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And on either side they saw a harbour, with a narrow mouth, but wide within; and black ships without number, high and dry upon the shore. Then Ancaios, the wise helmsman, spoke, 'What new wonder is this? I know all isles, and harbours, and the windings of all seas; and this should be Corcyra, where a few wild goat-herds dwell. But whence come these new harbours and vast works of polished stone?
One minute the great structure would rise dizzily, high into the black blast, a skyscraper flung up on a mountain Madden could look far below on the lights of the struggling Vulcan. Up there the storm yelled and screamed at every corner and brace of the weltering dock, and wrenched at the midget helmsman.
As I did so, the helmsman, with his eye on the weather leach of the main-topgallant-sail, said: "Don't look at me, or take any notice of me, sir, because I don't want them skowbanks for'ard to see me a-talkin' to you; but I've got somethin' very partic'lar as I should like to s'y, if I can only find a chaunce." "Well, fire away then, my lad," said I. "No time like the present.
Because, my lords and gentlemen, the State is indeed a ship, and demands a skilful helmsman' you must not think that they were actually penned by the Right Honourable William Pitt. But I feel sure the sentiments are such as he would have approved, and perhaps might have uttered had the occasion arisen."
He reappeared, and resumed his silent parade of the bridge. The helmsman grinned at the mate. By then the wind had fallen, the seas were more deliberate; there came a suffusion of thin sunlight, insufficient and too late to expand our outlook, for the night began to fill the hollows of the Dogger almost at once, and soon there was nothing to be seen but the glimmer of breaking waves.
Oh, all ye sweet powers of air, now hug me close! Let not Starbuck die, if die he must, in a woman's fainting fit. Up helm, I say ye fools, the jaw! the jaw! Is this the end of all my bursting prayers? all my life-long fidelities? Oh, Ahab, Ahab, lo, thy work. Steady! helmsman, steady. Nay, nay! Up helm again! He turns to meet us!
The helmsman also was to have an eye to the enemy, to luff when she luffed, and "putte roomer," or sail large, when he saw her helmsman put the helm up. If the enemy made signs that she was about to lay the ship aboard, either by loosing more sail, or altering her course, the gunner had to remember certain things.
There for two nights and two days we lay continually, consuming our hearts with weariness and sorrow. But when the fair-tressed Dawn had at last brought the full light of the third day, we set up the masts and hoisted the white sails and sat us down, while the wind and the helmsman guided the ships.
One of the rowers in the other boat had "crabbed" his oar and lost it overboard, or the colonel's plan would have succeeded. "Put down the helm, Cyd! Luff, luff!" shouted Dan, as he fathomed the purpose of his master. "Luff um 'tis!" replied the helmsman. The Isabel was running tolerably free at the time the order was given, and when she luffed up, the planter's boat lay directly in her path.
Even as Dalzell spoke the helm was jammed over and the boat started to come about. "Confound Lambert! He ought to ease off his sheet a good bit," snapped Midshipman Dalzell. "Helmsman, point our boat so as to pass under the other craft's stern," spoke Darrin so quietly that only Dan and Belle overheard him. "Aye, aye, sir," murmured the helmsman, in a very low voice.
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