We Manned The Weather Yard-Arm, And Set To
Work To Make A Furl Of It.
Our lower masts being short, and our
yards very square, the sail had a head of nearly fifty feet,
And a short leach, made still shorter by the deep reef which
was in it, which brought the clew away out on the quarters of
the yard, and made a bunt nearly as square as the mizen royal-
yard. Beside this difficulty, the yard over which we lay was
cased with ice, the gaskets and rope of the foot and leach of
the sail as stiff and hard as a piece of suction-hose, and the
sail itself about as pliable as though it had been made of sheets
of sheathing copper. It blew a perfect hurricane, with alternate
blasts of snow, hail, and rain. We had to fist the sail with
bare hands. No one could trust himself to mittens, for if he
slipped, he was a gone man. All the boats were hoisted in on
deck, and there was nothing to be lowered for him. We had need
of every finger God had given us. Several times we got the sail
upon the yard, but it blew away again before we could secure it.
It required men to lie over the yard to pass each turn of the
gaskets, and when they were passed, it was almost impossible to
knot them so that they would hold. Frequently we were obliged to
leave off altogether and take to beating our hands upon the sail,
to keep them from freezing.
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