But Our Captain Says All
Praus Are So; And Though He Acknowledges The Danger, "He Does Not
Know How To
Alter it - the people are used to it; he does not
understand praus so well as they do, and if
Such a great
alteration were made, he should be sure to have difficulty in
getting a crew!" This proves at all events that praus must be
good sea-boats, for the captain has been continually making
voyages in them for the last ten years, and says he has never
known water enough enter to do any harm.
Dec.25th.-Christmas-day dawned upon us with gusts of wind,
driving rain, thunder and lightning, added to which a short
confused sea made our queer vessel pitch and roll very
uncomfortably. About nine o'clock, however, it cleared up, and we
then saw ahead of us the fine island of Bouru, perhaps forty or
fifty miles distant, its mountains wreathed with clouds, while
its lower lands were still invisible. The afternoon was fine, and
the wind got round again to the west; but although this is really
the west monsoon, there is no regularity or steadiness about it,
calms and breezes from every point of the compass continually
occurring. The captain, though nominally a Protestant, seemed to
have no idea of Christmas-day as a festival. Our dinner was of
rice and curry as usual, and an extra glass of wine was all I
could do to celebrate it.
Dec. 26th. - Fine view of the mountains of Bouru, which we have
now approached considerably. Our crew seem rather a clumsy lot.
They do not walk the deck with the easy swing of English sailors,
but hesitate and stagger like landsmen. In the night the lower
boom of our mainsail broke, and they were all the morning
repairing it. It consisted of two bamboos lashed together, thick
end to thin, and was about seventy feet long. The rigging and
arrangement of these praus contrasts strangely with that of
European vessels, in which the various ropes and spars, though
much more numerous, are placed so as not to interfere with each
other's action. Here the case is quite different; for though
there are no shrouds or stays to complicate the matter, yet
scarcely anything can be done without first clearing something
else out of the way. The large sails cannot be shifted round to
go on the other tack without first hauling down the jibs, and the
booms of the fore and aft sails have to be lowered and completely
detached to perform the same operation. Then there are always a
lot of ropes foul of each other, and all the sails can never be
set (though they are so few) without a good part of their surface
having the wind kept out of them by others. Yet praus are much
liked even by those who have had European vessels, because of
their cheapness both in first cost and in keeping up; almost all
repairs can be done by the crew, and very few European stores are
required.
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