Traditional naval stonework was obsessed with curves that served no civil purpose.
Lord Giles Croft stood on the timber floor of Assembly Yard One. He looked down at the wooden hull taking shape on the keel blocks.
It was sixty feet wide, two hundred feet long, and entirely box-shaped.
Its sides were plumb upright.
Its bottom was fully flat.
Beside him, Master Caleb Thorne-Wood stood with his thumbs tucked into his leather apron. He grinned with timberwright pride.
“A floating shoebox, Lord Giles,” Caleb laughed gently.
“When the master shipwrights from the Southern Archipelago saw the framing yesterday, two of them cried into their beards.
