United States or Albania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They control absolutely sheets, halyards, clewlines, buntlines, braces, and down-hauls every sail on the fore and main. We control the braces on the mizzen, although they control the canvas on the mizzen. For that matter, Margaret and I fail to comprehend why they do not go aloft any dark night and sever the mizzen-braces at the yard-ends. All that prevents this, we are decided, is laziness.
"We'll do it . . . but can't something be cookin' in the galley while we're doin' it?" I shook my head. "I didn't have that in mind, and I don't care to change my mind now. When every sail is stretched and every yard braced, and all that mess of gear cleared up, food for a good meal will be served out. You needn't bother about the spanker nor the mizzen-braces.
The watches will be changing, and we'll have the use of both of them, without working a hardship on the watch below by calling it out now." And when both watches were on deck Captain West, again in oilskins, came out of the chart-house. Mr. Pike, out on the bridge, took charge of the many men who, on deck and on the poop, were to manage the mizzen-braces, while Mr.
All the braces were taken from the main deck pin-rails and geared and arranged so that they may be worked from the tops of the houses. Thus, the fore-braces run to the top of the forecastle, the main-braces to the top of the 'midship-house, and the mizzen-braces to the poop. It is evident that they expect our main deck frequently to be filled with water.
It is true the mizzen-braces were still rigged aft to the poop, according to Horn practice. But, while we could thus trim the mizzen-yards, the sails themselves, in setting or furling, were in the hands of the for'ard crowd.
As I pulled on my steaming mittens and hurried my best up the reeling stairs, I could hear the stamp of men's feet that for once were not lagging. In the chart-house hall I heard Mr. Pike, who had already covered the length of the bridge from the for'ard-house, shouting: "Mizzen-braces! Slack, damn you! Slack on the run! But hold a turn! Aft, here, all of you! Jump!
Word Of The Day