1992: Starting with the Second Generation of Shipowners

Chapter 18 Shed

The asbestos tile shed took three days to build.

Day 1: Clearing the foundation.

The open space left when the rocky beach on the west side was leveled is three meters long from east to west and two and a half meters wide from north to south, just enough to put a bed.

Old Fang drew lines on the ground with lime, and Ah Hai and Ah Guang picked up the pebbles and leveled the ground with shovels.

The rocky base is solid, so there's no need to build a foundation; you can just level it and lay bricks directly.

The bricks were brought from a brick factory in town; they were old bricks salvaged from demolished houses, and were half the price of new bricks.

Jiang Haiping borrowed Lao Wu's jeep and made two trips. Lao Wu said that Jiang Haiping's ship repair shop was getting bigger and bigger. He wondered if he would have to build a canteen next year.

Jiang Haiping said they didn't need the canteen; Lin Xiue's house was the canteen. Old Wu laughed.

The next day, they started building the wall.

Ding Haisheng carried bricks, while Guo Dayong mixed the mud. The mud was yellow clay mixed with lime; he stirred it evenly with a shovel and piled it up. Old Fang, the bricklayer, twirled his trowel in his hand, smeared mud on the bricks, aligned them on the line, tapped them twice with the trowel, and they were in place.

Ah Guang squatted down beside him, handing him bricks one by one. When Lao Fang had laid the bricks up to his knees, he stopped and measured them with a level.

"The east side is half a centimeter lower."

I used a trowel to compact the mortar in the brick joints, then laid another layer, measured it, and leveled it.

They stopped building when the wall reached chest height.

The shed doesn't need to be too high, just over two meters is fine; too high and it'll be exposed to the wind. It should have walls on the east and west sides, and doors and windows on the north and south sides. The doors should face west, overlooking the ship repair yard. The windows should face south, offering a view of the sea.

On the third day, the beams were erected and the tiles were put on.

The beam was pieced together from old ship planks, made of locust wood, which Qiu Changhai found at Lao Huang's timber shop.

Old Huang said the plank was salvaged from a decommissioned wooden fishing boat. The wood had been soaked in tung oil for decades, making it even sturdier than new wood. Old Fang tapped it with a hammer, and it made a resounding sound.

"Good wood. It should last another twenty years without any problem."

The beams were erected and secured to the wall with large iron nails. Asbestos tiles were laid one by one onto the beams, stacked from bottom to top, and nailed to the rafters.

After laying the top piece, Ding Haisheng used a cutting machine to cut off a corner, which fit perfectly onto the beam end.

Ah Guang stood below, looking up, and said, "Brother Ding's cuts are really accurate." Ding Haisheng replied, "You get accurate with practice." Old Fang squatted at the doorway, smoking, watching the shed slowly rise.

"When I built the kitchen in my house, it was built the same way. I carried the bricks, mixed the mortar, and built the walls myself. After I finished, my wife said it was crooked. I told her to take a level and measure it. If it was crooked, I would tear it down and rebuild it. She measured it for a long time without saying a word."

Ahai asked, "What happened next?"

Old Fang said that the kitchen was used for fifteen years before it was demolished when the house was rebuilt two years ago.

When they were demolishing it, the wall was still very sturdy; even a trowel couldn't break it.

The sun was setting when the shed was finished. The asbestos tiles glowed red in the evening light, and the newly built brick walls still smelled of mud.

The space inside is not large, just enough to fit a metal bunk bed and a bedside table.

The bed was an old one that Lao Fang had found at the factory, and the bedside table was one that Ahai had brought from home. The door was a little crooked, so he propped it up with a piece of wood. The window didn't have glass; instead, a transparent plastic sheet was nailed on to let in light, and it could be lowered when it rained.

When Master Song finished work and came over, the shed had already been built.

He stood at the door and looked inside. The bed was made, and the bedding was brought from home by Lin Xiu'e. It was an old mattress that Lin's father used to use, which had been washed and dried.

On the bedside table sat an enamel mug and a kerosene lamp.

