Joseph Banks - Endeavour Journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0370
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 370]
Ulhietea
by a drawing than by any description. [See image for drawing.] This annexd may serve to give some Idea of a section aa is the first seam, bb the second, cc the third The first stage or keel under aa is made of trees hollowd out like a trough for which purpose they chuse the longest trees they can get so that 2 or three make the bottom of their largest boats (some of which are much larger than that describd here as I make a rule to describe every thing of this kind from the common size) the next stage under bb is formd of streght plank about 4 feet long & 15 inches broad & 2 inches thick the next stage under cc is made like the bottom of trunks of trees hollowd into their its bilging form the last or that above cc is formd also out of trunks of trees so that the moulding is of one peice with the plank This work dificult as it would be to an Europaean with his Iron tools they perform without Iron & with amazing dexterity they hollow & dubb with their stone axes as fast at least as our Carpenters could do & dubb tho slowly with prodigious nicety I have seen them take off a skin of an angular plank [See image for illustration] without missing a stroke the skin itself scarce 1/16 part of an inch in thickness. boring the holes throug which their sewing is to pass seems to be their greatest dificulty Their tools are