, the deck had been swept of every movable thing,
including the big lateen yard, which had doubtless gone overboard when
the bulwarks were carried away. There seemed to be absolutely
_nothing_, unless I set to work to break up the felucca herself! Yet
stay, there was the mast, the yard that spread and supported the lug-
sail, the tiller--a good, stout, serviceable stick of timber--and--yes,
certainly, the hatches--which could now be safely taken off, as the sea
no longer swept over the deck heavily enough to pour over the coamings.
Surely with those materials I ought to be able to construct a raft
buoyant enough to support me, even although it would be obviously
necessary for me to construct it on the deck, and then patiently wait
until the felucca sank and floated it off--for it would be quite
impossible for me to launch it.

So to work I went, my first task being to descend into the flooded
forecastle and grope about for an axe that I knew was kept there
somewhere; and I was fortunate enough to find it almost at once. Then,
returning to the deck, I lowered away the lug-sail and cut the canvas
adrift from the yard, carefully lashing the latter, that it might not
roll or be washed overboard. Then I began to cut away the mast,
chopping a deep notch in it close to the deck, and when I heard it
beginning to complain, I cut the lanyards of the weather rigging, when
away it went over the side with a crash. This gave me a good deal of
trouble, for I wanted the spar on deck, not overboard; so I had to go to
work to parbuckle it up the side, which I managed pretty well by
watching the lift of the seas. Then I cut the mast in halves, laid the
two halves parallel athwart the deck, and secured the yard and the
tiller to them, as cross-pieces, with good stout lashings. And finally,
to these last I firmly lashed four of the main hatch covers, when I had
a platform of some twelve feet long and eight feet wide to support me.
All that now remained to be done was to secure my provisions and wine,
which I did by stowing the whole in a double thickness of tarpaulin, the
edges of which I gathered together and tightly lashed with spun-yarn,
finally securing the bundle to the raft by a short end of rope, so that
it might not be washed away when the felucca should take her final
plunge; and I had then done everything that it was possible for me to
do.

By the time that my task was finished the sun had sunk to within a
hand's breadth