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Updated: May 21, 2025
He went and stood by the haulyards, ready to lower away. As I walked across to the starboard clewline, I saw that the Old Man was on deck, and as I took hold of the rope, I heard him sing out to the Second Mate. "Call all hands to shorten sail, Mr. Tulipson." "Very good, Sir," the Second Mate replied. Then he raised his voice: "Go forrard, you, Jessop, and call all hands to shorten sail.
The hands at the clewline walked away with it, until the rope bore hard on the throat of the carpenter. All this was done in an instant, for Phillips had carefully adjusted all the details of his share of the work. Bitts tried to cry out; but when he did so, Phillips ordered the hands at the buntline to haul taut.
Captain Brisac did not, however, himself go aloft this time; Mr Clewline, the second lieutenant, happened to be on deck at the moment, and the skipper handed him the glass, with a polite request that he would "see what he could make of her."
This was not answered at all; on the contrary, the Frenchman hauled down his lanterns and wore short round, crowding sail at the same moment; whereupon the "Amethyst" also bore up again and Clewline must have had his men aloft all the time, ready for the emergency as she squared away in chase, we saw her stunsails fluttering out to their boom-ends on both sides.
"I can hand, reef, and steer, box the compass, pull an oar, or sail a boat; and I know the name and place of every spar, sail, and rope throughout the ship." "Aha! say you so? Then you will prove indeed a valuable acquisition. What is the name of this rope?" "The main-topgallant clewline," I answered, casting my eye aloft to note the "lead" of the rope. "Right!" he replied with a smile.
The clewline blocks rattled, and the top-gallant sails, which were made to do the duty of top-sails, but which would hardly spread to the lower yards, so as to set on a wind, came rapidly in. Five minutes of intense doubt followed, when the captain gave the animating order to "Man the main-clew garnets, boys, and stand by to make a run of it!"
The French frigate immediately edged away about four points and showed some lanterns, but they were not a reply to the "Amethyst's" signal; so Clewline tried another to make quite sure of avoiding any mistake.
"Old Sennitt" as he was irreverently termed in the midshipmen's berth was one of the earliest to put in an appearance after breakfast, and his first act was to go straight aloft with his glass. He devoted more time even than Mr Clewline to the examination of the stranger, and it was not until Captain Brisac had returned to the deck and hailed him that he made a move.
"For why?" said he; "a seafaring man may have a sweetheart in every port; but he should steer clear of a wife, as he would avoid a quicksand. You see, brother, how this here Clewline lags astern in the wake of a snivelling b -h; otherwise he would never make a weft in his ensign for the loss of a child odds heart! he could have done no more if he had sprung a top-mast, or started a timber."
I led him to my apartment, where he sat a full hour in that state of stupefaction; then he began to groan hideously, a shower of tears burst from his eyes, he threw himself on the floor, and uttered the most piteous lamentation that ever was heard. Meanwhile, Mrs. Norton being made acquainted with the doctor's prognostic, visited Mrs. Clewline, and invited her to the lodge.
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