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 with
water, mixed the hair and manure of cattle with it, and after putting
in his scions, covered the cleft with the composition (the use of wax
was not known then); but the clay, after all, is better, though it
takes 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 look
at them, to see if they were going to take, and then grafted a large
number of thorn bushes and wild cherry trees.
The crops were now in the ground, Fred set up in business again, and
the baby in his new cradle. The swallows had completed their nests,
and were twittering from the eaves of the barn. A pair of robins had
established themselves at the fall of the brook, in the birch that
flung its shadow over Sally’s tubs, and the spout which Charlie had
made to carry the water into them; adjoining to which was a little
green plat bordering the brook, and fringed with wild flowers that had
come to Elm Island with the birds; here was where Sally washed and
bleached her linen, singing meanwhile, as though washing was the most
delightful occupation in the world.
Robins are a right sociable bird, and they didn’t seem to be the least
mite disturbed by Sally’s operations, but, whenever she sang, replied
to her with all their heart. Whenever she left the tub to sprinkle
water on the linen spread out to whiten, they would light on the edge
of it and sing. More tardy in their arrival than the others, but not
less welcome, were four bobolinks. Many times in a day, Charlie would
come racing down to the brook, and say,--
“Mother, do listen to that fellow, singing on the top of that
fire-weed; don’t he go it as if it did him good? Come, mother, let’s
you and I sing;” and they would strike up, “Johnny has gone to the
Fair.”
When all these excitements were over, those natural impulses which can
never be suppressed for any great length of time began to assert their
claims, and Charlie’s thoughts to run in their wonted channel; his
fingers itched to be once more handling tools. He began to talk with
his father, while they were hoeing together, in respect to the best
kinds of wood for boat-building, who told him that ships’ boats were
generally built of oak, both plank and timbers, because they had to
undergo a great deal of hard usage, and were often beached with heavy
loads in them; but that he had seen a great many boats made of pine and
spruce; that they were more buoyant, would carry more, were lighter to
handle, and if kept afloat, and off the rocks, were just as good. We
would observe here, that the covering of a boat is called plank, though
it has only the thickness of a board.
Ben also told him that cedar was an excellent material to build boats
of; that in Bermuda he had seen vessels of thirty tons built entirely
of cedar; that it was strong enough, very durable, and would not soak
water; that a boat built altogether of cedar would live forever in a
sea, 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 boats
were built of.
The moment Charlie began to talk with his father on this subject, the
smouldering fire began to burn. He remembered how gloriously the West
Wind was streaking it just as she split in two; again he heard the
music of the water at her bows, and felt it rushing along under her
counter, and thought how gracefully she rose on a sea, as he put his
helm down to shake out a flaw.
Long before night he had decided to build a boat that could not split
in two, and also the material he would use. There were some large
straight-grained sticks of cedar on the beach, which had been cut to
put into the Ark, that would make excellent plank. As soon as he left
off work at night, he hurried through his chores, then took his axe and
went into the woods.
During his visits to Boston and Portland, he had spent most of his
leisure time in the ship-yards and boat-builders’ shops. During his
last visit he had seen three boats in different stages of progress. One
of them had the stem and stern-post fastened to the keel, and a couple
of floor timbers put on; another was completely timbered, and one
streak of plank, the one next to the top, put on. He asked the builder
why 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 that
now the boat might be laid by, and finished at any time, as she would
not get out of shape; that the top streak was left off in order that
the sheer (crook) of the boat might be taken out of that.
Although he did not even then think seriously of trying to build a
boat, or do anything more than fasten the West Wind together and secure
her with knees, yet his mechanical turn led him to measure the depth,
length, and breadth of beam of this boat, the distance apart of the
timbers, and the size of them, and to notice the manner in which they
steamed the plank to bend them. He also perceived that the transom of
a boat (square end of the stern), instead of being made of timber, and
covered like that of a vessel, was made either of one or two pieces of
plank, and fastened to the stern-post.
Thus he knew what material he wanted. Finding an oak, the body of which
would afford material for stern, keel, transom, and thwarts, and the
limbs make knees and breast-hooks, he cut it down, and hauled it to the
beach, intending to lash the cedar to it, and towing them both to the
mill, have them sawed to answer his purpose.
“I wouldn’t go to all that trouble,” said Ben. “The first rainy day
that comes, we will take them into the barn, and saw them with the
whip-saw.” (During the winter Charlie had learned to saw with it.)
He decided to build her in the barn, where were a large workshop and
bench, and he could work there rainy days.
He built an arch, with stones and clay mortar, near the barn, set the
small sap kettle in it, and made a steam box to steam his planks, in
order to bend them. His next operation was to haul the two halves of
the West Wind to the barn, and fasten them together. With pieces of
thin board he took the exact shape of her side in different places--in
the middle, a little forward of that, then nearly to the stem forward,
and nearly to the stern aft. These moulds reversed would answer equally
well for the other side.
The first rainy day, Ben helped him saw out his oak and cedar; he stuck
the cedar up to season. The next two days being too wet to hoe, he made
the keel, stem, and stern-post by that of the old boat, and put in the
deadwood.
The extreme ends of a boat or vessel, being too thin to admit of
timbering, are filled up by putting in knees and timber, which afford
support to both the stem and stern-post, and a place to fasten the
upright timbers that form the extremity of the bow and stern. This is
firmly bolted to the keel, and called the deadwood.
