A Falling (or Rising) Ship -- Morphological Tourism

In the abundance of historic Venetian maps to find on the internet, I found one that I really enjoyed perusing, dated 1650. It's a really beautiful map with a lot of interesting details, so I began looking through it as if I were a boat that kept taking the wrong turns. 

One particular detail caught my interest immediately -- a boat that looked toppled over, as if it had wrecked or was never finished to begin with. I was curious why something like this would be included in a map of this kind.

Then I found this:

Ecco! There it is again... Mysterious. There's a narrative told by the ships in each of these maps -- which is no surprise, I guess. The city is perfect for maritime navigation, which is why it was the world center for trade pre-Rennaissance and beyond. I'm still in the process of investigating what these toppled boats are, but I'm assuming that was the location for repairing ships and building new ones. 

Currently this area is dominated by the Venetian Arsenal. I'd really like to discover this area of the city, as well as observe the boats. I find them inspiring and I'm excited to look into their history.

Coincidentally, I stumbled upon another Dante's Inferno quote:

"As in the Arsenal of the Venetians
Boils in winter the tenacious pitch
To smear their unsound vessels over again
For sail they cannot; and instead thereof
One makes his vessel new, and one recaulks
The ribs of that which many a voyage has made
One hammers at the prow, one at the stern
This one makes oars and that one cordage twists
Another mends the mainsail and the mizzen…"