There was one essential thing in Charlie’s favor. Timber was then worth very little, and it didn’t matter much how many patterns he spoiled. It was only the loss of labor in sawing the oak.
He now went resolutely to work.
“It must be done, and I can and will do it,” was Charlie’s motto.
After a great many trials, which produced no satisfactory results, he at length hit upon a plan. Noticing that his plank ran up when he brought it to, he took a board wide enough when brought to the timbers to cover the mark for the lower edge of the streak, notwithstanding its running up. He made his marks on the sides of the timbers where he could see them from the inside, and then getting into the boat, marked the distance on both edges at every timber, then struck a line from mark to mark, leaving some wood “to come and go upon,” as the carpenter’s phrase is. In this way, by great care, cutting and paring, he brought his pattern to an exact fit, and got out his streaks by it, the same pattern answering for both streaks, both sides being alike.
It was an everlasting sight of work, but Charlie possessed that indispensable attribute to success, patient perseverance. Ships and boats, in their present state of perfection, are the results of the efforts of hand and brain for ages, each century adding its mite.
In boat-building, as in all mechanical employments, there are certain rules which are taught by masters to their apprentices, having themselves received them from others, by which hundreds of men work, who could never have discovered them themselves. It was no marvel, then, that this boy, though a natural mechanic, did not know how to work plank, since, without instruction, he must begin at the bottom and work it out himself. He put on his top streak the same way as the others.
The two planks of a boat next the keel are called the garboards, and are the most difficult to put on, as the workman there has to contend with the peculiar twist which the planks of a boat receive at the stem and stern, and also to fit the plank to the circular rabbet at the ends. However, he was equal to the task. Taking a very wide, thin oak board, he steamed it a long time, till it was as limber as a rag; then he put the lower edge against the keel, and setting shores against it, jammed it into the timber the whole length. He then removed one of the end shores, so that he could take the plank off a little to see where to mark, and began to scratch and cut.
When he had fitted the wood ends and the lower edge, he got inside, and scribed along the timbers for the width of the plank. It was slow work, but encouraged by feeling that ultimate success was only a question of time, he persevered till his pattern fitted to a shaving. By this he got out his two streaks, and put them on, only nailing sufficiently to keep them in shape, as he thought he might possibly wish to make some alteration in the width. When he had driven in the last nail, he flung his hammer the whole length of the barn floor, and stretched himself on the hay, completely tired.
“I don’t see what makes me feel so tired! I feel as tired as though I had been lifting rocks all day, and yet I’ve only been tinkering about this boat.”
Charlie had in reality been sweating his brain, and experienced the fatigue which results from mental labor. Indeed, he was so wearied that Sally, after blowing the horn in vain for him to come to supper, went to look for him, and found him sound asleep on the hay. He now resolved to do no more on his boat till haying was over.