The plastic sheet window was open, and the sea breeze blew in, dispelling the scent of sunshine from the mattress.

Master Song stood there for a long time.

Old Fang squatted at the entrance of the ship repair shop, smoking and watching from afar. Jiang Haiping squatted beside him.

"Master Fang, why isn't he going in?"

"I can't bear to part with it."

Master Song stood at the door for a while, then bent down and went inside. He placed the canvas tool bag next to the bedside table, moved the enamel mug, and hung the kerosene lamp on a nail by the bed.

After sitting on the bed for a while, I stood up again, walked to the window, rolled up the plastic sheet, and tied it with a rope.

The sea breeze blew in, and the smell of fresh mud and wood in the asbestos-roofed shed slowly dissipated.

When it was time for dinner, Master Song didn't go back to Hongjia Island. He took out an aluminum lunchbox from his tool bag, which contained the cold rice and pickled vegetables he had brought that morning. Lin Xiu'e brought a bowl of fish ball soup and placed it at the entrance of his shed.

Master Song picked it up and drank it.

After finishing my meal, I squatted at the entrance of the shed, watching the wooden sign for the ship repair shop shine brightly under the kerosene lamp.

In early June, Ahai's old document register was half full.

A plastic-covered exercise book with two cranes on the cover.

The first page lists three gears, five bearings, and two rudder posts; every entry and exit point thereafter is recorded.

Date of issuance, recipient, purpose, and the recipient's signature.

The handwriting is much neater than when I first arrived; it was written with a ballpoint pen, line by line.

Old Fang flipped through it twice and said it was fine, so he would remember it that way.

With the approval he received, Ahai remembered things even more carefully. He reorganized the items on the old parts shelf: gears for gears, bearings for bearings, rudder sticks for rudder sticks, and attached a small piece of white tape to each one with a number written on it.

Ah Guang squatted down beside him and watched him register.

"Brother, have you practiced your handwriting?"

"Why bother practicing? Just write more and your writing will become neater."

Ah Guang said "Oh," and squatted down to watch. Ah Hai finished writing the last line, closed the notebook, put it in the drawer, and weighed it down with a wrench.

Guo Dayong can now fix some minor problems independently. The water pump belt is loose, tighten it. The oil filter is clogged, replace it.

The fuel line was leaking. After checking, the leak was found and the gasket was replaced. Lao Fang always let him take a look first, and after he finished, he would tell him what to do. Lao Fang would nod before he would start.

He'd honed his skills at installing gaskets, scraping the mating surfaces three times with a copper scraper, ensuring the gasket was aligned correctly, and tightening the bolts diagonally, pausing after each turn before tightening again. Old Fang had watched twice, and neither time there had been a leak.

"Okay. You can install the sealing gaskets from now on."

Guo Dayong wiped the wrench clean and put it back on the tool wall.

Master Song settled down at the ship repair shop. Every day he would get up at the crack of dawn, squat at the entrance of the shed, and practice by mixing tung oil putty from a canned food jar and making a small patch.

Breakfast was eaten only after practice; it consisted of cold rice soaked in hot water and eaten with pickled vegetables. After eating, work began. Lin Xiu'e had prepared tung oil putty, and three basins of it were neatly covered with damp cloths on the windowsill.

He could tell if the proportions were right just by taking a spoonful. If they were, he'd nod; if not, he'd add lime or tung oil and mix well. Lin Xiu'e watched silently from the side, taking notes.

The seam-making skill was indeed faster than Qiu Changhai's. It wasn't that he cut corners; his technique was simply more efficient. With a chisel, he quickly and skillfully removed the rotten wood, leaving the groove clean and smooth.

The hemp fibers are torn evenly, stuffed in, and then tamped down firmly with a blunt chisel, the rhythm as even as a machine. Tung oil putty is then applied and smoothed out, leaving a clean, neat seam.

Lin Xiu'e squatted down beside him and watched as he sewed three seams, and she figured out the trick.

"Master Song, you were cutting the groove with the chisel blade angled."

