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One of my first jobs was with a boat manufacturing company, called Yar-Craft. We made mostly motorized fishing type boats. Actually, the hulls and the decks were manufactured at the plant I worked at, while the motors were installed elsewhere. We also ran orders for canoes and kayaks every now and then. As a side benefit, the company had a couple of boats we could check out for free, on Lake Michigan. They weren't sailing ships, though. I've never been on a sailing ship. I had a friend in California who lived on a very large ship that he owned. I am not sure what type of a boat it was, but we had a company excursion on it one day, with more than a hundred people onboard. We'd go whaling sometimes, which was our term for going out to see whales that had been spotted on the Pacific. They are really amazing creatures. When they come out of the water, in an almost silent move, this mountain of whale flesh emerges from the water. You don't hear much until the tail flaps as it goes back under. My dad worked for Marinette Marine Corporation, which mostly made merchant marine vessels, I think, although they've had some military contracts.