At two bells the captain
came on deck, and said a word to the mate, when the studding sails
were hauled into the tops, or boom-ended, the after yards backed,
the deep-sea-lead carried forward, and everything got ready for
sounding. A man on the spritsail yard with the lead, another on the
cat-head with a handful of the line coiled up, another in the fore
chains, another in the waist, and another in the main chains, each
with a quantity of the line coiled away in his hand. "All ready there,
forward?"- "Aye, aye, sir!"- "He-e-e-ave!"- "Watch! ho! watch!" sings
out the man on the man on the spritsail yard, and the heavy lead drops
into the water. "Watch! ho! watch!" bawls the man on the cat-head,
as the last fake of the coil drops from his hand, and "Watch! ho!
watch!" is shouted by each one as the line falls from his hold;
until it comes to the mate, who tends the lead, and has the line in
coils on the quarter-deck. Eighty fathoms, and no bottom! A depth as
great as the height of St. Peter's! the line is snatched in a block
upon the swifter, and three or four men haul it in and coil it away.
The after yards are braced full, the studding-sails hauled out
again, and in a few minutes more the ship had her whole way upon
her.
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