António José
Carmo

“Naval carpentry provides versatile knowledge, it allows us to respond to the challenges of other arts, other activities”

António José Carmo worked for around 30 years in the family shipyards, Samuel & Filhos, as a draftsman. With a deep knowledge of wooden shipbuilding, he has made a valuable contribution to the dissemination of this art: among other projects, he decoded in drawing the construction method described in a book from the 16th century (“Livro da Fábrica das Naus “). As a researcher and trainer at the CdAN, he tells us about the versatility of naval carpentry, which is applicable in multiple areas. A conversation of passion and knowledge, which reveals surprising perspectives and shows the relevance of the new Wooden Shipbuilding Training Centre.

A conversation full of passion and knowledge, revealing surprising perspectives and showing the relevance of the new Wooden Shipbuilding Training Centre.

To give continuity to wooden shipbuilding, to pass on the knowledge that exists in our shipyards.

The feeling of everyone involved in this project is that the end of the sector would be a great loss, not only for the industry itself, but also for other activities, namely fishing. And a lot of potential would be lost, because this know-how can respond to needs in other arts, in other areas.

The naval carpenter absorbs a type of geometric knowledge that requires mental gymnastics and a different way of thinking about things in constructive terms. This leads naval carpenters to develop their own faculties: to think about how the construction is going to start, what design it is going to follow, how it is going to develop and how it is going to end.

Anyone who is prepared to make a boat out of wood is prepared to make a boat out of any type of material. It’s much easier to build in steel or aluminium than in wood. A steel shipyard, on the other hand, is not capable of building a wooden boat.

This skill allows naval carpenters to make any type of part. They look at a 2D drawing and imagine it in 3D, they know the best way to execute it.

Yes. At the moment, for example, a monumental steel work of art is being developed for Seville. In fact, it’s the second for this Spanish city: first there was a giant olive pit, already installed on a roundabout in the region, and now a 20- tonne bull’s horn. It’s a completely curved piece, all crooked and twisted, and the mould is being made by naval carpenters. They are the ones with the skills to make any mould: like this horn, a deformed piece with different diameters.

Exactly. With the ease with which he moulds the side of a boat, the naval carpenter is able to mould that outer surface, that horn. It’s a huge steel structure, but it was only here that they found someone capable of making the mould. It was Vila do Conde’s traditional industry – in this case, the SICNAVE shipyard – that solved the problem.

I’m delighted to see someone who can adapt the knowledge they’ve acquired in wooden shipbuilding to art forms.

I use to say that the wooden boat is one of the most evolved pieces that exists. Our current wooden boats have six thousand years of evolution behind them. This knowledge needs to be passed on – and this is the main objective of the new Training Centre, where we will teach the technique of wooden boatbuilding step by step.

Personally, I need to teach what I know, which is in the hands of just 13 people, all older than me. I have to pass it on, to whoever it may be.

The wooden boat is one of the most evolved pieces that exists. Our current wooden boats have six thousand years of evolution behind them. This knowledge needs to be passed on – and this is the main objective of the new Training Centre.

Scientific knowledge will come later – our main job now, as the last connoisseurs of this know-how, is to pass it on just as it is passed on in a building site: from master to apprentice.

This transmission is not easy, I know that. We are governed by geometric formulas that are not taught anywhere. In other words, it’s a geometry performed by people who don’t know scientific mathematics, who have empirical mathematics, the so-called technomathematics, passed down from generation to generation. However, they manage to solve challenges that nobody else can solve. They have a great deal of ancestral knowledge, where “trial and error” is the rule.

Scientific knowledge will come later – our main job now, as the last connoisseurs of this know-how, is to pass it on just as it is passed on in a shipyard: from master to apprentice.

Very practical. In the last 30 or 35 years there have been a few naval carpentry courses, but they were very theoretical, without any practical lessons. We’re going to have a section of a real boat (around 3 or 4 meters) inside the workshop, with various pre-assembled parts, and each time a group is taught we’re going to build a frame, at the “sala do risco” (scratch room), for later assembly. We’ll collect the pieces, make some of the most difficult ones that are made on the boats, and which have their own geometric execution process, their own way of making the mould.

And we’ll see how a ship carpenter is able to deduce what part is needed and make any mould without using conventional measurements, without a tape measure: all the gauges are made with a “fasquia” (in the local tradition, a malleable wooden board), compass and “suta” (kind of sliding T bevel).

Just as we used to use a string to take measurements, we now use a “fasquia”. The “suta” gives us the angles. We don’t know the exact angle, just whether it’s more or less than 90 degrees. We call the obtuse angle “cheio” and the acute angle “solinhado”.

