Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Rich and deep were the tones in which the words starboard steady hard a-starboard port port hard a-port, and similar orders were issued. Colonel Armytage was assisted on deck. He overheard some of the remarks which were made, and seemed perfectly ready to acknowledge their justice. "Certainly I have seldom seen a finer young man," he observed with a warmth unusual to him.
"I am delighted beyond measure to hear it," returned my father; "this is good news, better than I could have dared to hope. Now keep her away, Robert. Starboard your helm hard a-starboard; so, steady now as you go. Do you see the opening of the channel? Steer as straight as you like for it. This will be a surprise for Winter, indeed."
But I tremble excessively when, behold, a huge, long black mass is lying lazily before us, and so close that we can almost touch it! "Hard a-port," I roared out at the top of my voice. "Hard a-starboard," sang out the captain of the forecastle, equally loudly. Vain, vain were the contradictory orders.
At the same moment I distinctly felt a slight tremor in the hull, followed by a barely perceptible jerk, then another, another, and another, and she was once more afloat and driving astern. I at once sprang to the wheel, and put it hard a-starboard, at the same time shouting to Gurney and Saunders to hoist the fore topmost staysail.
Suddenly, the idea occurred to me that it might be possible for active men to climb that cleft; and acting upon the impulse of the moment, I put the boat's helm hard a-starboard and, giving the word `Easy all! headed in toward the boulders. "A minute later, we found ourselves in a miniature harbour, just large enough to receive the boat, the big boulders forming a sort of breakwater.
The Calliope was the nearest in; she had the Vandalia close on her port side and a little ahead, the Olga close a-starboard, the reef under her heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship fenced with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried away the Vandalia's quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment later, the Olga had near rammed her from the other side.
When steamers were first ordered to carry red and green side-lights with a high white light hung forward, an old captain saw the mysterious coloured circles coming down on him. He did not understand this new thing, and his faculties became confused. He shouted "Hard a-starboard. We'll be into a chemist's shop."
'I'm Island-born, Captain, and I feel 'em in my blood. I put this down to craziness hysterics or whatever you choose to call it; but just to soothe her mind and get her down quietly off the bridge I sang out to the leadsman to know if he had found soundings. I was bending over the rail when I felt a touch on my arm, and heard her cry out 'Starboard! Hard a-starboard hard! just like that."
Without pausing to learn the effect of the first shot, Captain Nicholson sent the submarine below with a lurch, ordered the helm hard a-starboard and made for mid-channel, where he knew the second first-class cruiser lay at anchor, stern to and nosing the strong ebb-tide. All members of the crew, as well as Frank and Jack, were jubilant.
Captain Moubray did not neglect the much-wished-for opportunity, but ordered the helm to be put hard a-starboard, and, while thus passing across the hawse of the French frigate, poured in a broadside which swept her decks fore and aft, killing and wounding many of her crew, and inflicting serious damage on her masts and rigging.
Word Of The Day