Part 12 (1/2)
We found our cart wheels were not high enough to clear the big stones on the beach, so we took them off and replaced them by two runners so as to form a kind of sledge, which answered much better, although many pieces were jerked off _en route_, by reason of the rugged path and primitive construction of the sledge. As Alec remarked, they served as guide posts, so that there was no losing the way. This idea I got by reading Catlin's ”North American Indians.” By las.h.i.+ng two long tent poles at a horse's sides, with the ends trailing on the ground, they form a kind of sledge, upon which they can carry considerable loads upon transverse sticks.
From the battered hulk we also brought a great number of bolts and other iron-work, a companion ladder, windla.s.s, pump, bowsprit bits, bell, a torn jib, a quant.i.ty of cordage, and whatever else we could lay our hands upon, that might have the most remote chance of being of future use to us.
In story books it is usual to have a s.h.i.+p come ash.o.r.e just in a convenient spot, and with a full cargo; but ours, unfortunately, was only half a battered hulk, perfectly empty, and in a most awkward position to get at, as we had to cross the Crevichon Channel at every trip, so that we could only bring the wreckage over at low tide. We could, however, continue our work of dismantling right through the day, except for two hours, when the high tide flowed in and out through poor ”Jeanette's” ribs. These two hours we took for rest, food, and the soothing pipe. Bless Raleigh!
When we had collected all our material, both iron and wood, we commenced building the ”Anglo-Franc,” and in three weeks had her finished and afloat. She was sixteen feet over all, by five feet beam, and was rigged in the style peculiar to the Guernsey boats; that is to say she had two small masts. The foremast was stepped exactly amids.h.i.+ps, while the mizen was placed close to the stern. This arrangement strikes an Englishman as very strange, as they are in the habit of seeing the foremast very nearly in the bows; but Ducas was a sailor, and knew the rig adapted to these waters, and I must say that under most circ.u.mstances the ”Anglo-Franc” behaved herself admirably. She was a success in every way.
One special feature was, that we built a kind of half-deck forward, which formed a small cuddy or cabin quite large enough for one of us to have ”a watch below” in, or for a regular sleep at night, or we could both squeeze inside during a pelting rain. We spent several single nights at sea in the ”Anglo-Franc” during the summer, and by putting a sail-cloth awning from the aft edge of the cuddy deck we lengthened our cabin by four feet, and could thus both obtain a good night's rest, or cook in any wind or weather.
When we had finished the boat we were rather at a loss to know how to find accommodation for her when we did not actually require to use her.
In fine weather she could lie moored just off the house, and to enable us always to keep her afloat, we rigged up an out-haul, so that standing on the sh.o.r.e we could haul the boat out or in to its moorings whenever we chose. This was all very well in fine weather, but when a fresh south-west wind was blowing, and a heavy sea on, she would pitch and roll to such an extent that we were afraid she would break loose and drift away. We had therefore to cast about for some safer place for her, and with this in view inspected the whole island round. When we came to Lobster Bay, at the north-east corner, we agreed that that was the most sheltered position we could find, and most suitable in every way for a haven.
Quite at the angle of the island a promontory runs straight out to the eastward for a distance of about forty yards, thus forming a shelter from the rush of the rising tide through the Perchee Channel, while the island of Herm kept the wind from the north-east in check.
”Now,” said Alec, ”if we could build a little stone breakwater from the end of Cape Homard (Cape Lobster, as Alec called the point, because we kept the lobster and crab pots there), we could make as safe a little harbour as one could wish for.”
This proposition seemed all very well, but the quant.i.ty of stone I knew it would take rather staggered me, and I was a long time before I could be brought to give my consent to help in the matter. But when Alec had laid out his plans to me, I found them so consistent that I readily agreed to help in the work.
Without wearying the reader by describing in too great detail the building of our breakwater, I will just give an outline of how it was built, and another great success achieved, although to ensure that success we had to work like a couple of galley slaves. Still, with all our hard work, we were as happy as a couple of schoolboys. We toiled, sang, and ate with such appet.i.tes as only those who are used to hard work in the sea air can know.
Our plan was to work on Monday; enjoy fis.h.i.+ng, etc., on Tuesday; work on Wednesday at the breakwater, at the garden on Thursday; on Friday at the breakwater again; and on Sat.u.r.day till noon also, after which we devoted the rest of the day to baking, clothes was.h.i.+ng and mending, and other domestic duties. How my mother and 'Cilla would have laughed to see me at the wash-tub, or hanging out the linen to dry on the furze bushes; or to have seen Alec using a flat iron which, with great labour, we had forged, and which was of a peculiar construction, but still very efficacious in its work. Men are notoriously awkward in their manner of wringing and other laundry work, and I expect we were no exception to the general rule. We made our clothes _clean_, and that was all we required.
