User blog comment:D2r/Unanswered Questions of Redwall/@comment-1342941-20100128011438

The drydock would be something similar to what Luke's tribe used to repair the Sayna in The legend of Luke. Slabs of flat rock that could be wetted down to slide the ship in when it was built. It would be safe to assume that some searats might know skills of forging metal and it's stated in High Rhulain and other books that forges exist in other places other than Salamandastron. This can lead you to assume that there might be forges owned by searats in the same places that people assume the vermin pools are from. The question of where they get the metal is answered in Redwall. In Cluny's list of credentials BJ says he brought down a mine on the badgers that worked it for them not paying him and if there was one mine there would probably be more scattered about the Redwall world.