Dave has a well earned reputation for his work. He is conscientious, thorough and absolutely fair in his pricing of a job. Dave works on boats, the work boat type. He declines requests from folks that would like him to work on their pleasure craft though he will do some odd jobs for that type of craft if it intriques him. His feelings are, there are enough good yards such as Blanchard or Vic Frank to work on the boats of the 'swells'. It is the fisherman and other boatman that he is interested in working for because they can't usually afford the price of those yards. Not to mention he is concerned about keeping the wooden work boats alive and working.

One day he was contacted by Manson Engineering just down the Duwamish River from the marina where his boat was moored. Seems Manson had a wooden barge, about 30 feet wide and 60 feet long that needed some caulking, hereafter written as spoken in the Pacific Northwest as, corking. Problem was the barge was not in a dry dock but on a slipway, subject to the Puget Sound tidal range. That meant that if he took the job he would have to start at the first ebb of the tide and be done before the next tide was full. That is about 8 to 12 hours or so to cork that barge hull!

I dropped by his boat at the Riverside Marina most every day after work to see what he was up to and perhaps plan a tool hunting expedition for the coming weekend. This day he told me that he had taken the corking job on the Manson barge and it was set to start the following morning at 4:AM. He had figured it out that he could do the below the water line plank seams that needed repair before the tide came in and forced him off the slipway. His cooking schedule had to be re-arranged in order for him to have his 'fuel' for the day ahead. He transferred meal ( 3 ) from the kettles and began to peel some spuds for one kettle and started the grain cooking in the other kettle. Sleep would be short that night as he could not lay down till the food was cooked, about a 2 hour job with that whole grain part. He was preparing to start a big day on less that his usual 8 hours sleep. I was concerned about him, for working on a slipway in the wee hours of the morning with no one about is dangerous. The slipway is a grid of logs embedded in the riverbank mud that allow a barge or boat to be hauled up for underwater hull repairs and as its name implies it is very slippery with water weed on those wet logs. One mis-step on Dave's part and he might be in some serious trouble.

The next morning I left our little apartment atop Boeing Hill and drove straight to Manson's yard. The nightwatchman knew me from previous visits with Dave to lookeyloo the big new floating crane Manson moored at the yard. I drove down to the slipway and as I got close I could hear the distintive ring of his mallet on a corking iron. I got out and there he was at 7:AM or so workng away with his hickory shirt wet with sweat and from water dripping off the barge hull oblivious to all except that seam he was reefing* out.

*Reefing out is the process of removing the Oakum and seam compound before replacing it with new stuff.

I just stood there watching him, keeping quiet so as not to disturb his rhythm and concentration. It was as if I was watching a human machine, steady blows with no interruption. I must have observed him for 10 minutes before he stopped and realized that someone was there. He turned around and gave me that big smile and said, " been making smoke since 4:20, just might get it all done before the tide rises". I looked at what he had done, close to 100 linear feet, all reefed out and ready to be re-corked in less than 3 hours. I called out to him,with a big grin on my face, "not too shabby for a beginner", . He laughed as we both know he could cork the Ben Davis pants off me any day of the week. He said. "got to get back, not making any smoke, see you after your done at Nelson Hanson". I waved and got back in my truck and drove the few blocks to NH to light the fire in the steambox boiler and get stuff laid out for the days work. Apprentice chores, don't ya know. I had told Les and Alf about Dave's job and we kept an eye on the tide and speculated on his progress. Alf said, with just a touch of pride in his voice," he is Norvegian, he will do it 'vell' ".

4:30 rolled around, with good nights and wishes for Dave, I left Les and Alf and drove to Manson's yard. I passed through the gate and down to the slipway. The ring of the corking iron sounding over the engine of my truck, I parked and got out. There was Dave waist deep in the rising water finishing off a seam. Determination was all over his face as he waded through the cold rising tide coming in off Puget Sound finishing off that last bit of corking. Dave turned around and gave me a big grin and I was shocked by what I saw. He looked as if he had lost 20 lbs with big dark circles under his eyes. I called to him and asked him how he was doing? He replied that after he put the white cement in this seam he would be done below the waterline. He had not stopped to eat but had kept working all day! I helped him climb out of the water and gather his tools and grub sack and loaded them in my truck. He was clenching his teeth to prevent them from chattering and the water squished from his Currin Greene logger boots. I looked at him and said, "no debate, you are coming home with me and getting in a hot shower and we will wash those clothes while I make you a big steak and egg dinner". He leaned back and smiled wearily and said," OK, guess I over did it just a bit". We got to our apartment and Penny took one look and said, 'I will go get some steak from the corner butcher. Make sure Dave gets in that shower". Two hours later after a big Porterhouse steak and 3 eggs and a quart of milk and some Soda Bread, Dave was in our son's room playing on the floor with his construction toys when it got quiet in there. Penny and I peeked in and there were the two Davids lying side by side sound asleep.

They broke the mold after that one, or so says I.