carving started thousands of years ago. The ancient Greeks used figureheads on their vessels to symbolize acute vision and ferocity. The Phoenicians used holy birds and horses to provide protection to the vessel and crew, and the Vikings used figureheads to ward off evil spirits. Sailors were a superstitious bunch. Some even viewed the figurehead as a living thing. They believed that a vessel needed eyes on its bows to find its way, and if a figurehead was damaged it was
