Ben reaches his Goal

In One April in Boston, 10-year-old Ben Edwards admires his grandfather, an early Boston sea captain. Ben races around Boston with his ancestor's spyglass and believes he can glimpse the future through its lens. He dreams of working on a sailing ship and traveling to distant shores. Ben learns that if he becomes a cooper it can help him reach this goal. He puts his goal in writing and never gives up on it. Ben becomes an apprentice in his Uncle Alex's cabinetmaking shop and learns the woodworking skills that will one day serve him as a cooper. Each day, Ben does something that will bring him closer to his goal.

If Ben looked through his spyglass, 15 years into the future, he would have seen himself opening his own cooper shop and applying his trade aboard sailing ships departing from Boston Harbor. Proof that he had reached his goal may have appeared in the Columbian Centinel newspaper. Below are three recreations: Ben's original written goal, an ad that could have promoted his cooper shop and a ships ad announcing his first voyage aboard a sailing vessel.