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.
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