Rikki and Miyagi were to take some doctors from Clock Island and request the necessary medical supplies from the Loachtown Marine Corps. Once they received them, they would deliver the required amount to the warehouse.
With these instructions the others left, and Bill lost track of time. Working all night by the light of a few dim candles, he accomplished a job that usually took several teams.
By morning, he had installed new water and sewer lines along the same wall where the office bathroom was. It wasn't pretty—a long row of multi-flush toilets—but it was practical.
He decided to place them this way because he knew that people would need to use lanterns at night. Lanterns were a fire hazard, but Bill wanted to offer some privacy for those who needed to relieve themselves at night.
So at night the lanterns could be lit by the sinks, and although the cubicles were almost completely plunged into darkness, at least a person could see as soon as he opened the door.
Bill didn't like candles, fireplaces, lamps and other open-flame light sources, but Loachtown didn't have the infrastructure for electrical appliances, so he did the best he could.
Late in the morning, Bill heard thousands of footsteps as he nailed down the stall roofs—just linen coverings just above the toilets that were meant to block views from above.
Jumping off the makeshift walls inside the warehouse, Bill greeted the former residents of Clock Island, "Welcome, welcome!" he said, raising his voice to be heard over the noise of the thousands of people.
The islanders fell silent when they heard the large man's voice, and he continued speaking.
"To help those who remain, I ask that you do not make beds just anywhere. We plan to sail in a few days, and in the meantime we need to turn this warehouse into the best quarters we can make."
Then, after asking who had practical woodworking skills, Bill was relieved to see several hundred people raise their hands.
Rance had taken his most experienced men to help rebuild the Victoria, but Bill knew that the men before him would be invaluable in building the city on Little East Blue.
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With this in mind, Bill decided to stop doing all the work himself and start managing more like a boss. A couple of days wasn't much, but he hoped to see the overall skill level of these people who would now be key to the success of his unit.
The first thing he did was divide the men and women into teams. By splitting them into groups, the work went faster and it also helped create a sense of camaraderie.
He then personally supervised the first stages of the work. He drew up plans for the beds and shelves and handed them over to several teams to begin making the parts. He marked out the dividing lines between the rooms and showed several teams how to properly reinforce the walls. He showed the fitters how to assemble the beds and tables, since there was no budget for nails and everything had to be fastened together with wooden dowels and joints.
First there are the bathrooms, then the bedrooms, then the kitchens and medical unit, and finally the dining areas.
After the first day, several old-timers approached Bill and offered to help, and he assigned them to teams to share their experiences with the young people who were working hard.
On the second day, Miyagi and Rikki arrived with several doctors from Clock Island and they set up a medical block.
On the third day, with hundreds of beds and cubicles ready, Bill moved several teams into the kitchens, where they began laying new pipes.
On the fourth day, with the kitchen almost finished and the storage areas full, Bill turned his attention to the dining area.
Several more days passed in this manner, and although the restoration of the ship took longer than expected, the amount of work accomplished by several hundred men was impressive, and the huge warehouse began to look more and more like a place fit for habitation.
One day, Smoker's lieutenant, a woman named Tashigi, came to inspect the work that had been done and, upon seeing the results, declared that once the refugees left, their unit would have new barracks.
Bill just laughed and thought that she had actually come to ask when they would pick up Nelson.
Another week passed after that, when Rance finally came to tell Bill that the Victory was ready. The job that he thought would take four days ended up taking two weeks.
But Rance was confident it was worth the extra time, and came by every other day to update Bill on the progress.
The ship still had three turrets, but the giant gun had been completely removed. What Bill appreciated most was the real reason why the reconstruction took so long.
Engineers from Clock Island redesigned the ship's mechanical system to raise and lower the huge sails using mechanical shafts.