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As for his feelings on the day on which he can tell for certain the upper fore topsail from the upper fore top-gallant sail, and either of these from the fore skysail, the crossjack, or the mizzen-royal, they are those of a man who has mastered a language and discovers himself, to his surprise, talking it fluently.
"Ay! you have fallen in there with a fresh bolt of duck, I see!" said the other, in manifest admiration of the texture of his companion's prize "why, it would spread as broad a clew as our mizzen-royal, if it was loosened!
The wind moderated when we got below the Azores, while the sea also ceased its tumultuous whirl, so that we were able to make all plain sail and carry-on without rolling as before; so, now, at last, I was allowed to go aloft, my first essay being to assist Tom Jerrold in setting the mizzen-royal.
When the watch had braced the yards, the mate ordered the spanker brailed in and the mizzen-royal clued up, as the ship steered hard. This was done, and the men coiled up the gear. "Let the spanker hang in the brails; tie up the royal," ordered the mate from his position at the break of the poop. "Aye, aye, sir," answered a voice from the group, and an active figure sprang into the rigging.
"What are you looking at?" asked the captain. "Nothing, sir," answered the man. "Then keep your eye on the mizzen-royal," said the old man, as if he were forgetting that we weren't a square-rigger. "Ay, ay, sir," said the man. The captain told me to go below and work up the latitude from the dead-reckoning, and he went forward of the deck-house and sat down to read, as he often did.
Still, I did not stop to answer him, being in too great a hurry to join Tom Jerrold and the others aft in taking in the mizzen-royal and topgallant my fellow apprentices having had time already to get aloft while I was rolling on the deck forward like a trussed fowl!
Taking his stand on the hawse-block, he drew from his pocket a small note-book, cast upon it his eye and announced doubtless through the trumpet "Man the fore-royal braces!" Again a pause, and further reference. "Man the main-royal braces!" Again a pause: "Man the mizzen-royal braces Man all the royal braces."
"Peter, what's the use of being officer of the deck if you don't do anything? Tell me something to do." "Well," Peter replied, "you might send all the watch aft and take in the mizzen-royal" the mizzen-royal being the smallest of all sails, requiring about two ordinary men, and in no wise missed when in. This was practical "tales for the marines."
It vanished instantly; but I was not satisfied, and went for the glass which lay upon the brackets just under the companion. I then told the man who was steering to keep her away a couple of points for a few moments; and resting the glass against the mizzen-royal backstay, pointed it toward the place where I had seen the black object.
I may say I assisted at the operation, being one of the hands who went aloft to set the mizzen-royal; and, I may add, that father told me when I came home on the termination of our cruise, at the end of the ensuing spring, our exploit was the talk of the town for months afterwards!
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