Now the squaring and shaping of these,
and the cutting of the grooves in the keel, was an easy enough matter,
as it was all work for the axe, in the use of which Jack was become
wonderfully expert; but it was quite a different affair when he came to
nailing the ribs to the keel, for we had no instrument capable of
boring a large hole, and no nails to fasten them with. We were, indeed,
much perplexed here; but Jack at length devised an instrument that
served very well. He took the remainder of our hoop-iron and beat it
into the form of a pipe or cylinder, about as thick as a man's finger.
This he did by means of our axe and the old rusty axe we had found at
the house of the poor man at the other side of the island. This, when
made red hot, bored slowly through the timbers; and, the better to
retain the heat, Jack shut up one end of it and filled it with sand.
True, the work was very slowly done, but it mattered not, we had little
else to do. Two holes were bored in each timber, about an inch and a
half apart, and also down into the keel, but not quite through. Into
these were placed stout pegs made of a tree called iron-wood; and, when
they were hammered well home, the timbers were as firmly fixed as if
they had been nailed with iron. The gunwales, which were very stout,
were fixed in a similar manner. But, besides the wooden nails, they
were firmly lashed to the stem and stern-posts and ribs by means of a
species of cordage which we had contrived to make out of the fibrous
husk of the cocoa-nut.
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