She was an eighteen-foot whaleboat of the ordinary type, equipped with oars and thole-pins.

Two or three quarter-casks lay on the bilge amidships, one of which must have been broached, and now stank horribly; and these, upon examination, proved to bear the same New Zealand brand as the beef on board the wreck.
"Well, here's the boat," said I; "here's one of your difficulties cleared away." "H'm," said he.

There was a little water in the bilge, and here he stooped and tasted it.
"Fresh," he said.

"Only rain-water." "You don't object to that ?" I asked.
"No," said he.
"Well, then, what ails you ?" I cried.
"In plain United States, Mr.Dodd," he returned, "a whaleboat, five ash sweeps, and a barrel of stinking pork." "Or, in other words, the whole thing ?" I commented.
"Well, it's this way," he condescended to explain.

"I've no use for a fourth boat at all; but a boat of this model tops the business.