Very practical. In the last 30 or 35 years there have been a few courses in naval carpentry, but they were very theoretical, without any practical lessons. We’re going to have a section of a real boat (around 3, 4 meters) inside the workshop.

A few days ago I met a gentleman from Vila do Conde, now retired, who made a name for himself in Germany and France because he knew how to execute architects’ projects – thanks to his naval carpentry skills. In other words, he had a vision, which others lacked, to solve all the works of art that the architects designed. His know-how was recognized to such an extent that for years he was responsible for restoring the woodwork in the Louvre Museum. This is a good example of the capabilities that wooden shipbuilding can provide. That’s why our shipyards carry out work for Seville…

But this knowledge opens up many other opportunities. Within the natural context of the industry, for example, it enables its professionals to build luxury pleasure boats, such as those built in shipyards in Italy, Canada and the United States. We’re talking about highly refined shipbuilding, wooden works of art that are designed to float. The demands are such that, out of 10 or 15 naval carpenters, only 2 or 3 are capable of this kind of perfection. And I’ve met some of them here in Vila do Conde.

Absolutely. I’m part of the study team, associated with UNESCO, of the Belinho boat discovery, and I know some of the greatest underwater archaeologists in the world. Being among renowned archaeologists, some of them with 40 years of experience, I know what they don’t: the pieces with which the boat was built. And I’m not the only one: if I take the former foreman of our shipyard [Samuel & Filhos] to the site and show him some of the pieces, he identifies them straight away. This is also a skill for anyone who knows about shipbuilding: knowing how to read an underwater archaeological find and recognize the parts found.

In the 16th century they made “naus” and caravels, now they make trawlers, but the construction process is very much the same, the parts inside a boat are practically the same.

We have been under the influence of two very effective technological sources: one from the Nordic countries and the other from the Mediterranean, this one with more centuries of evolution.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Portuguese, particularly in the north of the country, merged techniques. In other words, we were pioneers in combining the two types of knowledge, thanks to our geographical position: we were between different cultures – the Islamic and Nordic worlds. The ease of contact with both made us versatile and gave us the ability to innovate: we combined Nordic architecture with the Mediterranean construction process. We started to build the boat not from the outside in (in Nordic “coga” [old ship], the side is built first), but from the inside out (first the keel, the stern frame and the bow wheel, the framing on top of the keel and only then the paneling, the side).

In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Portuguese, particularly in the north of the country, merged techniques. In other words, we were pioneers in bringing the two skills together, thanks to our geographical position: we were between different cultures – the Islamic and Nordic worlds. The ease of contact with both made us versatile and gave us the ability to innovate.

It made it possible to change the boat’s waterlines; the shape of the bottom could now be manipulated. In Nordic construction, you can’t change it – it’s shell- shaped and can only grow proportionally.

With the manipulation of the bottom, it became possible to sharpen the boat, make more water outlets, adapt it to its intended purpose. The purpose of the Portuguese ship was to make long voyages, namely from São Tomé and Príncipe to the Netherlands. In order to do this, it needed to be faster to sail and “bolinar” [to go wind]. This was achieved by modifying the lines of the boat – as we say, it became more “bolineiro”. The bottom is more bladed, it doesn’t have as much trim. It’s more aligned. This changed everything.

That’s the reality of the shipyards, where the good carpenters, the good executives are already over 60. They can’t retire because they’re needed.

That’s the reality of the shipyards, where the good carpenters, the good executives are already over 60. They can’t retire because they’re needed.

It’s paid well above average. Even so, it’s not attracting young people. Why not? Young people aren’t being taught this art within the family or in a factory environment – and that’s a good thing, it’s a sign that they’re studying. The problem is that schools are, in my opinion, on the wrong track. Technical education is not encouraged.

Once this reality is created, what will happen? In not too many years’ time, those who know how to work with their hands, in whatever field, will be paid by the pound. It’s already like this and it’s going to become even more so, due to a shortage of manpower.

In not too many years’ time, those who know how to work with their hands, in whatever field, will be paid by the pound. It’s already like this and it’s going to become even more so, due to a shortage of manpower.

The trainees will acquire a lot of information that will be very useful in the most diverse situations. They’ll be able to respond to business challenges in different areas, as we’ve already seen. They will develop an ability to understand geometry in a way that isn’t taught in schools – a totally different kind of geometry that will excite anyone. How can people with a 4th class degree make a geometric plan of a boat, something of enormous complexity?

I have no doubt that the young people who dedicate themselves to this course will have advanced, multi-purpose practical knowledge that will give them added value, more career opportunities and prospects that they don’t currently have.

I have no doubt that the young people who dedicate themselves to this course will have advanced, multi-purpose practical knowledge that will give them added value, more career opportunities and prospects that they don’t currently have.