United States or Marshall Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
To have exposed either of their persons in the stern of the scow would have been certain death, but fortunately the sheet to which the man clung led forward to the foot of the sail. The Delaware found means to unloosen it from the cleet aft, and Hist, who was already forward for that purpose, immediately began to pull upon the line.
Four of them jumped into her, the remaining two cast off the falls, and began to lower away hastily. "You cowardly dogs!" shouted the second mate, rushing up to the nearest man, tearing the after-fall out of his hands, and making it fast again round the cleet, and then springing at the other man, who paused irresolutely, intimidated by Atkin's threatening visage.
Whether it was from consciousness of his connection with the escape of Jack, and apprehensions of the consequences, or from innate good-nature, and a desire to befriend the lovers, this black now admitted that Jack confessed to him that the boat had got away from him while endeavouring to shift the turns of its painter from a cleet where they ought not to be, to their proper place.
Instead of penetrating the lake, however, it glanced from its smooth surface, rose, and buried itself in the logs of the cabin near the spot at which Chingachgook had shown himself the minute before, while clearing the line from the cleet.
There is no necessity for the sashes being hinged at the bottom, as might be supposed; all that is required being to nail a cleet along the wall plate, fitted tight to the bottom of each sash. Every alternate sash is nailed down; the other is used in giving air in the manner described. The advantages of such erections are so obvious, that I need not trespass much on your space to enumerate them.
When this vessel was being launched, the cleet on the bow gave way, in consequence of the bolts breaking, and let the vessel down so that the bilge came in contact with the wharf, and she remained suspended between the water and the wharf for a length of about 110 feet, but without any injury to the plates of the ship; satisfactorily proving the great strength of this form of construction.
A rope was tied slack under his armpits, and, reaching up at the risk of our lives, we hung him on the fore-sheet cleet. He emitted no sound; he looked as ridiculously lamentable as a doll that had lost half its sawdust, and we started on our perilous journey over the main deck, dragging along with care that pitiful, that limp, that hateful burden.
"It may be only fancy, but there came a sound like the fall of an oar-blade on a thwart, and 'tis but natural, your Honor, to expect the mounsheer will be out, in this smooth water, to see what has become of us. There went the flash of a light, or my name is not Bob Cleet!" Ludlow was silent.
The sailors ran forward with the rope, but as the sail rose the strain was so great that once or twice they were brought to a standstill. At last the boatswain shouted: "That is enough. Come back a little, but keep a firm grip of it. That is right!" he shouted, as he twisted the slack of the rope over the cleet. "Now, lads, down with the tack; down with it! Belay!"
My efforts proved successful; and, after half-a-dozen blows, the spikes yielded, and the cleet of timber flew off. I did not stay to raise the grating; I knew that would be done by the pressure from below; and, gliding back, I once more climbed over the bows. One glance back, as I passed over the head, told me that my purpose had been fully accomplished.
Word Of The Day