CHAPTER XXII.
THE LAUNCH OF THE "APHRODITE."
Contrary to their expectations, the boys were left in peace by theirenemies after that last unsuccessful attempt to burn their camp.
The tar-kiln was promptly rebuilt, and by Saturday night a new supply oftar was ready. Early on Monday morning the work of converting this tarinto pitch, by boiling it, was begun. This was necessarily a slowprocess, because the kettle was small and the space to be covered waslarge, for the plan was to paint the whole outside surface of the boatwith the pitch, in order to make it as water-tight as possible. As soonas the first kettleful of pitch was ready, it was carefully appliedwhile smoking hot, care being taken to work it well into the seams. Thenanother kettleful was set to boil, and so the work went slowly forward.As the pitch cooled it became hard, like varnish, and the effect was tostop all leaks pretty thoroughly.
At first the boat sat right side up, but raised upon the blocks on whichshe had been built, so that it was easy to pass under her; but inapplying the first kettleful of pitch the boys discovered theawkwardness of this position, and determined to turn the _Aphrodite_bottom upward, for the sake of convenience. This was a difficult task,as the boat was too heavy for the combined strength of the three youngship-builders; but it was necessary to accomplish it, and Jack'smechanical skill devised means for the purpose. Cutting some long polesto serve as levers, and a large number of short, stout sticks, hedirected his companions to raise one side of the boat with the levers.While they held it up he quickly built two cribs of the short sticks,one at the bow and the other at the stern, and when the levers wereremoved the boat rested easily upon these. Then a new bight was takenwith the levers, and the side of the boat was raised a few inchesfurther. Building the cribs up to support her in this position, Jackdirected the boys to repeat the operation again and again, each timesupporting the boat by increasing the height of the cribs. Finally hesaid:
"Now one more bight will throw her over, but we must get ready first toease her down, or else we shall strain her."
"How can we do it?" asked Ned.
"By setting some poles up at an angle on cribs. I'll show you."
With that he went to the other side of the boat and built some cribsabout five or six feet away from the gunwale on which the boat rested;carrying these up as high as his head, he took a number of straightpoles and placed their ends on the ground just under the gunwale,resting the other ends upon the tall cribs. This made a slantingframework, the bottom of which was against one gunwale, while the topwas not more than a few feet distant from the other edge of the boat.
"Now," he said, when this was done, "she has only to fall a foot or twoforward; her weight will be on her face then, and we'll ease her down bydrawing out the crib-sticks."
"I see a better way than that," said Ned.
"Very well. What is it?"
"Let's throw her forward first; then I'll show you."
Resting, as the boat was, almost upon her gunwale, it was easy to pushher forward, and when that was done she was a little more than half-wayover.
"Now," said Ned, "instead of lowering that upper gunwale, let's lift thelower one with the levers, and block it up. We needn't raise it morethan a foot; then she'll show her whole under-side to us just as well asif she lay flat on her face."
"Yes," said Jack, after studying the matter, "and it will be all theeasier to turn her back again."
"Have we got to turn her back again?" asked Charley, whose arms and backhad been pretty severely taxed in the effort to reverse the position ofthe boat.
"Well, no," said Ned, "not if we can make up our minds to launch her,bottom upward, and to ride back to Bluffton on her keel. Otherwise wemust turn her right side up before we launch her."
"It won't be hard to turn her back, Charley," said Jack. "She'll benearly on edge, you see, and it won't require lifting--only a littlepushing. But come, let's raise this gunwale. Six inches will do, Ithink."
One more application of the levers served the purpose, and the work ofapplying the pitch was resumed.
No other difficult problem presented itself, and by noon on Thursday thepitching was complete. Before turning the _Aphrodite_ back again, Jackand his companions cut some long, straight poles, and made an inclinedplane of them from the blocks on which the boat rested to the water.They removed all the bark from these poles, so that they should be assmooth as possible.
Then the boat was turned back into position, her side toward the water.It was necessary now to lift her up until her keel should rest upon theinclined plane, down which she was to slide, of her own weight, into thesea. This was a somewhat difficult task, requiring the use of the leversand a good deal of blocking up as the levers raised the boat, inch byinch. It was accomplished at last, however, and, suffering neitherstrain nor other injury, the _Aphrodite_ slipped into the sea, and rodegracefully upon the water.
"Three cheers for the new boat!" cried Charley, and with a will theywere given.
"Now, then," said Ned, "we can begin to see the end of our adventures.Let's see. We've only to make some oars, and then we can be off."
"When shall we start?" asked Jack.
"Well, this is Thursday evening. We can finish three oars--two forrowing and one for steering--by to-morrow evening."
"Then we can make an early start on Saturday morning," said Jack.
"Not very well," said Ned. "The tide will be against us until about oneo'clock or half-past, and the _Aphrodite_ is too heavy for two oarsagainst tide."
"Why can't all three row?" asked Charley, who persistently refused tounderstand any thing about the management of boats.
"Because then we should have two oars on one side and only one on theother, and we'd go around in a circle. We can only use two oars, whilethe odd fellow steers. We'll be able to rest in that way, too, by takingthe steering-oar turn and turn about."
"Then we'll get away when the tide turns on Saturday," said Jack.
"Yes, or a little before,--say at noon. That will give us plenty oftime."
"And we'll get back to Bluffton," said Charley, "exactly at the timeappointed with Maum Sally, I wonder if she'll have some supper ready forus."
"If she don't she'll have to get some pretty quick," said Ned. "I won'tlet her scold me till she sets supper before us, and she won't be happytill she gives me a good 'settin' to rights,' as she calls it."
"Hadn't we better wait until we get to Bluffton before we order thatsupper?" said Jack; "there's 'many a slip,' you know."
"What a croaker you're getting to be, Jack!" exclaimed Charley. "What'sto bother us now, I'd like to know? We've got a good boat, we can makeoars to-morrow, and Ned knows the way."
"Oh, certainly!" replied Jack. "I suppose we shall get there safely, andI'm not in the least disposed to croak. I only thought that you and Nedwere a trifle hasty in your assumption that every thing is to goperfectly smooth with us. For the last month things have had a prettyfixed habit of going the other way."
"Well, but we've conquered our difficulties now, and there's nothingthat I can think of to stand in the way of our getting off at theappointed time. And if we leave here at noon on Saturday, what canhappen to prevent our arrival at Bluffton that evening?"
"I'm sure I don't know," said Jack; "nothing at all, I hope. But when Ithink what a chapter of accidents we've been through, I am disposed towait till I see Maum Sally, before I get my mouth ready for the suppershe's to cook."
The Wreck of the Red Bird: A Story of the Carolina Coast Page 23