William Falconer

“ Low bending, as if ne’er to rise again.
‘Bear up the helm a-weather!’ Rodmond cries;
Swift at the word the helm a-weather flies;
She feels its guiding power, and veers apace,
And now the fore-sail right athwart they brace:
With equal sheets restrained, the bellying sail
Spreads a broad concave to the sweeping gale.
While o’er the foam the ship impetuous flies,
The helm th’ attentive timoneer applies:
As in pursuit along th’ aërial way
With ardent eye the falcon marks his prey.
Each motion watches of the doubtful chace,
Obliquely wheeling through the fluid space ”

“ It is hardly possible for us to recollect the various disasters to which a single hero, or goddess, on the head of a ship, is exposed by tempestuous weather, battle, and the unexpected encounter of ships, without trembling for the havoc and indecency that may happen in an assemblage of gods and conc-shells, princesses and satyrs; heroes, blunder-buffes, sea-monsters, little children, globes and thunder-bolts, and all the apparatus necessary to constitute the head of a ship of the first class in our navy. ”

“ Rodmond, who heard a piteous groan behind,
Touched with compassion gazed upon the blind;
And, while around his sad companions crowd,
He guides th’ unhappy victim to the shroud:
‘Hie thee aloft, my gallant friend!’ he cries;
‘Thy only succour on the mast relies.’
The helm, bereft of half its vital force,
Now scarce subdued the wild unbridled course;
Quick to th’ abandoned wheel Arion came,
The ship’s tempestuous sallies to reclaim:
The vessel, while the dread event draws nigh,
Seems more impatient o’er the waves to fly ”

“ In fact, our market gardeners who are making money out of mushrooms find it pays them to excavate and build cellars expressly for growing mushrooms. Indeed, some of our market gardeners who have never grown a mushroom or seen one grown, but who know well that some of their neighbors are making money out of this business, instinctively feel that the first step in mushroom-growing is a cellar. It is almost incredible how secretly the market growers guard everything in connection with mushroom-growing from the outside world, and even from one another ”

“ So great a revolution in the manner of fighting, and which necessarily introduced a total change in the construction of ships, could not be suddenly effected. In short, the squadrons of men of war are no longer formed of rowing-vessels, or composed of gallies and ships of the line, but entirely of the latter, which engage under sail, and discharge the whole force of their artillery from their sides. Accordingly they are now disposed in no other form than that of a right line parallel to the enemy; every ship keeping close-hauled upon a wind on the same tack. ”

“ Each faithful maid expects th’ approaching youth:
In distant souls congenial passions glow,
And mutual feelings mutual bliss bestow—
Such shadowy happiness their thoughts employ,
Illusion all, and visionary joy!
Thus time elapsed, while o’er the pathless tide
Their ship through Grecian seas the pilots guide.
Occasion called to touch at Candia’s shore,
Which, blest with favouring winds, they soon explore;
The haven enter, borne before the gale,
Despatch their commerce, and prepare to sail.
Eternal powers! what ruins from afar
Mark the fell track of desolating war! ”

“ There is no secret whatever connected with it, and skilled labor is unnecessary to make it successful. The commonest farm hand can do the work, which consists of turning the manure once every day or two for about three weeks, then building it into a bed and spawning and molding it. Nearly all the labor for the next ten or twelve weeks consists in maintaining an even temperature and gathering and marketing the crop.
Many women are searching for remunerative and pleasant employment upon the farm, and what can be more interesting, pleasant and profitable work for them than mushroom-growing? ”

“ TRIPPING, the movement by which an anchor is loosened from the bottom by its cable or buoy-ropes. See Atrip.
TROUGH, a name given to the hollow, or interval between two high waves, which resembles a broad and deep trench perpetually fluctuating. As the setting of the sea is always produced by the wind, it is evident that the waves, and consequently the trough or hollow space between them, will be at right angles with the direction of the wind. Hence a ship rolls heaviest when she lies in the trough of the sea. ”

“ And far abroad the canvass wings extend.
Along the glassy plain the vessel glides,
While azure radiance trembles on her sides;
The lunar rays in long reflection gleam,
With silver deluging the fluid stream.
Levant and Thracian gales alternate play,
Then in th’ Egyptian quarter die away.
A calm ensues; adjacent shores they dread,
The boats, with rowers manned, are sent ahead; [53]
With cordage fastened to the lofty prow
Aloof to sea the stately ship they tow;
The nervous crew their sweeping oars extend,
And pealing shouts the shore of Candia rend:
Success attends their skill! ”

