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Updated: May 12, 2025
The trade wind was blowing fresh enough to compel us to furl our topgallant sail, but it was steady, and under a whole topsail and mainsail the little hooker drove ahead over the long, regular ridges of swell at a good, honest, nine-knot pace hour after hour, as steadily as the chronometer itself.
Scarcely had the mate fetched a blanket from below and turned in on deck, than a brisk steady breeze sprang up from off the land, sending the Arangi through the smooth water at a nine-knot clip. For a time Jerry tried to stand the watch with Skipper, but he soon curled up and dozed off, partly on the deck and partly on Skipper's bare feet.
We ran before a nine-knot breeze, and shortly before noon, after two hours' southing, we were off the half-way house, reef-girt Dog Island, and Dog Point, in the Barra country. The dull green stream sparkled in the sun, and the fringe of mangroves appeared deciduous: some trees were bare, as if dead; others were clothed with bright foliage.
There was space to spare on the seat beside Hal, and into this Jack Benson sank. “Say, you ought to sleep until afternoon,” was Hastings’s next greeting, but Jack was looking out of the conning tower at the scene around him. The three craft were leaving the coast directly behind. About three hundred yards away, abeam, steamed the “Hudson” at a nine-knot gait.
As for the brig, she was swarming along at a nine-knot pace under all plain sail supplemented by her starboard studding-sail, with her mast-heads sweeping in wide arcs athwart the blue as she swayed and rose and sank in long, floating rushes over the rugged ridges of the pursuing swell, while dazzling sunshine and purple shadow chased each other in and out of the hollows of her canvas and athwart her grimy decks.
The most curious was a mule-litter, which was simply a sedan between two animals. Felipe drove the launch at a nine-knot speed, and at half-past three in the afternoon the boat arrived at Tung-chow. Contrary to their expectation, the passengers had greatly enjoyed the trip; but it was out of their own hilarity rather than their surroundings.
There was space to spare on the seat beside Hal, and into this Jack Benson sank. "Say, you ought to sleep until afternoon," was Hastings's next greeting, but Jack was looking out of the conning tower at the scene around him. The three craft were leaving the coast directly behind. About three hundred yards away, abeam, steamed the "Hudson" at a nine-knot gait.
Seventy horse-power our engine is, and since we expect it to drive us along at a nine-knot clip, we do not know the name of a river with a current swift enough to defy us. We expect to do a lot of inland work. The smallness of the Snark makes this possible. When we enter the land, out go the masts and on goes the engine. There are the canals of China, and the Yang-tse River.
It was plain, too, that Captain Rayburn had noticed the fact, for his crew were setting the gaff-topsails on the fore and main masts. Something of the enthusiasm of a race was aroused on board. Felipe had worked up his machine to the nine-knot gauge; and in spite of the added sail on the Delhi, the boat was overhauling her.
I wish my little brothers were here to play with me. The day is very pleasant, with a good breeze. We are going ten or eleven knots an hour. The day is very pleasant. A nine-knot breeze. Nothing new happened to-day. The day is pleasant. Six-knot breeze."
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