The Young Ship Builders of Elm Island 30

The Young Ship Builders of Elm Island 30

“I won’t sell this boat, for we want just such a boat to go over to

meeting in. We can go in her dry, by carrying short sail, any time,

almost; but I’ll build you one just like her.”

 

“When?”

 

“I’ll begin to-morrow.”

 

“Then build her, and I’ll sell this.”

 

In the course of a fortnight he had three orders more; all wanted them

as soon as possible, they said. The boats were rather large, but just

the thing for two men.

 

He then hired Robert Yelf to work with him, and sent some moulds

over to Uncle Isaac, who dug out roots for him, and procured crooks

for knees and breast-hooks. When he had filled these orders, there

was a lull, and Charlie went to farming and making preparations for

boat-building in future.

 

Having now mastered the principles of surveying by means of a Gunter’s

scale and chain, which Ben possessed, and a cross staff which he had

made under his father’s directions, he began to practise by measuring

the cleared land on the island and the points, and making and platting

the different pieces. He was anxious to learn the use of the compass,

and to run lines by it; but he had no land compass, and here, with

most boys, the matter would have rested; but unaccustomed to yield

to difficulties, Charlie resolved to make a boat compass serve his

turn--the very one that had been the instrument of saving his life in

the snow squall.

 

His first attempt was to make a tripod. Upon a piece of oak board he

drew a circle two inches larger than the compass, with projections

at each side six inches long, and sawed it out by the marks: he then

drew another circle, two inches inside of this, and sawed down to it,

cutting out the wood so as to leave two projections on each side,

two inches wide and two long: in each of these he cut a slot on the

underside, also in one of the end ones, to receive a tenon cut on the

end of each of the legs. By heating a wrought nail he made rivets,

upon which his legs traversed easily, and fastened the compass to a

wooden peg in the centre. A land compass has brass perpendiculars at

each end of the base upon which it sits, with slits in them, by which

to sight. In order to represent these, he made two holes in the ends

of his base, in line with the needle of the compass, and put in two

knitting needles, making them perpendicular with a plumb-line: thus,

by setting up a stake, he had three objects in range, and could sight

accurately. A land compass has a spirit level on its frame, by which to

level it, screws to keep it in place, and a ball and socket joint upon

which it moves; but by spreading or contracting the legs of his tripod,

and by means of a plumb-line (the great resource of all mechanics in

emergencies), he contrived to depress, elevate, and adjust the compass,

measure land, and run a line accurately, and in a manner which Ben,

after looking over his work, pronounced correct.

 

“Survey the island, Charlie,” said Ben; “I should like to know how much

there is in it. I will carry the chain for you, and help you about

measuring the points.”

 

“Don’t you know how much land you bought?”

 

“No; I bought it for so much; had it for more or less--what Mr. Welch’s

father had it for when he bought it; I expect it overruns.”

 

“I should like to know, too,” said Uncle Isaac, who had come to the

island that morning. “I’ve heard the most talk back and forth about

this island: some say Ben hasn’t got the land he paid for, some say

he’s got more. You need three to work in the woods. I’ll carry the

chain.”

 

“I had it for seventeen hundred acres,” said Ben.

 

“Well, there’s all that, if not more.”

 

They ran lines north-east and south-west the length of the island, and

parallel to each other at eighty rods apart; then ran cross lines, also

parallel, eighty rods apart; blazed a tree at every intersection, and

numbered the ranges included in these spaces, and put them down in a

field-book. As the shore line was irregular, they measured the shore

sections by offsets from the range lines.

 

Charlie then made a plat of it. The island contained nineteen hundred

and thirty-five acres, one rood, twenty-seven rods, five links.

 

“That’s not much more than there ought to be,” said Uncle Isaac; “you

have measured the whole; but they didn’t call these points anything,

and they of course made allowance for the squawk swamp.”

 

They were five days in doing it, and it afforded Charlie excellent

practice. A short time after that, Ben was sent for to run a large lot

of timber land. He hired Squire Eveleth’s compass, and took Charlie

with him, when he had an opportunity to perfect his knowledge of that

instrument.

