The Young Ship-Builders of Elm Island

  CHAPTER VIII.

  NO GIVE UP TO CHARLIE.

  CHARLIE lost but very little time, after his arrival at the island,before he began to set out his trees, and, having completed this work,was ready to graft them. He wisely determined not to graft them all,fearing, as he was new in the business, they might not take.

  Going to the brook, he procured some blue clay, made it soft withwater, mixed the hair and manure of cattle with it, and after puttingin his scions, covered the cleft with the composition (the use of waxwas not known then); but the clay, after all, is better, though ittakes three times as long to put it on, and is less agreeable to handle.

  He then covered the clay with tow, and almost every day went to lookat them, to see if they were going to take, and then grafted a largenumber of thorn bushes and wild cherry trees.

  The crops were now in the ground, Fred set up in business again, andthe baby in his new cradle. The swallows had completed their nests,and were twittering from the eaves of the barn. A pair of robins hadestablished themselves at the fall of the brook, in the birch thatflung its shadow over Sally’s tubs, and the spout which Charlie hadmade to carry the water into them; adjoining to which was a littlegreen plat bordering the brook, and fringed with wild flowers that hadcome to Elm Island with the birds; here was where Sally washed andbleached her linen, singing meanwhile, as though washing was the mostdelightful occupation in the world.

  Robins are a right sociable bird, and they didn’t seem to be the leastmite disturbed by Sally’s operations, but, whenever she sang, repliedto her with all their heart. Whenever she left the tub to sprinklewater on the linen spread out to whiten, they would light on the edgeof it and sing. More tardy in their arrival than the others, but notless welcome, were four bobolinks. Many times in a day, Charlie wouldcome racing down to the brook, and say,--

  “Mother, do listen to that fellow, singing on the top of thatfire-weed; don’t he go it as if it did him good? Come, mother, let’syou and I sing;” and they would strike up, “Johnny has gone to theFair.”

  When all these excitements were over, those natural impulses which cannever be suppressed for any great length of time began to assert theirclaims, and Charlie’s thoughts to run in their wonted channel; hisfingers itched to be once more handling tools. He began to talk withhis father, while they were hoeing together, in respect to the bestkinds of wood for boat-building, who told him that ships’ boats weregenerally built of oak, both plank and timbers, because they had toundergo a great deal of hard usage, and were often beached with heavyloads in them; but that he had seen a great many boats made of pine andspruce; that they were more buoyant, would carry more, were lighter tohandle, and if kept afloat, and off the rocks, were just as good. Wewould observe here, that the covering of a boat is called plank, thoughit has only the thickness of a board.

  Ben also told him that cedar was an excellent material to build boatsof; that in Bermuda he had seen vessels of thirty tons built entirelyof cedar; that it was strong enough, very durable, and would not soakwater; that a boat built altogether of cedar would live forever in asea, they were so buoyant, just like an egg-shell, top of everything;you couldn’t get any water into them; and that was the wood whale boatswere built of.

  The moment Charlie began to talk with his father on this subject, thesmouldering fire began to burn. He remembered how gloriously the WestWind was streaking it just as she split in two; again he heard themusic of the water at her bows, and felt it rushing along under hercounter, and thought how gracefully she rose on a sea, as he put hishelm down to shake out a flaw.

  Long before night he had decided to build a boat that could not splitin two, and also the material he would use. There were some largestraight-grained sticks of cedar on the beach, which had been cut toput into the Ark, that would make excellent plank. As soon as he leftoff work at night, he hurried through his chores, then took his axe andwent into the woods.

  During his visits to Boston and Portland, he had spent most of hisleisure time in the ship-yards and boat-builders’ shops. During hislast visit he had seen three boats in different stages of progress. Oneof them had the stem and stern-post fastened to the keel, and a coupleof floor timbers put on; another was completely timbered, and onestreak of plank, the one next to the top, put on. He asked the builderwhy that one alone was put on. He said that was the binding streak,which kept the boat in shape, and confined all the timbers, and thatnow the boat might be laid by, and finished at any time, as she wouldnot get out of shape; that the top streak was left off in order thatthe sheer (crook) of the boat might be taken out of that.

