Speaking of the “Yellow Boy” reminds me that after the big storm I saved the portion which still depended from the cable, suspended from the side of La Fauconnaire.  These pieces were the two upper strakes, fifteen feet long, and the fore and second compartments.  The timber from these helped us greatly in the building of the new boat.  Besides this there were a number of rafters and floor boards that I had collected from the old store-house after the explosion; but our third and best supply was obtained from the wreck of Alec’s ketch, “Jeanette,” the fore part of which still remained jammed high up between two rocks, which stood about twelve feet apart, near high-water mark, on La Crevichon.  From this, by dint of three days’ hard work, we secured several loads of deck-timber and other very useful pieces, which “Eddy” dragged up for us to the ruined store-house.

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 lashing 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, windlass, pump, bowsprit bits, bell, a torn jib, a quantity 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 ship come ashore 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 amidships, 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