"Let go and haul!" says
the captain; the second mate lets go the weather fore braces, and
the men haul in to leeward. The mate, on the forecastle, looks out for
the head yards. "Well, the fore topsail yard!" "Top-gallant yard's
well!" "Royal yard too much! Haul into windward! So! well that!" "Well
all!" Then the starboard watch board the main tack, and the larboard
watch lay forward and board the fore tack and haul down the jib sheet,
clapping a tackle upon it, if it blows very fresh. The after yards are
then trimmed, the captain generally looking out for them himself.
"Well the cross-jack yard!" "Small pull the main top-gallant yard!"
"Well that!" "Well the mizen top-gallant yard!" "Cross-jack yards
all well!" "Well all aft!" "Haul taught to windward!" Everything being
now trimmed and in order, each man coils up the rigging at his own
station, and the order is given- "Go below the watch!"
During the last twenty-four hours of the passage, we beat off and on
the land, making a tack about once in four hours, so that I had a
sufficient opportunity to observe the working of the ship; and
certainly, it took no more men to brace about this ship's lower yards,
which were more than fifty feet square, than it did those of the
Pilgrim, which were not much more than half the size; so much
depends upon the manner in which the braces run, and the state of
the blocks; and Captain Wilson, of the Ayacucho, who was afterwards
a passenger with us, upon a trip to windward, said he had no doubt
that our ship worked two men lighter than his brig.
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