London 1622

Hakluyt Society, Volume I, ed C.R.Drinkwater Bethune, London 1847, p118-21

Text modernised - R.A.Barker, 2002

Some man might ask me how we came to have so many empty casks in less than two months; because that so few men in such a short time, and in so long a voyage, should waste [use] so much seems excessive.

To which I answer, that it came not of excessive expense; for in health we never exceeded our ordinary [ration]; but of a mischance which befell us without our knowing in the island of Saint James, or Saint Anne, in the coast of Brasil, where we refreshed ourselves, and according to the custom laid our casks ashore, to trim [prepare] them, and afterwards to fill them, the place being commodious for us. But with the water a certain worm, called broma by the Spaniard, and by us arters, entered also, which ate it so full of holes that all the water soaked out, and made many of our casks of small use. This we remedied the best we could, and discovered it long before we came to this place.

Let others take warning from this: in no place to have casks on the shore where it may be avoided; for it is one of the provisions which are to be preserved with greatest care in long voyages,and hardest to be [re-]supplied. These arters or broma, in all hot countries, enter into the planks of ships, and especially where there are rivers of fresh water; for the common opinion is that they are bred in fresh water, and with the current of the rivers are brought into the sea; but experience teaches that they breed in the great seas in all hot climates, especially near the equinoctial line; for lying so long under and near the line, and towing a shallop at our stern, coming to cleanse her in Brasil, we found her all covered with these worms under water, as big as the little finger of a man, on the outside of the plank, not fully covered but half the thickness of their body, like to a jelly, worked into the plank as with a gouge. And natural reason, in my judgement, confirms this; for creatures bred and nourished in the sea, coming into fresh water die; as those actually bred in ponds or fresh rivers, die presently, if they come into salt water.

But some man may say, this fails in some fishes and beasts. Which I must confess to be true; but these are either part terrestrial, and part aquatic, as the mermaid, sea-horse, and other of that kind, or have their breeding in the freshwater, and growth or continual nourishment in the salt water, as the salmon, and others of that kind.

In little time, if the ship be not sheathed, they put all in hazard; for they enter in no bigger than a small Spanish needle, and by little and little their holes become ordinarily greater than a man's finger. The thicker the plank is, the greater he grows; indeed, I have seen many ships so eaten, that the most of their planks under water have been like honeycombes, and especially those between wind and water. If they had not been sheathed, it would have been impossible that they could have floated.

The entering of them is hardly to be discerned, most of them being as small as the head of a pin. Which all those who intend long voyages are to prevent by sheathing their ships.

And as I have seen diverse manners of sheathing, for the ignorant I will set down those which by experience I have found best.

In Spain and Portingal, some sheath their ships with lead; which, besides the cost and weight, although they use the thinnest sheet-lead that I have seen in any place, yet it is not durable, but subject to many casualties.

Another manner is used with double planks, as thick without as within, after the manner of furring; which is little better than that with lead; for, besides its weight, it endures little, because the worm in small time passes through the one and the other.

A third manner of sheathing hath been used amongst some with fine canvas; which is of small continuance, and so not to be regarded.

The fourth prevention, which now is most approved of, is to burn the outer plank till it come to be in every place like a coal, and afterwards to pitch it; this is not bad.

In China, as I have been informed, they use a certain betane or varnish, in manner of an artificial pitch, with which they trim the outside of their ships. It is said to be durable, and of such virtue, that neither worm nor water pierces it; neither has the sun power against it.

Some have devised a certain pitch, mixed with glass and other ingredients, beaten into powder, with which if the ship be pitched, it is said, the worm that touches it dies; but I have not heard that it has been useful.

But the most approved of all, is the manner of sheathing used nowadays in England, with thin boards, half inch thick, the thinner the better; and elm better than oak; for it does not split, it endures better under water, and yields better to the ship's side.

The invention of the materials incorporated between the plank and the sheathing, is that indeed which avails; for without it many planks were not sufficient to hinder the entrance of this worm; the method is thus:

Before the sheathing board is nailed on, upon the inner side of it they smear it over with tar half a finger thick and upon the tar another half finger thick of hair, such as the white-limers use, and so nail it on, the nails not above a [hand-]span distance one from another; the thicker they are driven, the better.

Some hold opinion that the tar kills the worm; others that the worm passing the sheathing, and seeking a way through, the hair and the tar so involve him that he is choked with it; which I think is most probable; this manner of sheathing was invented by my father, and experience has taught it to be the best and of least cost.