  Although he did not even then think seriously of trying to build aboat, or do anything more than fasten the West Wind together and secureher with knees, yet his mechanical turn led him to measure the depth,length, and breadth of beam of this boat, the distance apart of thetimbers, and the size of them, and to notice the manner in which theysteamed the plank to bend them. He also perceived that the transom ofa boat (square end of the stern), instead of being made of timber, andcovered like that of a vessel, was made either of one or two pieces ofplank, and fastened to the stern-post.

  Thus he knew what material he wanted. Finding an oak, the body of whichwould afford material for stern, keel, transom, and thwarts, and thelimbs make knees and breast-hooks, he cut it down, and hauled it to thebeach, intending to lash the cedar to it, and towing them both to themill, have them sawed to answer his purpose.

  “I wouldn’t go to all that trouble,” said Ben. “The first rainy daythat comes, we will take them into the barn, and saw them with thewhip-saw.” (During the winter Charlie had learned to saw with it.)He decided to build her in the barn, where were a large workshop andbench, and he could work there rainy days.

  He built an arch, with stones and clay mortar, near the barn, set thesmall sap kettle in it, and made a steam box to steam his planks, inorder to bend them. His next operation was to haul the two halves ofthe West Wind to the barn, and fasten them together. With pieces ofthin board he took the exact shape of her side in different places--inthe middle, a little forward of that, then nearly to the stem forward,and nearly to the stern aft. These moulds reversed would answer equallywell for the other side.

  The first rainy day, Ben helped him saw out his oak and cedar; he stuckthe cedar up to season. The next two days being too wet to hoe, he madethe keel, stem, and stern-post by that of the old boat, and put in thedeadwood.

  The extreme ends of a boat or vessel, being too thin to admit oftimbering, are filled up by putting in knees and timber, which affordsupport to both the stem and stern-post, and a place to fasten theupright timbers that form the extremity of the bow and stern. This isfirmly bolted to the keel, and called the deadwood.

  Taking the shape of the stern, he by this cut out his transom froma whole piece of plank, and secured it to the stern-post. There isquite a difference between the timbering of a vessel and a boat. Thetimbers, which form what is called a frame in ship-building, reachingfrom the keel to the top, are numerous, and are named floor timbers,futtocks, top timbers, and naval timbers, or ground futtocks. The floortimbers are placed at right angles with the keel, forming the flatbottom or floor of a vessel, which gives her buoyancy and stability tocarry sail, and the other timbers are fastened to these, the futtocksfirst, forming the curvature of the side, and the top timbers last.But a boat has only two timbers in a frame. The boat-builder puts hisfloor timbers on the keel, and fastens them there, then makes all therest of the frame in one piece, which he calls a naval timber, whichlaps by the floor timber to the keel, is fastened to it, and forms theside. Builders now make their timbers out of plank, which they steamand bend to suit them. They pursued this course in England, and someother parts of Europe, even at that period; but in this country theyused the natural crooks, branches, and roots of trees, and even to thisday, in Maine, boats are built in this way, though not by professionalbuilders. They use natural crooks for breast hooks, knees, and floortimbers, and sometimes for sharp risers, and the V
-shaped timbersthat form the ends, but bend all the rest. Some of them bend kneesand breast hooks by slitting the timber to let one part crowd by theother; thus they can make the angle to suit them. And latterly, at EastBoston, a ship has been built in which all those great timbers thatmake the frame and knees of a vessel were steamed and bent.

  You must remember, young readers, that Charlie was compelled to digeverything out as he went along. He was very differently situated froman apprentice, who has the instructions of his master, and learns allthe rules of his art step by step. He was alone on Elm Island, thrownentirely on his own resources, and with only such information as he hadderived from transient visits to a boat-builder’s shop.

  He now wanted a mould for his floor timbers. As he had taken the wholemeasure of the side to the keel, this gave him the rise (crook) of thefloor timbers, but he was at loss how long to make them. However, hehad now become so full of boat that nothing would stop him.

  The Perseverance lay at anchor in the harbor, having come in for bait.He cut out the ceiling in two places to look at her floor timbers, andmade his, as he thought, of a proportionate length.

