of the pinnace was
laid. On examining his materials, Mark ascertained that the
boat-builders had marked and numbered each portion of the frame, each
plank, and everything else that belonged to the pinnace. Holes were
bored, and everything had been done in the boat-yard that could be
useful to those who, it was expected, were to put the work together in a
distant part of the world. This greatly facilitated our new
boat-builders' labours in the way of skill, besides having done so much
of the actual toil to their hands. As soon as the keel was laid, Mark
set up the frame, which came together with very little trouble. The
wailes were then got out, and were fitted, each piece being bolted in
its allotted place. As the work had already been put together, there was
little or no dubbing necessary. Aware that the parts had once been
accurately fitted to each other, Mark was careful not to disturb their
arrangement by an unnecessary use of the adze, or broad-axe,
experimenting and altering the positions of the timbers and planks; but,
whenever he met with any obstacle, in preference to cutting and changing
the materials themselves, he persevered until the parts came together as
had been contemplated. By observing this caution, the whole frame was
set up, the wailes were fitted and bolted, and the garboard-streak got
on and secured, without taking off a particle of the wood, though a week
was necessary to effect these desired objects.

Our mariners now measured their new frame. The keel was just
four-and-twenty feet long, the distance between the knight-heads and the
taffrail being six feet greater; the beam, from outside to outside, was
nine feet, and the hold might be computed at five feet in depth. This
gave something like a measurement of eleven tons; the pinnace having
been intended for a craft a trifle smaller than this. As a vessel of
eleven tons might make very good weather in a sea-way, if properly
handled, the result gave great satisfaction, Mark cheering Bob with
accounts of crafts, of much smaller dimensions, that had navigated the
more stormy seas, with entire safety, on various occasions.

The planking of the Neshamony was no great matter, being completed the
week it was commenced. The caulking, however, gave more trouble, though
Bob had done a good deal of that sort of work in his day. It took a
fortnight for the honest fellow to do the caulking to his own mind, and
before it was finished another great discovery