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He nodded to me as I ascended the poop ladder, and when I joined him in his fore- and-aft promenade of the weather side of the deck, jerked his head knowingly toward the skylight and remarked: "In his tantrums again? Ah! quite as I expected.
However, I did not want to run to leeward if I could help it, for though the Lily, being fore- and-aft rigged, was better suited to turning to windward in a narrow passage than any other class of vessel, I did not wish to risk the boat by the performance of such a hazardous operation, for I had heard that the channels through these reefs were, some of them, so contracted that there was positively no room for even a small vessel to tack in many of the reaches.
The doubled mainsail was then strained taut across the boat, and its edges tucked underneath the fore- and-aft lines outside the boat; the foresail was treated in the same way, but with its fore edge overlapped by about a foot of the after edge of the mainsail.
The fore- and-aft rig in its simplicity and the beauty of its aspect under every angle of vision is, I believe, unapproachable. A schooner, yawl, or cutter in charge of a capable man seems to handle herself as if endowed with the power of reasoning and the gift of swift execution.
She will look up nearly a point higher under her fore- and-aft canvas only, and go along very nearly as fast." Simpson needed no second bidding.
"She's as safe as if she was in harbour, not more'n a mile from the beach, and on the lee-side of the island; and as to gettin' her out, you've only to stand to the south'ard under fore- and-aft canvas, and it's my belief as she'd fetch out clear of the reef from where she's lyin' in one tack. You recollect as I told ye that the reef dipped as it went to the south'ard?
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