So I lowered the big starboard anchor, giving plenty of slack; and by afternoon I was at work on the windlass.
Three days I worked on that windlass.

Least of all things was I a mechanic, and in that time I accomplished what an ordinary machinist would have done in as many hours.

I had to learn my tools to begin with, and every simple mechanical principle which such a man would have at his finger ends I had likewise to learn.

And at the end of three days I had a windlass which worked clumsily.

It never gave the satisfaction the old windlass had given, but it worked and made my work possible.
In half a day I got the two topmasts aboard and the shears rigged and guyed as before.