 

In due time Uncle Isaac received a letter from Salem. The price of the

land was seventy-five cents an acre. Uncle Isaac, Ben, and Charlie went

to look over it.

 

“It is too much,” said Uncle Isaac; “seventy-five cents an acre!

farther back, you can buy it for twelve or fifteen cents.”

 

“What of that?” replied Ben: “no chance to get a thing to eat, except

what you get from the land, and while you are clearing, almost starve

to death; have to hunt and live on beech leaves and acorns; while here

are clams at the shore, and fish and lobsters in the sea, to fall back

upon; besides a brook with a fine mill privilege.”

 

“Better than that, Ben; there are plenty of pickerel in this pond, and

the alewives, smelts, and frost-fish come up here into the brook, and

any amount of eels.”

 

“There is still another great advantage you have overlooked: there

is a swale made by the flowing back of the water, where the beavers

once had a dam, that will cut six or seven tons of hay; that would be

everything to a man going to settle on it. With the hay in that swale

for winter, browse in this hard wood growth in summer, he could keep

cattle right off.”

 

The pond contained over two hundred acres, and they found that in order

to obtain that, and a portion of the heaviest pine growth back of it,

it would be necessary for Charlie to buy about four hundred acres, or

more.

 

“Buy it, Charlie,” said Ben; “you will then have the mill privilege and

the timber both, and can do well with it.”

 

Charlie concluded to take it; and Uncle Isaac wrote to Salem to close

the bargain. Ben and Charlie now went to Boston and procured their

trees, taking up a load of fish to Mr. Welch, for Fred. Mr. Welch

gave Charlie a Gunter’s scale, a land compass and chain, with all the

appurtenances.

 

They received a letter from Isaac Murch, to the great delight of all,

especially of Captain Rhines--the readers of the Ark will remember

him. Mr. Welch told the captain that he had received a letter at the

same time from Captain Radford, in which he said Isaac was now second

mate of the Congress, an excellent seaman, and good navigator; and he

should give him a mate’s birth at the first opportunity.

 

“He’s my boy,” said the captain, highly gratified; “for I brought him

to life when he was good as dead, and Flour and I educated him. I’ll

risk _him_ anywhere; that will be good news for his parents and Uncle

Isaac.”

 

Fred had orders from Mr. Welch for more fish; Joe Griffin likewise.

 

Charlie was now abundantly supplied with material for building boats,

and had more orders. The harvest being over, he was assisted by his

father. In a tight shop, with a rousing fire, they had nice times

together.

 

Nobody would fish in a canoe now; and as demand always creates supply,

an ingenious man at Wiscasset (a ship carpenter, who had been injured

by a fall, and could not endure the heavy work of the ship-yard)

saw one of Charlie’s boats, took the dimensions of her, and set up

boat-building. Uncle Sam Elwell also built a boat for himself, and

other ingenious people did the same; but Charlie’s boats outsailed all

the others, and were preferred; there was something about them the

others could not imitate. Uncle Isaac said there was a soul in them;

they were alive.

 

The Perseverance made several trips, and Fred obtained his goods in

that way easily, and at small expense for freight, and paid Charlie

his money, with a handsome profit, much more than the money would have

earned at interest.

 

The last time the Perseverance went to Boston, Sally went in her, baby

and all. Mr. Welch and his wife were delighted to see her. Mrs. Welch

went shopping with her, and she purchased furniture for the house, and

dishes to take the place of the old pewter, a large looking-glass, and

a globe to hang on the wall in the front room, dresses for herself, and

some presents for Ben and Charlie.

 

Mr. Welch declared the child should be named for him, and so it was.

 

Charlie, having received his money, was naturally anxious to close the

bargain for the land, of which Uncle Isaac had obtained the refusal.

 

In going over it the first time, they had merely guessed at the number

of acres it would be necessary to buy in order to take in the pond, the

pine timber, and the whole of the brook.

 

Men like Ben and Uncle Isaac will, by pacing, come quite near to the

contents of a piece of land; but it was now necessary to measure and describe it sufficiently to make a deed.