Braiden Norton gets his first glimpse of the SS Bugga and his new bedroom. The aquarium can be seen in the bow.

Strange things had been going on up in Braiden Norton's bedroom ever since his return home from Houston, Texas, a couple of days before. There were loud thumps and banging. People (many of whom he'd seen at Hinckley Yachts in Portsmouth where his dad works in the carpentry shop) were coming and going. Oddest of all, neither he nor his parents were permitted a look inside.

Saturday morning, April 19, the ruckus began early. Then, just after 1, a hush fell over the Nortons' New Bedford home and the 2 1/2-year-old was finally led upstairs.

Someone handed Braiden scissors with which to cut the big yellow ribbon wrapped around the closed door to his room. With a bit of help he snipped it apart, opened his door and, for a rare moment, stood speechless.

His tiny bedroom had been transformed.

"Oh Bugga, look!" his mom Tatia said.

"Holy Mackerel," added Philip, his dad.

From Braiden, not a word as he took in a vision straight out of Little Mermaid — or perhaps Peter Pan's pirate cove.

Braiden and his mother Tatia play on the pirate ship bed.

To his right sat the good ship SS Bugga (his parents have called him Bugga since he was tiny — "Don't know why, it just came out," his dad said), cannon at the ready.

Led up the gangway he saw that this was no ordinary ship, this was his bed. From the pillows, he peers at real fish swimming in the aquarium built into the ship's bow. A ladder leads to the poop deck with ship's wheel, bells, whistles and controls — one turns on port and starboard lights.

And for quick escape, a slide leads all the way back to the floor

Wide-eyed, Braiden took it all in then gave the slide a try. It was fast, startlingly so. "I want to do the slide again," he told his mom.

Standing to the back with others from Hinckley was Jon Hollis, assistant foreman of Hinckley's carpentry shop.

"I couldn't be happier," Mr. Hollis said.

Braiden tries the slide from the upper deck while mom watches.

It was he who had sketched out the plans for this remarkable room not long after Mr. Norton had come to them and asked for a hand expanding the room his child would need as he recovered from the latest treatments for pylocitic astrocytoma, a form of cancer lodged in his brain stem. The sessions in Houston would take a toll they knew, as had the many trips for surgery and treatment at Boston's Dana Farber Cancer Center, and Braiden would be spending plenty of time in his bedroom.

In cahoots with carpentry shop foreman Roy Lopes and the rest of the crew, Mr. Hollis figured they could do much more for their friend.

"We got a bit carried away I guess — new ideas kept coming up — but every bit was worth it," he said. At a busy time of year, employees from every part of Hinckley pitched in, mostly working nights after long regular shifts or on weekends.

Hinckley's Maine shop built a ship's desk, complete with stairway leading to a home for stuffed animals. In true shipwright fashion, hidden compartments abound to make the most of every spare inch.

The company provided funds and CEO Jim McManus helped out with the paint crew. He couldn't be there Saturday (business in London called) but saw to it that lunch was provided.

"It looks phenomenal," Dana Mello of Newport said earlier in the week of the nearly finished job.

Philip Norton shows his son how the ship's cannon fires ping-pong balls.

Mr. Mello who works in Hinckley's stockroom and purchasing —"the ship's store" — said he had gotten wind of what the carpentry shop was up to and, like many others, offered to lend a hand.

"This really captured everybody's sense of giving," he said. "They put me to work painting — some of the completed pieces at the shop and also the bedroom in New Bedford.

"It's certainly very unique, definitely a one-off; they'll never make a production line of these, nor should they," Mr. Mello said. "It's taken a little longer and gone a little over budget but that's often the way with works of art."

Even a few people from outside Hinckley joined in. Aires Silveira, who had been working at Hinckley neighbor Alden Yachts, has spent long hours on the project.

"I kind of hate to see it come to an end. It's been great fun," he said.

Wiping away a tear, Mrs. Norton led Braiden from one discovery to the next — a hidden play place belowdecks, rope swing bolted with top-of-the-line marine hardware to the ceiling, heavy curved moulding that seems straight out of a man o'war, a custom crafted cannon that fires ping-pong balls bolted to the rail, fish on the walls, seabirds in the air, a quilt sewn by a woman in Maine, sea chest with upholstered window seat built by carpenter Ben Wilcox, porthole salvaged from a yacht owned by Humphrey Bogart, model Herreshoff 12 1/2 given by the Herreshoff family, refrigerator, flat panel TV, and recessed rope lights to give the look of starlight. A small sail on the ceiling was signed by all who had helped out. "Ahoy matey," reads one of the notes.

"We're going to have so much fun in here," Braiden's mom said. "You won't be able to get me out of here."

"I'm going to be finding new things in here for weeks," Mr. Norton added. "It's people like you guys that get us through this."

The timing is perfect, Mrs. Norton said, since Braiden has trouble with heat and bright sunshine — the tumor has put pressure on his optic nerve — and will be spending lots of time in his room.

To wellwishers she added that the family fully expects a miracle

"Braiden is going to get better," she said. "And this is going to help."

Fish swim in the ship's built-in aquarium.

To help out ...

For updates on Braiden Norton, and a photo album by photographer Michelle Carr, visit the family's website at www.braidennorton.com

* The site also includes information for those who would like to pitch in to help the family with the considerable expenses — several fund raising events are planned in the coming weeks.

* Donations may be sent to The Norton Family, PO Box 51062, New Bedford, MA 02745

* Also call Laura Brobkel at 508-525-9189 — she has been organizing efforts to help the family.

By Bruce Burdett

bburdett@eastbaynewspapers.com

Photos by Richard W. Dionne Jr.