And whereas many things seemed necessary to be regarded in this so hard and difficult a matter, they first made choice of certain grave and wise persons in manner of a senate or company which should lay their heads together and give their judgments and provide things requisite and profitable for all occasions; by this company it was thought expedient that a certain sum of money should publicly be collected to serve for the furnishing of so many ships. And lest any private man should be too much oppressed and charged, a course was taken that every man willing to be of the society should disburse the portion of twenty and five pounds apiece, so that in a short time by this means the sum of six thousand pounds being gathered, the three ships were bought, the most part whereof they provided to be newly built and trimmed. But in this action, I wot not whether I may more admire the care of the merchants, or the diligence of the shipwrights: for the merchants, they get very strong and well seasoned planks for the building, the shipwrights, they with daily travail and their greatest skill, do fit them for the dispatch of the ships, they caulk them, pitch them, and among the rest, they make one most staunch and firm, by an excellent and ingenious invention. For they had heard that in certain parts of the ocean a kind of worm is bred which many times pierceth and eateth through the strongest oak that is, and therefore that the mariners and the rest to be employed in this voyage might be free and safe from this danger, they cover a piece of the keel of the ship with thin sheets of lead; and having thus built the ships, and furnished them with armour and artillery, then followed a second care no less troublesome and necessary than the former, namely the provision of victuals which was to be made according to the time and length of the voyage. And whereas they afore determined to have the east part of the world sailed unto, and yet that the sea towards the same was not open, except they kept the northern tract where as yet it was doubtful whether there were any passage yea or no, they resolved to victual the ships for eighteen months, which they did for this reason. For our men being to pass that huge and cold part of the world, they wisely foreseeing it, allow them six months’ victual to sail to the place, so much more to remain there if the extremity of the winter hindered their return, and so much more also for the time of their coming home.