| 5000 | copper boat nails, 1¼in., with rooves. |
| 28 | lb. iron nails, assorted, from 1½in. to 3in. |
| 2000 | iron screws, from smallest size to 3in. |
| 90 | ½in. screw-bolts and nuts, 6in. grip. |
| 200 | ¼in. screw-bolts and nuts, 3in. grip. |
| 6 | rods of 1/4in. iron, to cut into lengths for bolts, as required. |
| Paint, oils, &c., as before. | |
If the traveller can afford to carry two or four good 12ft. ash oars and one of 14ft., by all means let him do so. Nothing is equal to them for pulling or steering, but let him carefully preserve his treasures, and not put them to any use that will twist or warp. If he engages natives as a permanent crew, they may be taught to pull very well; but if he hires temporary helps, let them bring their own paddles, and they will make the boat go well enough.
For the connecting beams, the masts, yards, &c., we should prefer bamboo, as being exceedingly strong in proportion to its weight. In the Indian islands we have seen oars made of bamboo poles, with a disk of wood about as large as a dinner plate lashed on the outer end, and the men pulled very well with them. If bamboo cannot be obtained, poles may generally be cut in the vicinity of a river; but the traveller in Africa or Australia must not expect to find any wood that will possess all the valuable qualities of good red deal, therefore we would say take as much of this as you can carry, without inconveniently incumbering your vehicles. The battens we were able to take to the Zambesi astonished the natives there, they had never seen wood so light, so strong, and so even of grain throughout its length; while the fresh smell it gave out when cut was their constant theme of wonder.
In 1864 Mr. Charles Bell, the Surveyor-General at Cape Town, who has built and used double boats since 1850, favoured us with the subjoined description of his method of construction:—
“My boats are only 12ft. long by 9in. wide, and 9in. deep, and 12ft. by 14in. I have never made them more than 15ft. long, with a bearing power of about 800lb. I have now built or directed the building of about five good boats on the principle, easy and swift under oars or before the wind under sail, and not very faulty even on a wind without any false keel, but you can never sail quite close without one. Mine were built to go through heavy surf all fore and aft, so that the wave could strike nothing except sharp edges, and in surf they are first-rate.
“Iron is objectionable both on account of weight for carriage, and liability to oxidisation in heat and moisture; nothing like canvas. A bolt of No. 3, 2lb. of tin tacks, and a few needles and hanks of twine, would be all I would bother myself to carry a mile. My first boat had not an ounce of metal in her barring rowlocks and rowlock sockets, and she cost me 17s. 6d. and some old plank, and carried me safely through wall-sided breakers that would have troubled a whale-boat’s crew. Say you want a pair of 30ft. boats of 3ft. beam and depth, tolerably safe even against snags and rocks. For each take a 30ft. batten, 3in. by 2½in. for keel; strut and erect on it knees’ planks and stem pieces as in Figs. 5 and 6, and section in Fig. 2 ([p. 116]).
“Trust greatly to lashing the frame; let the knees diminish in beam from the centre to each end as in Fig. 1 (p. 116): draw in your side pieces and planks, or rather press them down to your vertical side laid on a flat surface, and you will have lines that will astonish you. Of course you can raise stem and stern for the look of the thing, as I have done, but it gives more trouble than it is worth. If you want to make a safe lifeboat, tack tight over each knee-frame a piece of canvas (Fig. 3, [p. 116]), leaving an edge loose and broad enough to be sewn on to the outer canvas, loosely (so as not to interfere with the lines it will naturally take), and be tacked to boards and battens where they come in contact with it. I should have first said cover bottom and sides with tightly-stretched canvas, in which operation a cobbler’s pinchers are most useful, but any others will do, then grease outside and in. If you prefer tar and have it, well and good; then cover the deck in the same manner, stitching knee-piece canvases as you go. You will thus, if the workmanship be perfect, have in each half boat ten watertight compartments, which it will be no easy matter to damage; snags will be your worst enemies, and they cannot damage more than one at a time under ordinary circumstances, whereupon the first landing and a crooked needle with patch of canvas, twine, and grease, will make all right. In the deck of each such compartment you should pierce a marlinspike hole, button-hole the edges, and fit a plug, and as a large boat cannot be so easily turned upside down as ours, you may have a pipe, and any simple means of sucking out such bilge water as may get in. Next as to connection of the boats. If you wish it sliding, so as to increase or diminish the width between them when necessary, make it on the lattice girder or rafter principle, and avoid weight, as in Fig. 7; each not more than 6ft. from the centre. Stay and strut them to points near the stem and stern, and they will be quite strong and firm enough to support the mast and the awnings, with the other fittings. The knee-pieces may be left projecting when required to meet the sliding rafter; 1ft. between the boats will be quite enough, so 10ft. of rafter will be quite enough. The sail may be a long low lug, split if you like, to let it pass the mast when on a wind (Fig. 4). An oar will steer, and easily control the extra face of sail on one side when before the wind with the yard squared. But on a wind you must have a keel, one that will slide over sunken rocks, and not be damaged even when it takes them side on. It may fix with free play in the front beam, and lay loose in cleats on the after one with a projecting arm to be held upright by rope, as in Fig. 8.
“Of course there must be an opening between the deck planks, to allow of its rise. Such a boat will carry at least a ton and a half of cargo, if made sufficiently flat in the bottom, and it will require a very stiff breeze and large sail even then to submerge the lee boat. There is this advantage, too, that it cannot be done so quickly as to prevent the remedy by luffing up or otherwise with ordinary vigilance. Your goods and tarpaulins will be quite safe 6in. above the gunwale.