Vol. 64, No. 3 Autumn 2019 212


4. Model and deck with four rowers across to scale.


so he determined the barca length likely to be forty- three feet.


Despite having only one carpenter to direct the men, construction proceeded rapidly. T e men built a forge to melt down their armor and metal instruments to build nails, saws and axes. A Greek taught them to make pine pitch which they used to caulk the barges, and they used palmetto fi bers for caulking seams (Dr. Smith felt they probably coated the entire barge or barca below the water line with pitch). T ey made sails sewn from their own shirts, oars from cypress and juniper, and made ropes out of woven palmetto


fi bers and their horses’ hair. T ey skinned their horses (which they ate) and used the tanned hides for water containers. T ey felt their vessels needed ballast stones, which were hard for them to fi nd (but they did fi nd these), and used stones also for the anchors. Once loaded with forty-seven to forty-nine men and their water and some supplies, there was no extra room, and de Vaca states the sides of the vessels cleared the water by only about six inches. Even so, aſt er taking six weeks to construct these vessels under constant Indian attack and while losing men to both illness and attack, the men were desperate enough that they took to sea.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100