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This, under the weather conditions of the moment, was a task requiring the services of all hands, and by the orders of the chief mate, who was conducting the operations, Dick was stationed at the weather fore clew-garnet, with three other hands.
Marble hove from the mizen chains, the rope was caught, and a motion of my hand told Neb to keep the ship off, until everything drew. This was done, and the rattling of the clew-garnet blocks announced that Diogenes was hauling down the main-tack with the strength of a giant.
"I caught hold of the clew-garnet, sir O! I was leaning down to hear what Mr. Hamblin said, and bore my whole weight on the clew-garnet. It wasn't belayed, sir, O! and it let me down." Mr. Lowington desired to know what hands were stationed at the fore clew-garnets; but when they appeared, they were very confident they had belayed these ropes as usual.
Before he had reached this point of his remark, a new fellow by the name of Little, remarkable for his agility, dropped from the yard directly upon the top of the learned gentleman's hat, in fact, sitting down upon his "tile" as fairly and squarely as though the deed had been done on purpose, bringing with him the slack of the weather clew-garnet.
It was an hour after the conversation with Tibbets, that I was standing, holding on by the weather-main-clew-garnet, when I got a glimpse of breakers directly under our lee. I sung out, "there's breakers, and everybody must shift for himself." At the next instant, the brig rose on a sea, settled in the trough, and struck. The blow threw me off my feet, though I held on to the clew-garnet.
I, at least, plead guilty to having been sadly misled by this authority for many years, since it was only in the last ship I commanded that I learned the true way to take in the mainsail when it blows hard. The best practice certainly is, to man both buntlines and the lee leechline well, and then to haul the LEE clew-garnet close up, before starting the tack or slacking the bowline.
Passing under the bellying main-sail, whose clew-garnet blocks rattled as it expanded to the breeze, which was now blowing pretty stiff, with every indication of veering more round to the north, causing the yards to have a pull taken at the braces every now and then, our little procession soon got clear of the deck-house that occupied the centre of the main-deck, finally gaining the more open space between the cook's galley at the end and the topgallant forecastle.
The rattling of the clew-garnet blocks, as twenty lusty fellows ran forward with the tack of the mainsail, and the hauling forward of braces, was the signal that the ship was clear of ground, and coming under command.
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