The Whaler, However, Was As Far To Leeward Of Us, And The
Loriotte Was Nearly Out Of Sight, Among The
Islands, up the Canal.
By hauling every brace and bowline, and clapping watch-tackles upon
all the sheets and halyards,
We managed to hold our own, and drop
the leeward vessels a little in every tack. When we reached the
anchoring-ground, the Ayacucho had got her anchor, furled her
sails, squared her yards, and was lying as quietly as if nothing
had happened for the last twenty-four hours.
We had our usual good luck in getting our anchor without letting go
another, and were all snug, with our boats at the boom-ends, in half
an hour. In about two hours more, the whaler came in, and made a
clumsy piece of work in getting her anchor, being obliged to let
go her best bower, and finally, to get out a kedge and a hawser.
They were heave-ho-ing, stopping and unstopping, pawling, catting,
and fishing, for three hours; and the sails hung from the yards all
the afternoon, and were not furled until sundown. The Loriotte came
in just after dark, and let go her anchor, making no attempt to pick
up the other until the next day.
This affair led to a great dispute as to the sailing of our ship
and the Ayacucho. Bets were made between the captains, and the
crews took it up in their own way; but as she was bound to leeward
and we to windward, and merchant captains cannot deviate, a trial
never took place; and perhaps it was well for us that it did not,
for the Ayacucho had been eight years in the Pacific, in every part
of it - Valparaiso, Sandwich Islands, Canton, California, and all,
and was called the fastest merchantman that traded in the Pacific,
unless it was the brig John Gilpin, and perhaps the ship Ann McKim
of Baltimore.
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