Stern
In general, stern is at the right angle to the rest of the boat. Approximately 25 cm (9.8 in) forward of the stern, a transverse groove was cut into the bottom and sides to support the transom piece. Forward of the transom several grooves were cut to support transverse shelves, with the most aft shelf covering the transom. Such fitted transoms, which enclose the end of the log, have been relatively common in prehistoric logboats. In case of Hasholme boat, the rotted heart prevented a construction of integrated bow and stern therefore both sections had to be precisely fitted and watertight. The transom itself is 1 m high and 1.08 m in breadth, with rounded lower profile and upper corners cut away. The thickness varies from 25 mm to 90 mm. At the top portion of the transom there are two horizontal holes without any visible wear. Since the original transom weighted between 60 and 75 kg (130 and 170 lb) those holes were necessary to place it inside the grooves. Those grooves were later caulked with some mixture of mosses and twigs to make the whole structure watertight. The upper corner of the starboard was cut away and long tree-nail drove through both sides of the hull tightening the transom in place. The second function of this tree-nail was to form a tie between both sides of the hull, with similar beam-ties in the bow section of the boat. Fitted transoms are relatively common in pre-historic logboats since it is much easier to make a transom and watertight it, than to hollow the entire healthy log.
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Famous quotes containing the word stern:
“Me in my vow’d
Picture the sacred wall declares t’have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern God of Sea.”
—Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65–8)
“It is even more grim and wild than you had anticipated, a damp and intricate wilderness, in the spring everywhere wet and miry. The aspect of the country, indeed, is universally stern and savage, excepting the distant views of the forest from hills, and the lake prospects, which are mild and civilizing in a degree.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As a people, we have the problem of making our forests outlast this generation, or iron outlast this century, and our coal the next; not merely as a matter of convenience or comfort, but as a matter of stern necessity.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)