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Updated: June 8, 2025
The reef-tackle was rounded cautiously in, and its end rose to the surface without the hand that had so lately grasped it. The man himself never re-appeared. Captain Truck had now the means of setting three stay-sails, the spanker, and the fore-course; sails sufficient, he thought, to answer his present purposes.
'Tis as if a three-master were sailing before the breeze, with stay-sails wind- bellied, scudding along wave-skimming, and you should throw out two- tongued anchorage and iron stoppers and ship-fetters, and block her foaming course, in envy of her fair-windedness. 'Why then, if you will, splash and dash and crash through the waves; and I upsoaring, and drinking the while, will watch like Homer's Zeus from some bald-crowned hill or from Heaven-top, while you and your ship are swept along with the wind behind you.
Extra "gaskets" were put upon the sails, and everything movable about the decks was made as secure as it could be. Only the two close-reefed topsails and two storm stay-sails were carried, so that we were in excellent trim for fighting the bad weather when it did come. The sky gradually darkened and assumed a livid green tint, the effect of which was most peculiar.
The sky, against which the top-gallant stay-sails shewed gull-white in the sun, had the cold blue of the sea and was hung round at the horizon by clouds like the white clouds that hang round the Pacific Trades.
For an hour our feelings alternated between hope and despair. The ship was evidently making her way in the di- rection of the raft, but every now and then she seemed to stop, and then our hearts would almost stand still with agony lest she was going to put about. She carried all her canvas, even to her royals and stay-sails, but her hull was only partially visible above the horizon.
The noise of the wind "waxed louder and louder;" it was like one continued peal of thunder; and the enormous waves, as they rose, were instantly beheaded by its fury, and sent in foaming spray along the bosom of the deep; the storm stay-sails flew to atoms; the captain, officers, and men stood aghast, looking at each other, and waiting the awful event in utter amazement.
At day-light on the morning of the 21st, the fore, main, and mizzen stay-sails were all split by the violence of the wind; by this accident we were reduced to the reefed fore-sail and balanced mizzen; and for some time we were under the necessity of handing the fore-sail, the gale still continuing to increase rather than abate; and inclining to the eastward of south, was in our situation at this time particularly unfortunate: for we were now so far advanced to the eastward as to hope that in a few hours we should have been able to have made a fair wind of it, if it had continued to the southward.
But Mr Ferguson was not a sailor, or he would have known that it is the custom to reduce the grace in proportion with the canvas. When the royals are set, we submit to a homily; under double-reefed topsails, a blessing; but under storm stay-sails, an ejaculation is considered as orthodox.
Dick Sand had finished his task, and seizing one of the starboard backstays, he slid to the deck. There, under his directions, the two sails were vigorously hauled and fastened, then the two yards hoisted to the block. The stay-sails being set next between the mainmast and the foremast, the work was finished. Hercules had broken nothing this time.
But Mr Ferguson was not a sailor, or he would have known that it is the custom to reduce the grace in proportion with the canvass. When the royals are set, we submit to a homily; under double-reefed topsails, a blessing; but under storm stay-sails, an ejaculation is considered as orthodox. "Mrs Ferguson, will you permit me to send you a little mulligatawney? said Captain Drawlock.
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