Master Song paused for a moment with his chisel. "Going in at an angle saves effort. Going in straight makes it easy to get stuck."

Lin Xiu'e tried using her chisel on the scrap wood. She went in at an angle, the blade wedged at the boundary between the shallow and deep grooves, and the rotten wood cracked when she struck it – it was indeed less strenuous than going straight in. She practiced all morning, and her chiseling became increasingly precise.

At lunchtime, Qiu Changhai squatted on the rocks, and Lin Xiu'e showed him the groove she had carved. Qiu Changhai looked at it.

"Did he teach you the method of entering at an angle?"

"I learned it by watching."

Qiu Changhai lowered the slot. "It's easier to cut at an angle, but it's harder to control the force. Cutting too deep will damage good board, cutting too shallow will leave rotten wood at the root. He practiced for five years before he dared to cut like that. You've only learned for a few days and you dare to use it?"

Lin Xiu'e lowered her head.

"If you want to learn, practice on scrap boards. Practice until you've made a hundred seams before you board a real ship."

Lin Xiu'e agreed. That afternoon, she started practicing cutting grooves at an angle using scrap boards. She practiced all afternoon, cutting over twenty grooves, until her fingers were red and raw.

In mid-June, Wang Cunzhi arrived.

This time he didn't come by motorcycle, but by jeep. It was a vehicle from the county's fisheries company. The driver dropped him off at the entrance of the boat repair shop, turned around, and drove off.

Wang Cunzhi was wearing a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and carrying a black faux leather bag. Upon entering the courtyard, he first looked at the newly built asbestos-roofed shed.

"Well built. Sturdy and bright."

Old Fang squatted on the reef smoking, saying it cost less than two hundred yuan. Wang Cunzhi said it was worth it, and that they would build another one when the ship repair shop got more people.

Jiang Haiping asked if the fishing company's dock was repaired. Wang Cunzhi said it was, and the four boats for the second half of the year would be brought over next week.

He pulled a stack of papers from his faux leather bag. They were the seafood company's ship repair settlement statements for the first half of the year, stamped with a red seal.

Jiang Haiping took it and looked at it. Four boats, 12,000 yuan, which matched the cash that Master Zhou had delivered last month.

"Master Zhou asked me to bring this to you. Keep a copy. Keep all receipts safe when dealing with government matters in the future."

Jiang Haiping put the settlement sheet into the drawer of the stone house and placed it together with the old items register.

Wang Cunzhi pulled out another piece of paper. "The county is organizing skills training for fishermen: engine room, navigation, and net repair—three courses. Each village gets a few slots; Moon Island got three." He looked at Jiang Haiping, "Do you need a boat repair shop?"

Jiang Haiping thought for a moment. "When?"

"July. Half a month. The county will provide food and lodging."

Jiang Haiping called Lao Fang, Qiu Changhai, and Ding Haisheng over. Lao Fang said he wouldn't go, saying that what they taught him wasn't as good as what he had taught them. Qiu Changhai also said he wouldn't go. Ding Haisheng also declined.

Ah Hai squatted down beside him and raised his hand. "Brother Ping, I want to go."

Jiang Haiping looked at him. "What do you want to learn?"

"Marine engine. Master Fang taught me how to repair it, but I want to learn the principles. How does a diesel engine work? Why does it emit black smoke when the fuel injectors are clogged, and blue smoke when it's burning oil? Master Fang taught me how to repair it, but I want to know why it's repaired that way."

Old Fang glanced at him. "This kid's got potential."

Jiang Haiping read out Ahai's name. Wang Cunzhi took notes and asked who else was in the running. Jiang Haiping looked at Guo Dayong. Guo Dayong was squatting at the cabin door wiping a wrench when he looked up and noticed Jiang Haiping looking at him.

"Master Guo, are you going? You've repaired tractors before, and fishing boat diesel engines are different from tractor engines. Go and listen; it'll be beneficial."

Guo Dayong thought for a moment. "Go."

The third spot was given to Lin Xiu'e.

