“Well, here’s the tree to make a bunkum one, I tell you; shall I cut it for you?”
“Yes.”
At first, they could only work at low water, as the tide ebbed and flowed in their craft. Captain Rhines and Ben stowed the boards, while the others ran them in. They arranged them with great care, that the joints might not all come in one place; and frequently put in a stick of cedar to increase the buoyancy, as cedar, in addition to its lightness, soaks water very slowly.
The tide now began to make. As they did not wish their timber to float in the vessel, and get out of place, they put shores under the deck beams to keep it from rising, and piled rocks on it: in a short time it was all out of sight, under water. They employed the rest of the day in piling boards on the breastwork, that they might be near at hand.
The next day they were able to go to work much sooner, and, the timber being near, made much more rapid progress; the next day more still; and, as they rose above the tide, put in more cedar to increase the buoyancy. They now put in their cross-ties, and bolted them to the timbers, and when the tide made she floated, so that the boards were several feet above water and the top all dry.
The next morning Joe Griffin, after scratching his head a while, suddenly exclaimed, “Look here, neighbors: I don’t pretend to be any great of a sailor man, but I reckon I know how to handle timber, and put it where I want it—I do. I can plank this stage over, run it a little farther aft, and take the oxen and twitch more lumber into this vessel in an hour than you can put in in this way in half a day. They might split a board or two, but I don’t ’spose that would kill anybody.”
“Good on your head, Joe,” said Captain Rhines; “let’s see you do it.”
The bow of the craft, a few feet aft of the fore-mast, was close timbered, as in ordinary boats; but from that to the mainmast was a hole large enough to drive in three yoke of oxen abreast. They lengthened their breastwork a little, hauled the craft alongside of it, and made a stage of plank. The others laid the boards in twitches, and were all ready to hook the chain when Joe came for his boards; and he hauled them into the vessel at a great rate, and dropped them just where Captain Rhines and Ben wanted them.
“Every man to his business,” said Ben; “I never heard of that way of loading boards before.”
She was now half full. Captain Rhines then put into her a number of tight and strong empty hogs heads and barrels, and stowed the boards on top of them. The effect of this was very quickly visible; she began to act like a vessel,—to rise and fall with the swell of the sea, and to be quite lively.