  He now drew two lines on the barn floor as long as the keel, and as farapart as it was thick; then, placing his naval timber moulds againstthis line, he marked out the shape and length of the floor timbers, andmade moulds for them, cut the rabbet on the keel, and at the stem andstern, to receive the plank. He then took his moulds, and, going to thewoods, cut limbs and dug out roots to correspond to the shape of them,and with broadaxe, saw, and draw-shave, brought them to the right shapeand dimensions, which was ten times the work it would have been to getthem out of plank sawed at the mill to the right thickness, and bendthem.

  Fastening his timbers to the keel, and measuring the width of the WestWind, he brought them by cross-pawls to the same width. He next tooksome long, narrow strips of boards, called ribbands, and fasteningone of them to the stem, he brought it along the heads of the floortimbers, and nailed it to the stern-post and floor timbers. He putanother along the tops of the naval timbers, and one between; then mademoulds for all the other timbers by shoving them out against theseribbands, and shaping them by his eye. After the timbers were all in,he carefully adjusted the tops by crossbands and shores on the outside,till a plumb-line, dropped from the centre of one stretched from stemto stern, struck the centre of the keel; then, by measuring from eachside to this line, he knew she was just as full on one side as theother. He also ascertained that he could get the bevel of the timber bythe ribbands by taking off the wood wherever they bore on the edges ofthe timbers.

  As the boat sharpens, the timbers straighten, and take the form of theletter V. As they no longer require bending, the boat-builders saw themfrom straight plank, and crow-foot (notch) them to the keel, and atthe stem and stern-post, and scarf them to the deadwood; but Charlieprocured crotches, as there were plenty of them in the woods, where thebranches of trees forked, presenting the most acute angles.

  Working a narrow plank all around the inside for the thwarts to reston, called a “rising,” he put them in, planing and putting a beadon the edges, and rubbing them smooth with dog-fish skin, Charlie’ssubstitute for sand-paper, although he could not knee them till theboat was farther advanced. He now found that she was not widestamidships, but that her greatest breadth was forward of the middletimber. Thus, in taking a fish for his guide he had obtained what isnow ascertained to be the best proportion for speed.

  He felt pretty nice when he had accomplished all, as he had done it byrising as soon as it was light, working at night as long as he couldsee, and on rainy days. He thought he had done the thing, and won thevictory.

  Looking all around to see if anybody saw him, he began to dance aroundthe boat, and sing, “I’ve done it! I’ve done it! I’ve got somethingthat won’t split in two now! What will Fred, John, and Uncle Isaac sayto this? Won’t I be proud showing her to Uncle Isaac and Joe Griffin!I must finish her up nice, for their eyes are sharper than needles.There’s Sam Chase, who laughed when the West Wind split in two, andsaid he was glad of it--mean, spiteful creature! I guess he’ll laught’other side of his mouth this time. Now, I should like to wrestlewith somebody, or do something or other. Guess I’ll go look at theapple trees, and see if the scions have taken. There’s the horn forsupper. Well, I’ll go after supper. It was well for me it rained thisforenoon, or I should not have accomplished all this.”

  After supper, as Charlie sat playing with the baby, and tellinghis father of his success with the boat, in came Ben, Jr., in highfeathers, with both hands full of scions, and covered with tow, andflung them into his mother’s lap, laughing and crowing as though he haddone some great and good thing.

  “O, you little torment!” cried Charlie; “if you haven’t pulled out allthe scions Mr. Welch gave me!”

  It was even so. Ben, attracted by the bunches of clay covered with tow,and the scions sticking up through them, had made a clean sweep, andpulled out or broken off every one.

  “Only see, mother!” said Charlie; “they’ve nearly all started! There’sone got two leaves, and there’s two more with the buds opening!”

  “I’ve a good mind,” said his mother,” to give him a good whipping.”

  Ben, who loved Charlie with all his heart, seeing he was angry withhim, began to cry as if his heart would break.

  “Don’t cry,” said Charlie, mollified in an instant. “I wouldn’t whiphim, mother. He didn’t know any better. I’m glad I didn’t graft all ofthem.”

  To change his thoughts, he took his gun and Sailor, and, getting intothe Twilight, pulled over to Griffin’s Island.