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Every encroachment upon the time allowed for rest appeared unnecessary. Every shifting of the studding-sails was only to ``haze'' the crew. In the midst of this state of things, my messmate Stimson and I petitioned the captain for leave to shift our berths from the steerage, where we had previously lived, into the forecastle.
A sailor told me that, on a passage from Gibraltar to Boston, his vessel neared the Gulf Stream with a light breeze, clear sky, and studding-sails out, alow and aloft; while before it was a long line of heavy, black clouds, lying like a bank upon the water, and a vessel coming out of it, under double-reefed topsails, and with royal yards sent down.
As the brig came more upon the wind, she felt it more, and we doused the skysails, but kept the weather studding-sails on her, bracing the yards forward, so that the swinging-boom nearly touched the spritsail yard. She now lay over to it, the wind was freshening, and the captain was evidently ``dragging on to her. His brother and Mr.
The Young America, with every rag of canvas set, including studding-sails alow and aloft, rolled and pitched gracefully on the long swells of the German Ocean. The wind was very light from the north-west, and there was hardly enough of it to give the ship steerage-way.
This done, the men were ordered to their guns, and all was ready for the commencement of the struggle. When within a distance of about three-quarters of a mile from the brig, the studding-sails of the Aurora were seen to suddenly collapse, and in a few seconds they had entirely disappeared, being taken in, all at once, man-o'-war fashion.
In this, and a few other points, lies the difference between a barque and a ship though the former is also usually smaller. The Pandora was large enough for a barque, carried a full suit of sail, even to flying-jibs, topgallant studding-sails, and royals; and was one of the fastest sailors I have ever known.
This lasted but a moment, however. Presently the Englishman's bow fell off, and by the time he was dead before the wind, we could see his studding-sails flapping in the air, as they were in the act of being distended, by means of halyards, tacks and sheets, all going at once. The mist shut in the ship again before all this could be executed. What was to be done next?
The studding-sails were rigged out, and various strange-shaped sails were set between the masts and above and below the bowsprit. The studding-sails, however, were quickly taken in again, as the wind was too much abeam to enable them to be carried.
Every encroachment upon the time allowed for rest, appeared unnecessary. Every shifting of the studding-sails was only to "haze" the crew. In this midst of this state of things, my messmate S and myself petitioned the captain for leave to shift our berths from the steerage, where we had previously lived, into the forecastle.
The light breeze, under which we carried studding-sails, and all the canvas that would draw, gradually wafted us towards the mouth of the river, yet so gently did we glide along that not one feature of the scene was lost; but it was not until we had passed the islands that screen its front, that its full magnificence was developed, and then, as by the drawing aside of a curtain, the harbor of Rio de Janeiro was displayed, a magnificent basin surrounded by innumerable hills, which were dotted with beautiful villas.
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