Part 39 (1/2)
The scene was wild and startling; it was even terrible to those who had never seen anything of the kind before, though the old sailors regarded it quite as a matter of course. Peaks had never been known to be so jolly and excited since he came on board. He was full of jokes and witty sayings; he seemed to be in his element now, and all his powers of body and mind were in the keenest state of excitement.
The students were disposed to look upon it as a rough time, and doubtless some of them thought the s.h.i.+p was in great peril. Not a few of them pretended to enjoy the scene, and talked amazingly salt, as though they had been used to this kind of thing all their lives. Mr. Lowington came on deck, when all hands were called; and though, to his experienced eye, there was no danger while the s.h.i.+p was well managed, he was exceedingly anxious, for it was a time when accidents were p.r.o.ne to happen, and the loss of a boy at such an hour, would endanger the success of his great experiment. On deck, the students could not get overboard without the grossest carelessness; but it was perilous to send them aloft in the gloom of the howling tempest. He had hoped that he might be permitted to meet the onslaught of the first gale the s.h.i.+p encountered in the daytime; but as the ”clerk of the weather” otherwise ordained it, he was compelled to make the best of the circ.u.mstances.
Before the manoeuvre of reefing, in the gale, was begun, Mr. Fluxion was sent forward. Bitts was placed in the fore rigging, Peaks in the main, and Leach in the mizzen, to see that the young tars did not needlessly expose themselves, and that they used all proper precautions to avoid an accident. All the officers were at their stations.
”Man the topsail clewlines, and buntlines, and the weather topsail braces,” shouted Haven, the first lieutenant who always handled the s.h.i.+p when all hands were called. ”Stand by the lee braces, bowlines, and halyards.”
The clewlines are ropes fastened to the corners of the topsail, pa.s.sing through blocks on the topsail yard, and leading down to the deck through the lubber's hole. They are used in hauling the corners of the sail up when they are to be reefed or furled.
The buntlines are two ropes attached to cringles, or eyes, in the bottom of the sail, which are used for hauling up the middle, or bunt, of the topsail.
The braces are the ropes secured to the ends of the yards, leading down to the deck, directly, or to a mast first, and thence below, by which the yards and the sails attached to them are hauled round so as to take the wind. They are distinguished by the terms ”weather” and ”lee,” the former being those on the side from which the wind comes, the latter on the opposite side. They also have their specific names, as the ”weather fore-top-gallant brace,” the ”lee main brace.”
The bowlines are ropes attached to the leeches of square sails to draw the edge forward, so that they may take the wind better. They are fastened to the bridles, which are loops like those of a kite, two or three of them extending from the side of the sail.
The halyards are the ropes by which any sail is hoisted. For square sails they are secured to the yards, which, with the exception of the lower one on each mast slide up and down.
”Clear away the bowlines,” said the first lieutenant when all hands were reported ready for the manoeuvre which had been ordered.
At this command the bowlines on the topsails and courses were unfastened.
”All clear, sir,” reported the officers from their stations.
”Round in the weather braces, ease off the lee braces!” was the next order. ”Settle away the topsail halyards! Clew down!”
To round in the weather braces was simply to haul them up as the lee braces were slacked, so that the yard was squared. As the command was executed, the sail was ”spilled,” or the wind thrown out of it.
”Haul out the reef tackles! Haul up the buntlines!” continued the executive officer.
To reef a sail is to tie up a portion of it, so as to present less surface of canvas to the force of the wind. Topsails are reefed in the upper part; a portion of the sail nearest to the yard from which it is suspended being rolled up and secured by strings to the yard. Fore and aft sails, like the spanker, the fore and main spencers, or the mainsail of a schooner, are reefed at the foot, the lower part being tied down to the boom.
The topsails of the Young America had three reef bands, or strips of canvas sewed crosswise over them, in which were the reef points, or strings by which the sail is tied up when reefed. When the first or highest row of reef points was used, the sail was single reefed; when the second was used, it was double reefed; and when the third row was used, it was close reefed. On each side of the sail, at the end of each reef band, was a cringle, or eye, in which the reef pendent was fastened. The reef tackle consists of a rope pa.s.sing from the eye, at the end of the reef band, through a block at the extremity of the yard, thence to the mast, and down to the deck. Hauling on this rope draws the required portion of the sail up to the yard in readiness to be reefed.
The reef tackles were hauled out, and the buntlines hauled up to bring the sail where it could be easily handled. When the sail is to be reefed, the seamen have to a ”lay out” on the yards, and tie up the sail. To enable them to do this with safety, there are horses, or foot-ropes, extending from the slings, or middle of the spar, to the yard-arms. This rope hangs below the yard, the middle parts being supported by stirrups. When a man is to ”lay out,” he throws his breast across the yard with his feet on the horse. The man at the ”weather earing,” or eye for the reef pendent, has to sit astride the yard, and pull the sail towards him.
The foot-rope sometimes slips through the eyes in the stirrups when only one hand goes out upon it, which does, or may, place him in a dangerous position. During the preceding day, when the barometer indicated a change of weather, Mr. Lowington had sent the old boatswain aloft to ”mouse the horses,” in antic.i.p.ation of the manoeuvre which the boys were now compelled to perform at midnight, in a gale of wind. Mousing the horses was merely fastening the foot-ropes to the eyes of the stirrups, so that they could not slip through, and thus throw the entire slack of the horse under one boy, by which he sank down so low that his neck was even with the spar.
At the foot of each mast there is a contrivance for securing ropes, called the fife-rail. It is full of belaying pins, to which are secured the sheets, halyards, buntlines, clewlines, lifts, braces, reef tackle, and other ropes leading down from aloft. Looking at the mast, it seems to be surrounded by a perfect wilderness of ropes, without order or arrangement, whose uses no ordinary mortal could comprehend. There were other ropes leading down from aloft, which were fastened at the sheer-poles and under the rail. Now, it is necessary that every sailor should be able to put his hand on the right rope in the darkest night; and when the order to haul out the buntlines was given in the gloom and the gale, those to whom this duty was a.s.signed could have closed their eyes and found the right lines.
”Aloft, topman!” continued the first lieutenant, when the topsails were in readiness for reefing.
At this order thirty of the young tars ran up the shrouds, over the cat-harpings, and up the rigging, till they reached the fore, main, and mizzen topsail yards. Twelve of them were stationed on the main, ten on the fore, and eight on the mizzen topsail yard. The first, second, and third mids.h.i.+pmen were aloft to superintend the work, and when the studding-sail booms had been triced up, they gave the order to lay out, and take two reefs.
When the hands were at their stations on the yard, the first lieutenant ordered the quartermaster to ”luff up;” that is, to put the helm down so as to throw the s.h.i.+p up into the wind and spill the sail, or get the wind out of it, that the young tars might handle it with the more ease.
The boys had been frequently trained in the manoeuvre which they were now executing under trying circ.u.mstances, and all of them knew their duty. If any one trembled as the mast swayed over when the s.h.i.+p rolled, he was afraid to mention the fact, or to exhibit any signs of alarm.
Perhaps most of them would have been willing to acknowledge that it was rather ”ticklish” business to lay out on a topsail yard at midnight in a gale of wind; and if their anxious mothers could have seen the boys at that moment, some of them might have fainted, and all wished them in a safer place.
The boom tricing-lines were manned again, and the studding-sail booms restored to their places.