My family with sympathetic strength pulling hard
in the same direction.
Seaworthiness was to be the first and most prominent feature in our
microscopic ship; next to this good quality she should sail well; at
least before free winds. We counted on favourable winds; and so they
were experienced the greater part of the voyage that soon followed.
Long exposures and many and severe disappointments by this time, I
found, had told on health and nerve, through long quarantines, expensive
fumigations, and ruinous doctors' visits, which had swept my dollars
into hands other than mine. However, with still a "shot in the locker,"
and with some feelings of our own in the matter of how we should get
home, I say, we set to work with tools saved from the wreck--a meagre
kit--and soon found ourselves in command of another ship, which I will
describe the building of, also the dimensions and the model and rig,
first naming the tools with which it was made.
To begin with, we had an axe, an adze, and two saws, one 1/2inch auger,
one 6/8 and one 3/8 auger-bit; two large sail-needles, which we
converted into nailing bits; one roper, that answered for a punch; and,
most precious of all, a file that we found in an old sail-bag washed up
on the beach.
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