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They were all watching us, after the custom of the fleet in harbor. We knew this and behaved as smartly as we could without slopping over. By and by our skipper picked out a place to his fancy. "Stand by halyards and down-hauls," was his warning. "Ready all ready." "Ready with the anchor!" "All ready the anchor, sir!" "Down with your jib! Down with jumbo! Let go your fore halyards!
"Strike every sail, my lads; let go the sheets, man the down-hauls, lower ties and brails. Let us steer to the west, let us regain the high sea; head for the buoy, steer for the bell there's an offing down there. We've yet a chance." "Try," said the doctor. Let us remark here, by the way, that this ringing buoy, a kind of bell tower on the deep, was removed in 1802.
They sprang to their feet to hear the sailing-master's shout as one beholds lightning fall out of a blue sky: "See your halyards all clear for running." "Ay, ay, sir!" came the ringing answer. "Stand by your halyards and down-hauls." "Ay, ay, sir!" "Haul down the flying jib: take the bonnet off the jib, and put a reef in her," came the strong swift sentences.
They control absolutely sheets, halyards, clewlines, buntlines, braces, and down-hauls every sail on the fore and main. We control the braces on the mizzen, although they control the canvas on the mizzen. For that matter, Margaret and I fail to comprehend why they do not go aloft any dark night and sever the mizzen-braces at the yard-ends. All that prevents this, we are decided, is laziness.
Some of the ladies "squealed" when the gun went off, but all eyes were immediately directed to the yachts. The Christabel, with a reef in her fore and main sails, was next to the Penobscot; then came the Skylark, the Sea Foam, and the Phantom. Before the gun was fired, the captain had stationed a hand in each yacht at the cable, and others at the jib-halyards and down-hauls.
"Ay, ay!" cried Haven, with right good will. "You will heave to the ship, Mr. Haven," said the captain, when she had passed a short distance beyond the wreck. "Man the jib and flying-jib halyards and down-hauls," said the first lieutenant. "All ready forward, sir," replied the second lieutenant, on the forecastle. "Stand by the maintop bowline! Cast off! Man the main braces!"
The old darky, who had been gently soothed into slumber by the friction of the main sheet that served as a pillow, raised his grizzly head, gave one look in the direction indicated, and sprang to his feet, shouting wildly, "On deck der! man yo' wedder fo' an' main, lee clew garnets an' buntlines, topsail halyards an' down-hauls, jib down-haul, let go an' haul!" his voice fairly rising in a shriek that, with the rattling of the jib as it came down, might have been heard a mile away.
Her task was to hold the boat in position while I worked at the tangle. And such a tangle halyards, sheets, guys, down-hauls, shrouds, stays, all washed about and back and forth and through, and twined and knotted by the sea.
When the fore-topmast staysail and jib were to be set, somebody had fouled the down-hauls, so that they could not be hoisted. There was a kink in the halyards of the main-top gallant-sail, so that it would not run through the block. Clewlines, clew-garnets, leachlines, and buntlines were in a snarl.
"Watch her, boys. Now she's whooping look at her come!" And she was coming. Her windward side was lifted so high that her bottom planks could be seen. Her oil-skinned crew were crowded forward. There were men at the fore-halyards, at jib-halyards, at the down-hauls, and a group were standing by the anchor. Two men were at the wheel. She bit into it. There was froth at her mouth.