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Updated: May 21, 2025
He had to instruct them to row together, and to accustom the port oarsmen to pull starboard from time to time. He also kept his command well caulked, and saw the chocks and skids secure when his boat was hoisted to the deck. In far later times they seem to have been a rating of elderly and sober seamen who took the helm, two and two together, in addition to their other duties.
He said quietly, "Yonder, my lads!" They rounded the point, and put the boat's head nearer to windward. A harsh ripping sound was heard under the bottom. She lay hard over until a blast came and tore her clear. Billy Armstrong said "You have taken her in a bit too near, my son. The bilge chocks is both pulled off; look you, they're gone away astern."
I went to fetch them, and got them safely, though the drunkards tried to stop me, and said that they only wanted me to sing them a song to be as happy as kings. However, I got away from them, and carried my belongings aft. I then took the tarpaulin boat-rug, which covered our little Norwegian pram or skiff, on its chocks between the masts.
To these were added two other heavy pieces as chocks, which were intended to keep the huge spars in their places. Neither stays nor shrouds were used. The main yards were made of teak quite rough; the upper one was seventy-five feet long, and the lower sixty. The sails were made of closely-woven matting, a substance much lighter than canvas.
The chocks had not yet been taken out from under the boxes, so that they stood high. Against such a barricade cavalry was helpless. There was no warrior who wanted to follow Jackson's example of getting inside. For an instant there came no order to fire. The men were reaching into the wagons to unsling their rifles from the riding loops fastened to the bows.
Seizing the boat-knife, he critically reached within through and then, without the rays of steel; dragged in the line beyond, passed it inboard, to the bowsman, and then, twice sundering the rope near the chocks dropped the intercepted fagot of steel into the sea; and was all fast again.
Others were preparing the longboat and jolly-boat for service, which was a tedious job, for the gunwales and bottom planking of both had been damaged greatly by the knocking about they had sustained since leaving England, even if they had been properly seaworthy then a very problematical point, for many of the boats of merchant ships which carry passengers on distant voyages are never taken off the chocks or tested from year's end to year's end, in spite of all marine codes and Passenger Acts or Board of Trade ordinances to the contrary, and Mr Plimsoll's effort notwithstanding!
So presently the Adventurer's tender was lifted off the chocks and put overboard and after hasty toilets the boys piled into it and the two dingeys, each loaded to the limit, set off for the Follow Me.
As they did so, Legionaries hoisted the plank aboard, with its tackle, and lashed it to the waiting chocks. Others could be heard, in the penetralia of the vast structure, coming, going, busily at work. The entrance door slid shut. A bolt shot home. All the Legion was now aboard, and communication with the ground had been broken.
Caught and twisted corkscrewed in the mazes of the line, loose harpoons and lances, with all their bristling barbs and points, came flashing and dripping up to the chocks in the bows of Ahab's boat. Only one thing could be done.
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