As for instance: The third day after General Mead’s arrival men were set at work in the shipyard on four huge scows, or box-like boats with flush decks, and my comrade and I puzzled our brains in vain to come at some reasonable conclusion regarding their purpose. It was evident they could never be intended for sailing crafts and equally certain that they were not being built for cargo-carrying, because there were no spars, and the upper portion was made without a hatchway, unless small square holes cut fore and aft might be called by such a name.
“They are boxes, rather than vessels,” Alec said, after we had speculated long and vainly regarding their purpose, and then he added, as if the thought had but just come to him, “Let us learn if old Silas knows anything about them.”
The gunner was not far off. He had just come ashore from the Lawrence, where he had been looking after some of the pieces which were not mounted according to his notions, and we summoned him without delay.
“Don’t know the meanin’ of ’em, eh?” he asked, with a laugh, after a brief survey of the odd-looking craft. “Well, lads, I’m allowin’ that you’ll be pleased because they’ve been begun.”
“I can’t understand why anything of that sort would give us pleasure,” I said stupidly; but Alec, quicker witted, cried excitedly:—
“Do you mean that they have anything to do with our fleet leaving the bay?”
“Ay, lad, that’s just the size of it, or I’m way off my reckonin’. I’ve seen such things before. They’re called ‘camels,’ an’ I’ve heard say it was the Dutch who invented them in order to carry vessels over shallow places.”
Even now I failed to understand their purpose, and, seeing the questions in my eyes, the old man continued:
“Either of our brigs draws too much water to be taken out over the bar while the lake is as low as it is now—that much you’ll allow. Later on, when these ere craft are built, an’ Captain Perry is ready to put to sea, the brigs will be taken out as far as they’ll float, an’ these camels made fast alongside, fore an’ aft. The water will be let into ’em through the port-holes in the sides an’ deck, till they’re sunk, after which beams will be passed from one to the other under the ship’s keel. Then the hatches are put on again, an’ battened down till the hulks are water-tight, after which the pumps are set to work. Now you lads know full well that once air takes the place of water, these scows will have considerable liftin’ power, an’ up goes the brig as a matter of course.”
The old man paused as if thinking he had told all that was necessary; but I was so thick-headed that he was forced to explain every detail of the proposed crossing, although Alec probably did not need so much information because of understanding it thoroughly from the first description.