Having got everything secure again, we were promising ourselves some
breakfast, for it was now nearly nine o'clock in the forenoon, when
the main topsail showed evident signs of giving way. Some sail must be
kept on the ship, and the captain ordered the fore and main spencer
gaffs to be lowered down, and the two spencers (which were storm
sails, bran new, small, and made of the strongest canvas) to be got up
and bent; leaving the main topsail to blow away, with a blessing on
it, if it would only last until we could set the spencers. These we
bent on very carefully, with strong robands and seizings, and making
tackles fast to the clews, bowsed them down to the water-ways. By this
time the main topsail was among the things that have been, and we went
aloft to stow away the remnant of the last sail of all those which
were on the ship twenty-four hours before. The spencers were now the
only whole sails on the ship, and, being strong and small, and near
the deck, presenting but little surface to the wind above the rail,
promised to hold out well. Hove-to under these, and eased by having no
sail above the tops, the ship rose and fell, and drifted off to
leeward like a line-of-battle ship.
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