Taking the shape of the stern, he by this cut out his transom from
a whole piece of plank, and secured it to the stern-post. There is
quite a difference between the timbering of a vessel and a boat. The
timbers, which form what is called a frame in ship-building, reaching
from the keel to the top, are numerous, and are named floor timbers,
futtocks, top timbers, and naval timbers, or ground futtocks. The floor
timbers are placed at right angles with the keel, forming the flat
bottom or floor of a vessel, which gives her buoyancy and stability to
carry sail, and the other timbers are fastened to these, the futtocks
first, 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 his
floor timbers on the keel, and fastens them there, then makes all the
rest of the frame in one piece, which he calls a naval timber, which
laps by the floor timber to the keel, is fastened to it, and forms the
side. Builders now make their timbers out of plank, which they steam
and bend to suit them. They pursued this course in England, and some
other parts of Europe, even at that period; but in this country they
used the natural crooks, branches, and roots of trees, and even to this
day, in Maine, boats are built in this way, though not by professional
builders. They use natural crooks for breast hooks, knees, and floor
timbers, and sometimes for sharp risers, and the V-shaped timbers
that form the ends, but bend all the rest. Some of them bend knees
and breast hooks by slitting the timber to let one part crowd by the
other; thus they can make the angle to suit them. And latterly, at East
Boston, a ship has been built in which all those great timbers that
make the frame and knees of a vessel were steamed and bent.
You must remember, young readers, that Charlie was compelled to dig
everything out as he went along. He was very differently situated from
an apprentice, who has the instructions of his master, and learns all
the rules of his art step by step. He was alone on Elm Island, thrown
entirely on his own resources, and with only such information as he had
derived from transient visits to a boat-builder’s shop.
He now wanted a mould for his floor timbers. As he had taken the whole
measure of the side to the keel, this gave him the rise (crook) of the
floor timbers, but he was at loss how long to make them. However, he
had 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, and
made his, as he thought, of a proportionate length.
He now drew two lines on the barn floor as long as the keel, and as far
apart as it was thick; then, placing his naval timber moulds against
this line, he marked out the shape and length of the floor timbers, and
made moulds for them, cut the rabbet on the keel, and at the stem and
stern, to receive the plank. He then took his moulds, and, going to the
woods, 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 shape
and dimensions, which was ten times the work it would have been to get
them out of plank sawed at the mill to the right thickness, and bend
them.
Fastening his timbers to the keel, and measuring the width of the West
Wind, he brought them by cross-pawls to the same width. He next took
some long, narrow strips of boards, called ribbands, and fastening
one of them to the stem, he brought it along the heads of the floor
timbers, and nailed it to the stern-post and floor timbers. He put
another along the tops of the naval timbers, and one between; then made
moulds for all the other timbers by shoving them out against these
ribbands, 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 stem
to stern, struck the centre of the keel; then, by measuring from each
side to this line, he knew she was just as full on one side as the
other. He also ascertained that he could get the bevel of the timber by
the ribbands by taking off the wood wherever they bore on the edges of
the timbers.
As the boat sharpens, the timbers straighten, and take the form of the
letter V. As they no longer require bending, the boat-builders saw them
from straight plank, and crow-foot (notch) them to the keel, and at
the stem and stern-post, and scarf them to the deadwood; but Charlie
procured crotches, as there were plenty of them in the woods, where the
branches of trees forked, presenting the most acute angles.
Working a narrow plank all around the inside for the thwarts to rest
on, called a “rising,” he put them in, planing and putting a bead
on the edges, and rubbing them smooth with dog-fish skin, Charlie’s
substitute for sand-paper, although he could not knee them till the
boat was farther advanced. He now found that she was not widest
amidships, but that her greatest breadth was forward of the middle
timber. Thus, in taking a fish for his guide he had obtained what is
now ascertained to be the best proportion for speed.
He felt pretty nice when he had accomplished all, as he had done it by
rising as soon as it was light, working at night as long as he could
see, and on rainy days. He thought he had done the thing, and won the
victory.
Looking all around to see if anybody saw him, he began to dance around
the boat, and sing, “I’ve done it! I’ve done it! I’ve got something
that won’t split in two now! What will Fred, John, and Uncle Isaac say
to 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, and
said he was glad of it--mean, spiteful creature! I guess he’ll laugh
t’other side of his mouth this time. Now, I should like to wrestle
with somebody, or do something or other. Guess I’ll go look at the
apple trees, and see if the scions have taken. There’s the horn for
supper. Well, I’ll go after supper. It was well for me it rained this
forenoon, or I should not have accomplished all this.”
After supper, as Charlie sat playing with the baby, and telling
his father of his success with the boat, in came Ben, Jr., in high
feathers, with both hands full of scions, and covered with tow, and
flung them into his mother’s lap, laughing and crowing as though he had
done some great and good thing.
“O, you little torment!” cried Charlie; “if you haven’t pulled out all
the 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, and
pulled out or broken off every one.
“Only see, mother!” said Charlie; “they’ve nearly all started! There’s
one 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 with
him, began to cry as if his heart would break.
“Don’t cry,” said Charlie, mollified in an instant. “I wouldn’t whip
him, mother. He didn’t know any better. I’m glad I didn’t graft all of
them.”
To change his thoughts, he took his gun and Sailor, and, getting into
the Twilight, pulled over to Griffin’s Island.