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tubs. This being bent upward, like the keel of a vessel, made the whole contrivance more like a boat. We next nailed all the tubs to the plank, and afterwards put two other planks, of the same length as the first, on each side of the tubs. When all this was finished, we found we had produced a kind of narrow boat, divided into eight compartments. But then the difficulty was to move this great boat at all, for its weight was enormous. However, by putting rollers under it and using all our strength, we launched it into the sea. I had taken the precaution to attach a rope to it first, so it rode tethered ; but, alas ! in the first moment, we saw that it leaned far over to one side in a most alarming fashion. It soon occurred to me that this was only because it was so buoyant it danced up too far above the water, and after throwing some heavy things into the tubs, we saw it sink a little, and then float quite level.
However, all this had taken the whole day, and we had worked so hard that we had only eaten a bit of bread and taken a drink of milk occasionally, so now we sat down to a regular supper, and then went to bed, in high expectation of getting to the land next morning. |
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