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13. 

by the crew and eventually the application of a white paint on the bottom by hand. The paint has chiefly a lime base. Raw fish oil is applied by hand plus a rag to the top sides and deck. If you romanticize your imagination, fish oil on wood has a similar effect in coloring as varnish. 

About 6:00 o'clock the first morning in dry dock there was a series of "Kaif [[strikethrough]]Haleh[[/strikethrough]]^[[Halek]]" and "Salam" and other greetings, and I realized that a person other than a member of the crew was boarding our boat. First a weird ancient box came up (possibly Pandora's) with instruments inside with which I was still unfamiliar. Next I beheld a one eyed old man repleat with a dirty grey cap and gown and a dignified full beard. He was thin and gaunt and a runner up for Methuselah, but his manner was pleasant and like all Arabs he was armed with a sense of humor. 

I pinched myself because I was still drowsy, but I was finally convinced I was awake in spite of what was going on. Our complaint had been that the deck leaked (a gross understatement), and here was our ship's carpenter respectfully referred to by Ahmed, our cook, as "Nakhoda" captain.

Soon our carpenter was at work with his wooden hammer, crude chisel, a coping saw, and a bowstring drill which reminded one of the apparatus used to make fires by enthusiastic boy scouts. Even caulking irons in Arabia have a different edge, sharper and narrower. Untreated cotton was used for all caulking of the deck. The carpenter would squat bare footed on the deck, his most common working pose. If a board is found with a soft spot on deck the technique is to chisel out a hole around the spot until good wood was [[strikethrough]]touched[[/strikethrough]]^[[reached]]. Then a new piece is cut with the coping saw to fill in the hole. Wood is scarce in Arabia so it must be conserved. With good luck a single piece of wood could last eons of time in a dhow, since the boat would continually be built around it. In fact even new dhows are pieced together like jigsaw puzzles. The lines of the boats,