Alec was a capital baker, so we had some excellent bread, while my pastry was not to be sneezed at; in fact, at a rabbit pie I was quite a _grand chef_. I also introduced several new culinary matters to Alec, some of which he had never seen before; among them being the all-filling Norfolk dumpling, which at first he did not seem to care for, but in time he became inordinately fond of them, and would often ask me to make him a _pouding de rien_ (a pudding of nothing), which was his idea of these articles of everyday diet in East Anglia.
But I am not building my breakwater of dumplings, so will get back to stone; not that I wish the reader to infer that my dumplings were ever approaching that substance in their degree of firmness.
First we collected all the very large stones we could find in the bay, and placed them as a foundation for our breakwater; but these only formed a layer about a foot deep. All these were large stones (some of them weighed nearly three hundredweight), so to cope with them we made a kind of four-handled hand barrow, upon which we rolled our rock, and then taking two handles each, staggered off with it. These large pieces we placed near the end of the breakwater, and when we had denuded the bay, we obtained, with ”Eddy's” help, some large piece of ma.s.sed rock and mortar from the ruined boathouse. These pieces we took in the sledge, and built into a kind of wall to form the outer sh.e.l.l of the breakwater, while the interior we filled with any odds and ends of rocks (none of them less than a man's head in size) which we could find on the sh.o.r.e. The interstices we filled with s.h.i.+ngle, and the detritus of granite, but when we had raised our structure to the level of high water our available stone gave out. This rather nonplussed us, but at last we decided to open a small quarry and see what granite we could obtain to raise our undertaking another four feet in height.
I had still several pounds of gunpowder left, and with part of this we constructed some long thin cartridges for blasting. With these, a pick-axe, and some long iron stanchions, which we used as levers, we obtained a good supply of stone. The little quarry may still be seen, so I am informed, although it is greatly covered with furze and weeds. It is situated on the hill side, midway between the homestead and the ruins of the boathouse. We chose an elevated position for our quarry, so that we could roll the huge stones down the hill to the pathway below, where we levered them up into the sledge, and dragged them to what we were pleased to term ”the works.” Let it suffice to say that about the middle of May our task was completed, and to commemorate the event we gave a grand banquet on the pier head (for we called it a pier now, as it sounded more dignified) to commemorate the event. Four of us sat down to the banquet, or rather two stood and two sat. As architect I took the head of the table (a wine cask), and Alec, as engineer, the foot; while ”Eddy,” the donkey, as contractor, supported me on the right (dining luxuriously on a bunch of carrots and some hay), and on my left was dear old ”Begum” as clerk of the works, enjoying two whole rabbits as his share of the entertainment.
We drank ”Success to Jethou Pier,” and trusted it would take every care of the ”Anglo-Franc,” which we now placed within its encircling arm for the first time.
At low water we removed all the big stones from the little haven in which our boat was now moored. This was for fear she might hurt her bottom (as the tide left her careened half an hour before dead low water), and thus made everything snug for her. At half-tide she floated, so that for six hours out of every twelve we could go off just when we liked, without any pus.h.i.+ng or hard work of any kind; while to a.s.sist her to her moorings, if we wished to bring her in at low tide, we rigged up the windla.s.s which we brought from the wreck, and thus we could at any time haul her bodily out of the sea.
Now, having given up a whole chapter to hard work, we will proceed to something a little more interesting and exciting.
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CHAPTER XV.
TRAWLING FOR FISH AND DREDGING FOR CURIOS--SOME REMARKABLE FINDS--A GHASTLY RESURRECTION--THE MYSTERIOUS PAPER--THE HIEROGLYPHIC--A DANGEROUS FALL--HORS DE COMBAT--ATTEMPTS TO UNRAVEL THE PAPER.
As there were now two of us we occasionally had a turn at trawling, and usually caught some fine flat fish, turbot, soles, and plaice. Our net was a very primitive one of our own manufacture, and had to be handled very gingerly, as the netting was old and the ironwork very fragile, but knowing this we did not put undue strain upon it.
The curious fish, marine plants, and odds and ends of all kinds that we brought to the surface would have done a naturalist's heart good, for there were frequently objects brought to light that were quite out of the common.