After the salt was purchased, it had to be taken from the marshes to the ship. It was first shovelled into bags under the supervision of judges who held the bags open and counted them. Carrying one bag at a time, horses travelled back and forth between the salt piles and the shore, where boatmen loaded the salt onto boats. As the bags were loaded, they were counted and the total recorded. The boats transported the salt to the ships anchored in the harbour or the river, and returned with the ballast to be unloaded. Once the salt was loaded onto the ships, the measurers "proceeded with the measuring before it was put in the hold. To do this, they used a boisseau, a wooden 48.6 litre container that had been standardized... One man filled the container, then the measuring judge levelled it to determine the exact amount of tax to be paid to the taxation authorities". ⁴⁴ The buyer covered the cost of all these operations.

Friday, February 15, 1754

At 6 a.m., the captain went to Marennes ⁴⁵ to make his declarations, and he returned around 5 p.m. In his absence we prepared to deballast the next day.

Saturday, February 16, 1754

From 9 to 10 a.m., the boats that were going to take our ballast came alongside and we loaded 16.5 tonneaux ⁴⁶ of ballast onto five of them.

Sunday, February 17, 1754

At 6:30 a.m., thirteen men went ashore in the shallop to attend the first mass. ⁴⁷ They returned around 9 o'clock. As soon as they arrived, we went to high mass and returned to the ship around 3 o'clock. The captain and the carpenter remained ashore.

Monday, February 18, 1754

A boat containing 20 muids ⁴⁸ of salt arrived. We loaded them and removed 18 tonneaux of ballast.

Tuesday, February 19, 1754

Today we loaded about 30 1/2 muids of ballast onto boats.

Ash Wednesday, February 20, 1754

We didn't do anything.

Thursday, February 21, 1754

Around 6 a.m., a boat containing about 45 muids of salt arrived. We unloaded the rest of our ballast during the day and loaded all the salt.

Friday, February 22, 1754

We finished loading 80 muids of salt and unloaded 76 tonneaux of our ballast.

Saturday, February 23, 1754

We spent the day stowing the cargo.

Sunday, February 24, 1754

Around 8 a.m., we went ashore in our shallop to attend mass, and we all returned to the ship between 3:30 and 4 p.m.

Monday, February 25, 1754

Around 6 a.m., the captain went to Marennes in the shallop with 4 men to get a new cable he ordered 8 days ago. He returned around 7 p.m. The cable is 103 fathoms long and has a circumference of 8 inches.