Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 27, 2025
Heave-to, and strike, sir, to His Britannic Majesty's schooner Tern!" The only reply to this was a rattling volley of musketry, evidently aimed at me as I stood on the weather rail, just abaft the main rigging, for I heard the bullets whistling all round my head. "If you don't heave-to, sir," I exclaimed angrily, "by heaven, I will fire into and sink you!"
Meanwhile the gale was steadily growing fiercer, and the sea rising higher and becoming more dangerous with every mile that we traversed in our blind, headlong flight before it; and it appeared to me that the option whether I should continue the pursuit of the stranger would soon be taken from me by the imperative necessity to heave-to if I would avoid the almost momentarily increasing danger of the schooner being pooped, when a piercing cry of "Breakers ahead?" burst from the two men on the look-out forward, instantly followed by the still more startling cry of "Breakers on the port bow!"
"And if your committee, or comity, gentlemen," he added, "can tell me what Vattel would say about the obligation to heave-to in a time of profound peace, and when the ship, or boat, in chase, can have no belligerent rights, I shall be grateful to my dying day; for I have looked him through as closely as old women usually examine almanacks to tell which way the wind is about to blow, and I fear he has overlooked the subject altogether."
The weather was choppy, but not too bad, and I decided to exercise the gun's crew, though I did not think there would be much doing, as the Spaniards soon give in. I opened fire at six thousand metres, and pitched a shell ahead of her and ran up the signal to heave-to. The wretched little craft paid no attention, and continued on her lumbering course.
Just at this instant, the signal was made. The sudden check to the movement of the Cæsar brought the Dublin booming up in the darkness, when putting her helm up, that ship surged slowly past to leeward, resembling a black mountain moving by in the gloom. She was hailed and directed to heave-to, also, as soon as far enough ahead.
The splashing made by the oars ceased, and Tom put his lips close to Aleck's ear. "You arn't going to surrender, are yer, Master Aleck?" "No; use your oar as a pole, and get us farther away." "Do you hear there?" cried another voice. "Heave-to, or I'll fire." "All gammon, Master Aleck; I know. Don't believe they've got any pistols." "There was a shot fired," said Aleck. "Orficer's, p'raps, sir.
The gunboat continued firing, and after a time began to send solid shot after the flying Quernmore, as a stronger hint to heave-to; but her guns were not powerful enough for the range, and the shot dropped harmlessly into the water far away astern.
I waited until he was within hail, and then told him to heave-to well clear of the ship, as I proposed to cut adrift all the wreck, a task which I thought I could manage without very much difficulty, and which, when done, would enable the Water Lily to come alongside to leeward.
I sung out, with no little satisfaction. We hauled up a little, and stood for her. She had seen us and shortened sail. "What vessel is that?" I inquired. "A prize to his Majesty's ship Harold," answered the voice of Adam Stallman. "All right; we want your aid. Heave-to, and send your boat aboard, with the people well-armed," I sung out.
"Captain Ahab mistakes; it is I. The oil in the hold is leaking, sir. We must up Burtons and break out." "Up Burtons and break out? Now that we are nearing Japan; heave-to here for a week to tinker a parcel of old hoops?" "Either do that, sir, or waste in one day more oil than we may make good in a year. What we come twenty thousand miles to get is worth saving, sir."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking