The hull of the boat can be made from 1/8-inch mahogany. If this is not available, choose some other close-grained wood, free from knots and blemishes. Paper patterns are made to correspond with the general shape of the pieces that form the hull as given in [Fig. 89]. The pieces, after being marked, are cut to shape with a keyhole-saw. After this is done their edges should be trimmed neatly with a jack-plane.
The two sides pieces are now screwed to the bow piece by small brass screws. After this is done the bottom piece is fastened to the side pieces the entire length of the boat. Next the first cross-piece, as shown in [Fig. 90] , is screwed in place. This cross-piece should be 43/4 inches in length, so that the width of the hull at this point is just 5 inches. The next cross-piece should correspond to the width of the deck piece at the section of the hull where it is placed. The same holds true for the third cross-piece. When the third cross-piece has been screwed in place, the stern piece is put in position.
The joints of the hull should then be smeared with either pitch or bath-tub enamel or a thick mixture of white lead may be used.
After having made sure that the hull is perfectly water-tight the worker can proceed to install the power equipment. This consists of a small battery motor driven with two dry cells. The design and installation of such things as stern-tubes and propeller-shafts have been taken up in detail in an earlier part of this book. The strut that holds the propeller-shaft is shown in [Fig. 91] . This consists merely of a brass bushing held in a bracket made of a strip of brass 1/2 inch wide. The brass strip is wound around the bushing and soldered. It is held to the bottom of the hull by means of two 8-32 brass machine screws. These screws should be tightened to prevent leakage. It would be inadvisable to use wood-screws for this purpose, owing to the fact that the bottom piece of the boat is thin.
The two dry batteries for the motor are held in two tin troughs, as illustrated in [Fig. 92] . These troughs are fastened to the side of the boat by means of small bolts. They will prevent the boat from shifting its cargo; in other words, they hold the batteries in place and thereby prevent the boat from listing.
The deck and deck fittings should now be furnished. The construction of the forward cabin is shown in [Fig. 93]. The sides and back are formed with cigar-box wood, while the curved front can best be made with a piece of tin. The top is also cut to shape from cigar-box wood, and should overlap about 1/4 inch. The pilot-house is simplicity itself, being made of a piece of curved tin with three windows cut in it. Four little lugs cut in the tin are bent on the inside and each provided with a hole. These lugs are used to tack the pilot-house to the deck. A small skylight is produced from a solid piece of wood and tacked in place as illustrated in the drawing.