press-sail

Updated: July 9, 2026

* The commodore declared that he carried a press-sail night and day, in order to come up with the French squadron, and took every step that could be devised for that purpose. He says, if he had pursued any other course, the French commander might have run into the road of St. Kitt's, and destroyed or taken a great number of merchant ships which were then loading with sugar for England.

T. (Tobias) Smollett - The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. : Continued from the Reign of William and Mary to the Death of George II.