Meanwhile, I resolved to add to my educational attainments the art of writing.
After this manner I began to learn to write: I was much in the ship yard--Master Hugh's, and that of Durgan & Bailey--and I observed that the carpenters, after hewing and getting a piece of timber ready for use, wrote on it the initials of the name of that part of the ship for which it was intended.

When, for instance, a piece of timber was ready for the starboard side, it was marked with a capital "S." A piece for the larboard side was marked "L;" larboard forward, "L.

F.;" larboard aft, was marked "L.

A.;" starboard aft, "S.

A.;" and starboard forward "S.