The Mate, On The Forecastle, Looks Out For The
Head Yards.
"Well, the fore topsail yard!" "Top-gallant yard's
well!" "Royal yard too much!
Haul into windward! So! well that!"
"Well all!" Then the starboard watch board the main tack, and the
larboard watch lay forward and board the fore tack and haul down
the jib sheet, clapping a tackle upon it, if it blows very fresh.
The after yards are then trimmed, the captain generally looking
out for them himself. "Well the cross-jack yard!" "Small pull the
main top-gallant yard!" "Well that!" "Well the mizen top-gallant
yard!" "Cross-jack yards all well!" "Well all aft!" "Haul taught
to windward!" Everything being now trimmed and in order, each man
coils up the rigging at his own station, and the order is given - "Go
below the watch!"
During the last twenty-four hours of the passage, we beat off and
on the land, making a tack about once in four hours, so that I
had a sufficient opportunity to observe the working of the ship;
and certainly, it took no more men to brace about this ship's
lower yards, which were more than fifty feet square, than it did
those of the Pilgrim, which were not much more than half the size;
so much depends upon the manner in which the braces run, and the
state of the blocks; and Captain Wilson, of the Ayacucho, who was
afterwards a passenger with us, upon a trip to windward, said he
had no doubt that our ship worked two men lighter than his brig.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 276 of 618
Words from 75437 to 75700
of 170236
