Gun-stocks, gun-carriages,
and wheels for the artillery are also made from that wood.
There is another wood called _laguan_. [40] From it is made all
the planking and sheathing with which the galleons and galleys are
planked. From those trees are made the masts, topmasts, and yards
of the galleons and galleys. The said tree grows very straight and
thick, so that the flagship galleon has its mainmast from one, that
is seventy-two _codos_ [41] long and fifteen palmos in circumference,
all in one piece.
The sheathing and planking hewn from the above-named trees for the
sheathing of the ships is one palmo thick and three or four wide, and
the shortest is twelve brazas long. These planks last a long time under
water, as the ship-worms do not hole them; but above water they warp
and rot, so that they do not last more than two years--and especially
on the decks, if they are not calked during the winter. The greatest
danger is that, on account of the haste used in their construction,
time is not allowed to cut the wood at the conjunction [of the moon],
and to leave it during a year to season, as is required; for if that
is done, it lasts much longer. For of all the vessels built during the
term of Don Juan de Silva, the galley which was longest in building
did not take six months; and all the timber for them was hewn and put
in place when green, for the vessels were being built while the wood
was cutting.
There is another wood from which is made planking for the galleys,
which is called _banaba_.
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