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Updated: June 18, 2025
I waited for the snow tull clear, an' there was Narrow Reach, nice uz ye please, tull the east'ard an' the islands un the mouth o' False Bay tull the south'ard. 'What course was ye steerun'? I says tull the mon ot the wheel. 'South-by-east, sir, says he. I looked tull the mate-fellow. What could I say? I was thot wroth I could a-kult hum. Four points dufference.
One night, blowin' half a gale from the south'ard, we ran on a reef two miles to the east of Cape May, and down we went with a hole in our bottom like as if she'd been spitted on the steeple o' one o' them Honfleur churches. Well, in the morning there I was washin' about, nigh out of sight of land, clingin' on to half the foreyard, without a sign either of my mates or of wreckage.
"She's as safe as if she was in harbour, not more'n a mile from the beach, and on the lee-side of the island; and as to gettin' her out, you've only to stand to the south'ard under fore- and-aft canvas, and it's my belief as she'd fetch out clear of the reef from where she's lyin' in one tack. You recollect as I told ye that the reef dipped as it went to the south'ard?
When the Board met, four new lights formed the extent of their intentions Kinnaird Head, in Aberdeenshire, at the eastern elbow of the coast; North Ronaldsay, in Orkney, to keep the north and guide ships passing to the south'ard of Shetland; Island Glass, on Harris, to mark the inner shore of the Hebrides and illuminate the navigation of the Minch; and the Mull of Kintyre.
"Would you kindly tell me what those small vessels are below there just setting out to sea?" he asked. "Luggers, are they? Thank you. And where are they sailing to? Do you know?" "Away down-long, south'ard o' the Scillies mostly, arter mackerl. Theer's a power o' mackerl bein' catched just now thousands an' thousands but some o' they booats be laskin' that's just fishin' off shore."
The niggers gives a shout as soon as they sees this, and I hauls my wind as though I couldn't go no further to leeward without my mainsail; and, sure enough, the trick answered to perfection, for the whole posse of 'em comes scurryin' down to the beach, launches their canoes, and shoves off, paddling like mad to the south'ard, to cut me off. `All right, my hearties, go it, says I; `but, says I, `you haven't the pleasure of knowin' a sartain Robert Trunnion, says I, `if you supposes as you're going to carcumvent him that a-way. So I lets 'em come well up with me, and the nearer they got, the louder they yells, and the harder they paddles; and you might ha' thought by the row that all hell had broke loose, as perhaps it had, or them devils wouldn't ha' been there.
If you steer to the nor-ard o' that, you'll run on the Scotch coast; if you bear away to the south'ard of it, you'll run a chance, in this state o' the tide, of getting wrecked among the Farne Islands; so keep her head due east." Ruby said this very impressively; so much so, that the Frenchman looked at him in surprise. "Why you so particulare?" he enquired, with a look of suspicion.
Oh, Harve, did ye see his head?" "Did I? I'll never forget it. But look at here, Dan; it couldn't have been meant. It was only the tide." "Tide! He come for it, Harve. Why, they sunk him six miles to south'ard o' the Fleet, an' we're two miles from where she's lyin' now. They told me he was weighted with a fathom an' a half o' chain-cable."
One evenin', I reckon we was ten miles to the south'ard of Boon Island, it was my trick at the wheel, and all hands had turned in. It was blowin' fresh from the east'ard, and I had everything on her I could git. I reckon it was nigh on ter two o'clock, and as clear as it is to-day, when the fust thing I knowed the schooner was on her beam ends.
At this moment they heard a shrill voice from the forecastle of the nearest destroyer. "Hulloa there, what's the matter?" came from the deck of the Britain. "Four French destroyers coming up pretty fast from the south'ard, sir. Seem to be making for the flagship," was the reply.
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