Some have devised a certaine pitch, mingled with glasse and other ingredients, beaten into powder, with which if the shippe be pitched, it is said, the worme that toucheth it dyeth; but I have not heard that it hath beene useful.
But the most approved of all, is the manner of sheathing used now adayes in England, with thin bourds, halfe inche thicke; the thinner the better; and elme better then oake; for it ryveth not, it indureth better under water, and yeeldeth better to the shippes side.
The invention of the materialles incorporated betwixt the planke and the sheathing, is that indeed which avayleth; for without it many plankes were not sufficient to hinder the entrance of this worme; this manner is thus:
Before the sheathing board is nayled on, upon the inner side of it they smere it over with tarre halfe a finger thicke and upon the tarre another halfe finger thicke of hayre, such as the whitelymers use, and so nayle it on, the nayles not above a spanne distance one from another; the thicker they are driven, the better.
Some hold opinion that the tarre killeth the worme; others, that the worme passing the sheathing, and seeking a way through, the hayre and the tarre so involve him that he is choked therewith; which me thinkes is most probable; this manner of sheathing was invented by my father, and experience hath taught it to be the best and of least cost.[157]
Such was the diligence we used for our dispatch to shoot the Straites, that at foure dayes end, wee had our water and wood stowed in our shippe, all our copper-worke finished, and our shippe calked from post to stemme; the first day in the morning, the wind being fayre, we brought our selves into the channell, and sayled towards the mouth of the Straites, praising God; and beginning our course with little winde, we descryed a fire upon the shore, made by the Indians for a signe to call us; which seene, I caused a boat to be man’de, and we rowed ashore, to see what their meaning was, and approaching neere the shore, wee saw a cannoa, made fast under a rocke with a wyth, most artificially made with the rindes of trees, and sowed together with the finnes of whales; at both ends sharpe, and turning up, with a greene bough in either end, and ribbes for strengthening it. After a little while, we might discerne on the fall of the mountaine (which was full of trees and shrubbes), two or three Indians naked, which came out of certaine caves or coates. They spake unto us, and made divers signes; now poynting to the harbour, out of which we were come, and then to the mouth of the Straites: but we understood nothing of their meaning. Yet left they us with many imaginations, suspecting it might be to advise us of our pynace, or some other thing of moment; but for that they were under covert, and might worke us some treacherie (for all the people of the Straites, and the land nere them, use all the villany they can towards white people, taking them for Spaniards, in revenge of the deceit that nation hath used towards them upon sundry occasions; as also for that by our stay we could reape nothing but hinderance of our navigation), wee hasted to our shippe, and sayled on our course.
