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Updated: June 9, 2025
He stationed Ned in the standing-room to tend the jib-sheets and mind the centre-board. Two hands were at the cable, and two more at the jib-halyards. "Are you all ready forward?" called the skipper pro tem. of the Sea Foam. "All ready," replied the hands. And Donald waited with intense interest for the gun. Bang. "Let go! Hoist the jib!" cried Donald. The hands forward worked with a will.
Put him in a small boat and he is helpless. He will cut an even better figure on the hurricane deck of a horse. I shall never forget my child-astonishment when I first encountered one of these strange beings. He was a runaway English sailor. I was a lad of twelve, with a decked-over, fourteen-foot, centre-board skiff which I had taught myself to sail.
The money in his pocket, and that for which the Juno could be sold, would be capital enough to enable him to carry on the business of boat-building. But he was determined to see Captain Shivernock that very day in regard to the boat. Perhaps the strange man would give him a job to build a centre-board yacht, for he wanted one. "Hallo! Juno, ahoy!" shouted Laud Cavendish.
The young boat-builder had also remedied a slight defect in the arrangement of the centre-board in the Maud, had added a little to the size of the jib and mainsail, and he hoped these alterations would tell in favor of the new craft, while they would not take anything from her stiffness in heavy weather.
They soon followed, and I can see her now stooping in at the doorway, treading delicately, like a kitten, past the obstructive centre-board to a place on the starboard sofa, then taking in her surroundings with a timid rapture that broke into delight at all the primitive arrangements and dingy amenities of our den.
The trunk, which readers away from boatable waters may need to be informed is an elevation about a foot above the main deck, to afford head-room in the middle of the cabin, had three deck lights, or ports, on each side. At one end of the casing of the centre-board was a place for the water-jar, and a rack for tumblers. In the middle were hooks in the trunk-beams for the caster and the lantern.
The sheets had to be hauled in little by little, as she followed the contour of the land, till at the point below Turtle Head the yacht had the wind forward of the beam. Then came the home stretch, and the skipper trimmed his sails, adjusted the centre-board, and stationed his crew as live weights with the utmost care.
"This is a new boat, and I haven't got the hang of her yet," Donald explained. "Haul up that fin a little, Dick." "What fin?" "The centre-board." "Ay, ay," replied Dick, as he obeyed the order. "Steady! that's enough," continued Donald, who now narrowly watched the sailing of the Sea Foam, to assure himself that she did not make too much leeway.
Lily joined the boys in the forward cabin, as they called the space forward of the centre-board. She looked as pleased and happy as Dan and Cyd; and one would hardly have believed, from their appearance, that they were fugitives from slavery. All the talk about the chilly damps of the swamp, the perils and the hardships of the flight, appeared to have been forgotten.
"The end of her bowsprit is about even with the tip of our main boom," added Kennedy. "How much fin have we down, Dick?" asked the skipper. The mate of the Maud rushed to the cabin, where the line attached to the centre-board was made fast, and reported on its condition. "Haul up a little more," continued Donald. "Steady! Not the whole of it, but nearly all." "It is down about six inches now."
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