The closing one

The last piece of the planking, the one closing the hull, is special. Its position on the hull is different from a boatyard and another, and different ways coexist.
In the Cafiero boatyard, on the gozzo "Santa Maria del Lauro", this plank is the third one from the keel.
It is narrower than the others: while the edges of the other planks are cut to be perpendicular to the ribs in the very point of connection with them, following the rules of the "righella dei cardamoni", the edges of the so called "chiudente" ("the closing one"), and the ones of the contiguous planks, are cut to give it a wedge like section.
This shape is easily inserted between the other planks, avoiding any forcing, but at the same time allowing the "chiudente" to act as a wedge during torsions and bendings of the hull.
This plank too is wet and warmed up at fire, and then nailed to the ribs. And when Michele's last hammer bangs arrange it into its position, the planking on the ribs has become a boat's hull...

Water, Wood and Fire

Along her sides, the shape of the hull of a gozzo is so curve that it exceeds the natural flexibility of a wooden plank. To force it into place can cause breaks or, even worse, sudden failure under stress.

Then an archaic metod is employed, the same for thousands years, probably since Phoenicians and Achaeans built the first wooden ships.

Antonio, the young but experienced apprentice, rubs slowly and carefully the plank with a wet rag, while Michele Cafiero lights a fire with cut out chips in an iron bucket.
The wood of the plank, soaked in water, becomes more flexible. But it is not enough, yet. With extreme caution, Michele put the plank into the flames, and turns it up. The water soaks into the fibers of the wood, warms up and warms the already softened fibers. If the plank seems about to dry up, Michele pulls it out of the fire and Antonio soaks it again, in a game of balance between water and fire. When the wood looks like it's exuding steam, Michele hurries up to Mast'Antonio, waiting for him by the hull of the gozzo: with a few, quick but deliberate moves, they fasten the first plank, the "garboard", still steaming, on the ribs, and enforce it in place against the side of the keel with wedges and clamps. They drill holes, nail it and, when the plank will dry up its fibers will stay deformed into the position enforced at high temperature, but not weakened. Later, carpenters and apprentice will repeat the whole operation with the second plank.

Struts away!

Since the keel has been connected to the prow and the stern, the boay has been growing on it. And since the ribs have been connected to the keel, the skeleton of the gozzo "Santa Maria del Lauro" has been firmly locked with struts in a stand up position, for an easy construction work.
Now, the moment has come to put up the planking, and after the first planks, the hull must be leaned on one side to set the planks from the keel.

In Michele's simple, deliberate moves, taking the cross off the bow to set it free from the struts, there's the awareness that this is the end of the beginning: from now on, they are not going to work anymore on a wooden frame locked in a boatyard, they are going to finish a boat.

The deck

The deck, the top of a boat, is roof, floor and enclosing of the waterproof hull's shell.
On fishing "gozzi", like the ones from Marina di Alimuri, it was only a partial coverage, to protect the inside of the hull from the breaking waves , and to provide a step for crew members working on the bow, or maneuvering the lateen sail.
In modern boats the deck is composed of pre-built panels, in plywood listed with strips of teak wood, imitating the seams, like the ones on which generations of ships boys have worn mops, knees and elbows.
Of course, the "Santa Maria del Lauro"'s deck will be built in the traditional way: over the beams, the robust seams of the deck will be able not only to bear the weight of a walking crew, but they will be forced into the bending of the hull, to improve the decks watertight quality, and to be part of the hull's working structure.
Mast'Antonio's experience with the clamps and the wood's reactions to bending drive the seams into their place, and Michele's accuracy fasten them, and refines the work. In a few hours, the gozzo's deck is ready to be caulked. But for this, it is not the moment yet.

"We came from Malta..."

When I was a kid, family tales seemed to belong to an ancient era. I did not listen much, I was more intrigued by my father's job, and more interested in banging hammers.
Once grown up, and become a carpenter, from those family stories heard as background chatting, I recalled some talks making sense.
The Cafieros were silk merchants, living in Malta. But they still owned buildings in Meta.
After the fall of Napoleon, they chose to leave the island, and to return to their native land.
Probably, Malta under British custom was not a convenient base anymore.
Several years later, they had abandoned the silk business, and had become carpenters and shipwright, like my father and me: towards the half of the XIXth century, Sorrento's mulberries were all but supplanted by orange grooves, and this was the end of local silk production, or maybe, orange were just more proitable cultures. Rebuilding a classic boat (with mulberry wooden framework), child's memories must help the reconstruction of family history.
The sculpture on the prow of the wooden gozzo boat we are building, the "St. Maria del Lauro", on the blueprint of my father's grandpa's boat, will be dedicated to the Madonna from which she was named. But in the inside of it, the builder symbol will be a cross of Malta.