PHILIPPINE SHIPS AND SHIPBUILDING

Relation by Captain Sebastian de Pineda, on matters relating to the Filipinas Islands—­both the building of galleons, pataches, and galleys, and other means of defense; and various things regarding the preservation and safety of the said islands. [37]

Sire: 

In those islands is found a wood called maria, [38] which is used to make all the futtock-timbers of all the galleons, galleys, and pataches; and all the knees and compass-timbers, of all sizes required.  There is much of this timber from which to select, although, because of the ships built by Don Juan de Silva, the supply of it is now obtained from a distance.  That wood is used only for this purpose, for the tree is short and not straight.  Capstans of one piece, gears, and some stringer-plates [trancaniles] for the curved parts of the prows of vessels and the snatch-cleats for the wales, are also made from that wood.  That said wood is very durable, and is of such quality that once a nail is hammered into it, it is impossible to withdraw it without breaking it; and when a nail is hammered into that wood it does not hole or chip.  If a ball be fired into it of the size of eight libras or less, it does not pierce the wood; and if the ball is large, the wood is not splintered.  On the contrary, the hole is stopped up at its entrance and egress with the chips forced out by the ball in its passage.  That wood is very light, and has a very poor grain for working.

There is another wood called arguijo, [39] which is very strong and heavy.  It is a certain very tall and very straight tree, like the pine.  From it are made the keels, beams, false keels, wales, mast heads [calcetes], and pumps, of whatever size required; for that tree, as above stated, grows very tall and straight.  Gun-stocks, gun-carriages, and wheels for the artillery are also made from that wood.

There is another wood called laguan. [40] From it is made all the planking and sheathing with which the galleons and galleys are planked.  From those trees are made the masts, topmasts, and yards of the galleons and galleys.  The said tree grows very straight and thick, so that the flagship galleon has its mainmast from one, that is seventy-two codos [41] long and fifteen palmos in circumference, all in one piece.

The sheathing and planking hewn from the above-named trees for the sheathing of the ships is one palmo thick and three or four wide, and the shortest is twelve brazas long.  These planks last a long time under water, as the ship-worms do not hole them; but above water they warp and rot, so that they do not last more than two years—­and especially on the decks, if they are not calked during the winter.  The greatest danger is that, on account of the haste used in their construction, time is not allowed to cut the wood at the conjunction [of the moon], and to leave it during a year to season, as is required; for if that is done, it lasts much longer.  For of all the vessels built during the term of Don Juan de Silva, the galley which was longest in building did not take six months; and all the timber for them was hewn and put in place when green, for the vessels were being built while the wood was cutting.