Having made this calculation as to the time I had to do it in, I set seriously about the job of making provisions with my raft.  In one or two particulars, I could not much improve the latter; for, the yards lying underneath the masts, it rendered the last as buoyant as was desirable in moderate weather.  It struck me, however, that by getting the top-gallant and royal masts, with their yards, in, around the top, I might rig a staging, with the aid of the hatches, that would not only keep me entirely out of water, in mild weather, but which would contain all one man could consume, in the way of victuals and drink, for a month to come.  To this object, then, I next gave my attention.

I had no great difficulty in getting the spars I have mentioned, loose, and in hauling them alongside of the top.  It was a job that required time, rather than strength; for my movements were greatly facilitated by the presence of the top-mast rigging, which remained in its place, almost as taut as when upright.  The other rigging I cut, and having got out the fids of the two masts, one at a time, I pushed the spars through their respective caps with a foot.  Of course, I was obliged to get into the water to work; but I had thrown aside most of my clothes for the occasion, and the weather being warm, I felt greatly refreshed with my bath.  In two hours’ time, I had my top-gallant-mast and yard well secured to the top-rim and the caps, having sawed them in pieces for the purpose.  The fastenings were both spikes and lashings, the carpenter’s stores furnishing plenty of the former, as well as all sorts of tools.

This part of the arrangement completed, I ate a hearty breakfast, when I began to secure the hatches, as a sort of floor, on my primitive joists.  This was not difficult, the hatches being long, and the rings enabling me to lash them, as well as to spike them.  Long before the sun had reached the meridian, I had a stout little platform, that was quite eighteen inches above the water, and which was surrounded by a species of low ridge-ropes, so placed as to keep articles from readily tumbling off it.  The next measure was to cut all the sails from the yards, and to cut loose all the rigging and iron that did not serve to keep the wreck together.  The reader can easily imagine how much more buoyancy I obtained by these expedients.  The fore-sail alone weighed much more than I did myself, with all the stores I might have occasion to put on my platform.  As for the fore-top-sail, there was little of it left, the canvass having mostly blown from the yard, before the mast went.

My raft was completed by the time I felt the want of dinner; and a very good raft it was.  The platform was about ten feet square, and it now floated quite two feet clear of the water.  This was not much for a sea; but, after the late violent gale, I had some reason to expect a continuation of comparatively good weather.  I should not have been a true seaman not to have bethought me of a mast and a sail.  I saved the fore-royal-mast, and the yard, with its canvass, for such a purpose; determining to rig them when I had nothing else to do.  I then ate my dinner, which consisted of the remnants of the old cold meat and fowls I could find among the cabin eatables.