I Went To The Wheel With A Young
Fellow From The Kennebec, Who Was A Good Helmsman; And For Two
Hours We Had Our Hands Full.
A few minutes showed us that our
monkey-jackets must come off; and, cold as it was, we stood in
our shirt-sleeves, in a perspiration; and were glad enough to have
it eight bells, and the wheel relieved.
We turned-in and slept
as well as we could, though the sea made a constant roar under
her bows, and washed over the forecastle like a small cataract.
At four o'clock, we were called again. The same sail was still on
the vessel, and the gale, if there was any change, had increased
a little. No attempt was made to take the studding-sail in;
and, indeed, it was too late now. If we had started anything
toward taking it in, either tack or halyards, it would have blown
to pieces, and carried something away with it. The only way now was
to let everything stand, and if the gale went down, well and good;
if not, something must go - the weakest stick or rope first - and
then we could get it in. For more than an hour she was driven on
at such a rate that she seemed actually to crowd the sea into a
heap before her; and the water poured over the spritsail yard as
it would over a dam. Toward daybreak the gale abated a little,
and she was just beginning to go more easily along, relieved of
the pressure, when Mr. Brown, determined to give her no respite,
and depending upon the wind's subsiding as the sun rose, told us
to get along the lower studding-sail. This was an immense sail,
and held wind enough to last a Dutchman a week, - hove-to. It was
soon ready, the boom topped up, preventer guys rove, and the idlers
called up to man the halyards; yet such was still the force of the
gale, that we were nearly an hour setting the sail; carried away the
outhaul in doing it, and came very near snapping off the swinging
boom. No sooner was it set than the ship tore on again like one
that was mad, and began to steer as wild as a hawk. The men at
the wheel were puffing and blowing at their work, and the helm was
going hard up and hard down, constantly. Add to this, the gale
did not lessen as the day came on, but the sun rose in clouds.
A sudden lurch threw the man from the weather wheel across the deck
and against the side. The mate sprang to the wheel, and the man,
regaining his feet, seized the spokes, and they hove the wheel up
just in time to save her from broaching to; though nearly half
the studding-sail went under water; and as she came to, the boom
stood up at an angle of forty five degrees. She had evidently
more on her than she could bear; yet it was in vain to try to
take it in - the clewline was not strong enough; and they were
thinking of cutting away, when another wide yaw and a come-to,
snapped the guys, and the swinging boom came in, with a crash,
against the lower rigging.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 260 of 324
Words from 135788 to 136343
of 170236
