The boatbuilder called Dolphinman
The wooden-boat builder Robert Thomson was born in 1876. As a young man he started a shipbuilding apprenticeship. He described this time as like a prison sentence with harsh, (17) ________ conditions. This experience resulted in him taking the decision to work (18) ________ his father, who was building handcrafted wooden boats following traditional methods. Following his father's death in 1895, Robert was left with full (19) ________ for the family workshop. The company decided to include a (20) ________ of a dolphin on all its newly built boats as a sort of logo. This gave Thomson the nickname 'Dolphinman', which remains the (21) ________ trademark of his company's boats. Time-honoured methods are still used for the (22) ________ of the vessels and every deck is carefully made of the highest-quality timber, (23) ________ to water and salt damage. The company is still run by the Dolphinman's (24) ________, and now enjoys worldwide distribution of its vessels.