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Updated: June 13, 2025
The yacht heeled over almost on her beam ends, and a great wail went up from the seasick passengers as they swept across the cabin floor in a tangled mass and piled into a heap in the starboard bunks. But we had no time for them. The yacht, completing the manoeuvre, headed into the wind with slatting canvas, and righted to an even keel.
Rolling himself more tightly in his blankets, Linton addressed the darkness through chattering teeth. "Darned old fool! This'll teach him!" He strained his ears for sounds of Jerry, but could hear nothing above the slatting of wet canvas, the tattoo of drops, and the roar of wind in the tree- tops.
All the fiddles strummed With tuning up; the wood-winds made a ring Of reedy bubbling noises, and the sting Of sharp, red brass pierced every eardrum; patting From muffled tympani made a dark slatting
"I drove my long-legged steed into the water after the boat none too soon, for the whistling of a premonitory gust filled the air. Quickly through the water strode the camel, and, with his lariat in my hand, I plumped down upon the stern overhang just as the mainsail went slatting back and forth across the boat and everybody was ducking his head. In the confusion, nobody observed my arrival.
It is only when the time of trial comes, when the volunteers are called to man the boat that is to venture through the wild seas to pick off the crew of a foundering wreck, "when the jerking, slatting sail overhead must be got in somehow," though topmast and yard and sail may go any minute, when the quailing mate or frightened captain dares not order men to all but certain death, and still less dares to lead, then it is, when the lives of all hang on the heroism of one, that the good blood will assert itself.
Who would? He told me to go over and lash the wheel amidships, and I declined, as politely as I could. The wheel was spinning back and forth, the ship rolling in the trough, and the upper spars, hanging by their gear, slatting back and forth as the ship rolled. "Down on deck were those murderous wild beasts, nosing round, and only waiting for the chance of getting together.
And as I descended again to my state-room to dress, I heard him give the order to "down helm". The next moment the little hooker rose to an even keel, with a terrific slatting of canvas and whipping of relaxed sheets as she came head to wind; then, after a vicious plunge or two, head-on, into the long seas, she paid off on the opposite tack and heeled over to port.
Then followed some leisurely movements on deck, accompanied by the throwing down of a rope or two, the creaking of blocks and parralls, a few quiet ejaculations as of men pulling and hauling, the clink of windlass pawls, the loud slatting of loose canvas in the strong land-breeze that was blowing; and finally as the latter sounds ceased I felt the felucca heel strongly over to port, and heard the increasing gurgle and wash of water along the bends and under the counter of the little craft, accompanied by an occasional call from for'ard to the helmsman, by which I knew that we were under way, and standing down the harbour toward Port Royal.
By the time that all this had been accomplished, the wind had fallen away to a dead calm, and the only sounds audible were the creaking and groaning of the ship's timbers, the loud rattle of the cabin doors below upon their hooks, the wash of the sea alongside and under the counter, the constant irritating jerk-jerk of the tiller chains, and the violent rustle and slatting of the staysails, as the Dolphin rolled her channels under in the long, oily swell that was now running.
Ally Bazan had sobbed in his excitement over that vision and did not regain the power of articulate speech till the "loot" was safely stowed in the 'tween-decks and Hardenberg had given order to come about. "Now," he had observed dryly, "now, lads, it's Hongkong or bust." The tackle had fouled aloft and the jib hung slatting over the sprit like a collapsed balloon.
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