We Put On Short Duck Frocks, And
Taking A Small Bucket Of Tar And A Bunch Of Oakum In Our Hands We
Went Aloft, One At The Main Royal-Mast-Head And The Other At The Fore,
And Began Tarring Down.
This is an important operation, and is usually
done about once in six months in vessels upon a long voyage.
It was
done in our vessel several times afterwards, but by the whole crew
at once, and finished off in a day; but at this time, as most of it
came upon two of us, and we were new at the business, it took us
several days. In this operation they always begin at the mast-head
and work down, tarring the shrouds, back-stays, standing parts of
the lifts, the ties, runners, etc., and go out to the yard-arms,
and come in, tarring, as they come, the lifts and foot-ropes.
Tarring the stays is more difficult, and is done by an operation
which the sailors call "riding down." A long piece of rope -
top-gallant-studding-sail halyards, or something of the kind -
is taken up to the mast-head from which the stay leads, and rove
through a block for a girt-line, or, as the sailors usually call it,
a gant-line; with the end of this a bowline is taken round the stay,
into which the man gets with his bucket of tar and a bunch of oakum,
and the other end being fast on deck, with some one to tend it, he
is lowered down gradually, and tars the stay carefully as he goes.
There he "sings aloft 'twixt heaven and earth," and if the rope slips,
breaks, or is let go, or if the bowline slips, he falls overboard or
breaks his neck.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 77 of 618
Words from 20787 to 21088
of 170236
