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Updated: June 16, 2025
Brail wishes to know, sir, if he'll bend the new mainsail to-day, as it's blowing rather fresh, and he thinks the spars light. "'Why the devil take him, he would not have us go out in a hurricane; surely, Pipes, we could not take out ladies to-day? "'O, bless your heart, yes, sir; it blows a bit to be sure, but she's a good sea-boat, and we can run for Arklow or the Hook, if it comes fresher.
The one chance for the broad-beamed old boat, with her small sail-area, was a gale of wind, for here her wonderful qualities as a sea-boat came in.
She was a trim, graceful thing, with all the appearance of an excellent sea-boat, and though she looked like a craft that could stand a lot of heavy weather, she had the advantage of being so light in draught something under three feet that it was possible for her to enter the shallowest harbour.
"Nothing less; and though the opinion of a fore-mast Jack may be of little value, you will not be displeased to hear, that I might look further without finding a prettier sea-boat, or a swifter, than the one which sails under your own orders.
Wrapping our cloaks about us, and drawing our fur caps over our faces, we slept securely in the soft air of a tropical clime, undisturbed save by the hoarse voice of the black captain crying "ready, bout" and the flapping of the sails, and the creaking of the cordage, in the frequent tackings of our staunch little sea-boat.
All through the night and the whole of the succeeding day the gale continued to rage furiously, and although the Mermaid proved herself to be an unexpectedly good sea-boat in such exceptionally heavy weather, riding easily the mountainous sea that was now running, she rolled with such terrific violence that it was impossible to move anywhere on board her, whether on deck or below, without incurring the risk of serious injury.
It was blowing hard when the boys finished their dinner, but no harder than it had already blown several times that day; and "The Swallow" seemed to be putting forth her very best qualities as a "sea-boat."
"With ease and comfort," replied Bob. "Now look here, Harry. You've a rare eye for a sea-boat, and mine ain't bad, for that matter; let's draught her out ourselves, since it's our own lives as we are going to trust in her; and if we don't turn out, between us, as pretty a sea-boat as ever floated, why, turn to and lay me up in ordinary for the rest of my days for a useless old hulk, that's all.
Would if I hadn't knowed every stick o' timber in 'er and jest what she could stagger under." "But she was a good sea-boat," I interpolated. "The Screamer was always the pride of the work." "None better. You'd a-thought so if you'd been with us that night off Hatteras; we layin' to, hatches battened down. I never see it blow wuss.
So "No. 290" "crashed on" at top speed, and on the 10th of August "Land, ho!" was called from the foremasthead, and she brought up at Porto Praya in Terceira. During this trying voyage the new vessel had given full promise of those splendid qualities as a sea-boat, on which depended so much of the extraordinary success of her after career.
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