It was no easy task to make a wooden shelter, with no nails with which to fasten it. But they made pegs of wood, chopped out with the axe and whittled with the sailors’ knives and these served to hold the planks together and to the deck of the derelict.
An inverted “V” shaped structure was made, with one end closed by boards, and the other by a square bit of canvas. This had been built over the place where the stores had been lashed fast, and made a sort of deck house.
“Now then,” said Tom, “we don’t need the canvas awning, and so we might as well take it down. It will do for beds.”
“Beds!” cried Joe. “Something better than that.”
“What?” asked Tom.
“For a sail! Look, we aren’t moving anything to speak of now, only as the currents make us drift. Why not make some sort of a sail, and take advantage of the wind?”
“Of course!” agreed Tom, wondering why he had not thought of that before.
“And we’ll need a rudder to steer with,” added Abe.
“Certainly,” assented his mate. “We can rig up one out of some of the planks.”