United States or Svalbard and Jan Mayen ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The ebb had already run some time, and I had to wade through a long belt of swampy sand, where I sank several times above the ankle, before I came to the edge of the retreating water, and wading a little way in, with some strength and dexterity, set my coracle, keel downwards, on the surface.
At one moment, your keel, perhaps, touches the sand; the next, you are lifted upon a wave and borne swiftly along for many yards, while the men lie on their oars, or only pull an occasional stroke, to keep the boat's head right.
It is difficult for a seaman to believe that his stranded ship does not feel as unhappy at the unnatural predicament of having no water under her keel as he is himself at feeling her stranded. Stranding is, indeed, the reverse of sinking.
The light of Monday morning's sun was very welcome to him; and when only its light gleamed in the gray east, he rose from his bed to begin the labors of the day. His father had enlarged the shop, so that he could build a yacht of the size of the Maud under its roof; and before breakfast time, he had prepared the bed, and levelled the blocks on which the keel was to rest.
Not very far distant Flask's boat was also lying breathlessly still; its commander recklessly standing upon the top of the loggerhead, a stout sort of post rooted in the keel, and rising some two feet above the level of the stern platform. It is used for catching turns with the whale line.
Now the squaring and shaping of these, and the cutting of the grooves in the keel, was an easy enough matter, as it was all work for the axe, in the use of which Jack was become wonderfully expert; but it was quite a different affair when he came to nailing the ribs to the keel, for we had no instrument capable of boring a large hole, and no nails to fasten them with.
Robert was out there under the shed, reclining in the shade against the sloping keel of the overturned boat. He was reading from a book. Tonie was no longer with him. She wondered what had become of the rest of the party. She peeped out at him two or three times as she stood washing herself in the little basin between the windows.
"Oh, very well; that's it, then. Stow all that talking, mate, and let's have a go at 'em again. Strikes me we'd better drive 'em overboard this time." "Ay, but then they'd come up through the keel or in at the hawse-holes," growled Tom Fillot. "Silence!" said Mark, sharply. "Who else is down here?" "There's me," said Stepney. "Fillot, Stepney, Bannock, and the black, isn't it?" "Ay, ay, sir.
Formerly they were spoken of as "bullies;" but this, among the colliers, means "brothers," or is derived from "boolie," that is, "beloved." Though their manners are rough, their character is good, and they are remarkably friendly to each other. Being all "keel bullies" or "keel brothers," they support an extensive establishment in Newcastle called the "Keelmen's Hospital."
It was a great satisfaction to annoy him, independently of the result to be gained. Wilton proposed to "keelhaul" him. This was a barbarous punishment, formerly in use in the English and Dutch navies, and consisted in dragging the culprit under the keel of the vessel by ropes attached to the opposite yard-arms.
Word Of The Day