Jiang Haiping asked Ah Hai to go to the Lin family to inquire.

When Ahai ran back, he was out of breath and said that Sister Xiu'e said she wasn't going; she wanted to stay home and mix tung oil putty. Jiang Haiping went to the Lin family's house by himself.

Lin Xiu'e was squatting in the yard washing clothes. Her mother sat beside her mending fishing nets, a pungent plaster on her waist. Her two younger sisters were doing their homework inside.

Jiang Haiping explained the training arrangements. Lin Xiu'e, rubbing her clothes, didn't look up. "I'm not going. If I go for half a month, who will mix the tung oil putty at the ship repair shop? Master Song mixes and blends it himself; he's too busy."

"Master Qiu can adjust it."

"Master Qiu has a bad back, so he has to bend over to mix tung oil putty."

Jiang Haiping squatted down. "What did the doctor say about your mother's back?"

"Half a month has passed, and I went for a follow-up check-up yesterday. Dr. Chen said the hyperplasia hasn't progressed. I should continue taking the medication and applying the plaster, and try to avoid bending over too much." Lin Xiu'e wrung out her clothes and put them in a basin. "My mom said she wants to raise more chickens to sell eggs. That way, she won't have to bend over."

Jiang Haiping didn't try to persuade her about the training anymore. As she stood up, Lin's mother looked up.

"Ping-ge'er. Xiu'e isn't going because she doesn't want to. It's not that her family won't let her."

Jiang Haiping said he understood.

When they returned to the ship repair shop in the evening, Wang Cunzhi had already left. The three spots were ultimately decided between Ahai, Guo Dayong, and Aguang. Aguang was stunned for a long time when he heard he was to learn welding.

"Brother Ping, I've only just started learning."

"You've just started learning, so you need to go. Master Ding will teach you how to weld, and the training course will teach you why you weld this way. You need to learn both to weld well."

Ah Guang nodded vigorously.

At the end of June, Ahai, Guo Dayong, and Aguang went to the county for training.

The ship repair shop was three people short, but the workload wasn't reduced at all. Two of the four boats that the seafood company had brought in for the second half of the year were now fully loaded into the stone trough.

Old Fang led Ding Haisheng to disassemble the main unit, while Qiu Changhai led Master Song and Lin Xiu'e to sew the seams. When there weren't enough people, Jiang Haiping also stepped in, learning to sew from Master Song, though he was clumsy at it.

Master Song didn't mind that he was slow; if he cut the groove crookedly, he would make him cut it again.

"Don't rush the cutting of the groove. Cut away as much rotten wood as possible. If you damage the good board, the replacement board will be too big, which wastes material. If it's too small, it won't fit."

Jiang Haiping spent the entire morning squatting beside the sampan, chiseling out the grooves. He finished one and showed it to Master Song. Master Song looked at it and said, "Okay, let's install the panel." Jiang Haiping held up the new panel, then inserted it; it fit perfectly.

After finishing work in the evening, Jiang Haiping sat at the entrance of the asbestos-roofed shed calculating the accounts. In June, he repaired nine boats, making a gross profit of just over two thousand.

Ahai and the other two went for training. The county provided food and lodging, saving the boat repair shop the cost of three meals.

Master Song squatted at the entrance of the shed, mixing tung oil putty in a can, then put the lid on the windowsill.

"Master Song, you must earn more at the shipyard in the south than here, right?"

Master Song straightened the canned food jars. "There are many. But that's not home."

He stood up and carried his tool bag into the shed. The moon rose from the sea, illuminating the asbestos-tiled roof of the shed. The loquat seedlings had already grown four leaves; before leaving, A-Guang surrounded them with broken seashells and watered them.

Ahai locked the old document register in a drawer and gave the key to Lao Fang for safekeeping.

The key was strung on a red string, and Lao Fang wore it around his neck.

The sea breeze blew, causing the plastic sheet windows of the asbestos-roofed shed to flap and sway.

Master Song took a rope and lowered the rolled-up plastic sheet to tie it up.

The lights went out.