“ CORPOSANT, feu St. Elme (corpo santo, Ital.) , a sort of volatile meteor, or ignis fatuus, often beheld in a dark and tempestuous night about the decks or rigging of a ship, but particularly at the extremities, as the mast-heads, and yard arms: it is most frequent in heavy rain, accompanied with lightning. “They usually wander with uncertain motion from place to place, sometimes appearing to cleave close to the sails and masts; but they frequently leap up and down with intermission, affording an obscure flame, like that of a candle burning faintly. ”

“ In most pretentious gardens there is a regular mushroom house, and the growing of mushrooms is an easy matter; in others there is no such convenience, and the gardener has to trust to his own ingenuity where and how he is to grow the mushrooms. But so long as he has an abundance of fresh manure he can usually find a place in which to make the beds. In the tool-shed, the potting-shed, the wood-shed, the stoke-hole, the fruit-room, the vegetable-cellar, or in some other out-building he can surely find a corner ”

“ Death yawns on every leeward shore around.—
While Albert thus, with horrid doubts dismayed,
The geometric distances surveyed,
On deck the watchful Rodmond cries aloud,
‘Secure your lives! grasp every man a shroud!’—
Roused from his trance, he mounts with eyes aghast;
When o’er the ship, in undulation vast, [80]
A giant surge down rushes from on high,
And fore and aft dissevered ruins lie:
As when, Britannia’s empire to maintain,
Great Hawke descends in thunder on the main,
Around the brazen voice of battle roars,
And fatal lightnings blast the hostile shores ”

“ PARTING, démarrer, the state of being driven from the anchors, expressed of a ship, when she has broke her cable by the violence of the wind, waves, or current, or all of them together.
PARTNERS, etambraies, certain pieces of plank nailed round the several scuttles, or holes, in a ship’s deck, wherein are contained the masts and capsterns. They are used to strengthen the deck where it is weakened by those breaches, but particularly to support it when the mast leans against it; as impressed by a weight of sail, or when the capstern bears forcibly upon it whilst charged with a great effort. ”

“ DÉGAUCHIR, to bevel or form a piece of timber, so as to fit aptly the place for which it is designed.
DÉGORGEOIR, the bit or priming-iron of a cannon.
DÉGRADER un vaisseau, to lay-by a ship; also to quit or abandon a ship at sea, after having taken out the rigging, stores, &c. when she is become so old and crazy as to be equally useless and dangerous. ”

“ On his first entrance in a ship of war, every midshipman has several disadvantageous circumstances to encounter. These are partly occasioned by the nature of the sea-service, and partly by the mistaken prejudices of people in general, respecting naval discipline, and the genius of sailors and their officers. No character, in their opinion, is more excellent than that of the common sailor, whom they generally suppose to be treated with great severity by his officers, drawing a comparison between them not very advantageous to the latter. ”

“ Who strikes them once, beyond relief must die:
And now sore wounded, thou perhaps art tost
On these, or in some oozy cavern lost:”
Thus thought Arion; anxious gazing round
In vain, his eyes no more Palemon found.—
The demons of destruction hover nigh,
And thick their mortal shafts commissioned fly:
When now a breaking surge, with forceful sway,
Two, next Arion, furious tears away:
Hurled on the crags, behold they gasp, they bleed!
And groaning, cling upon th’ elusive weed;
Another billow bursts in boundless roar!
Arion sinks! and Memory views no more. [134]
Ha! ”

“ To weigh the danger with the doubtful hope:
Though sorely buffeted by every sea,
Our hull unbroken long may try a-lee;
The crew, though harassed much with toils severe,
Still at their pumps, perceive no hazards near: [90]
Shall we, incautious, then the danger tell,
At once their courage and their hope to quell? ”

“ An ambition to distinguish himself should never seduce any captain to break the line, in order to atchieve any distant enterprize, however the prospect may flatter him with success. He ought to wait the signal of the admiral or his commanding officer; because it is more essential to preserve the regularity of a close line, which constitutes the principal force of the fleet, than to prosecute a particular action, which, although brilliant in itself, has seldom any material consequences, unless its object is to seize a flag-ship, and even this can only be justified by success [22] . ”

“ To shorten Sail, is to reduce or take in part of the sails, with an intention to diminish the ship’s velocity.
To strike Sail, is to lower it suddenly. This is particularly used in saluting or doing homage to a superior force, or to one whom the law of nations acknowledges as superior in certain regions. Thus all foreign vessels strike to an English man of war in the British seas. See Salute.
SAILING, the movement by which a vessel is wafted along the surface of the water, by the action of the wind upon her sails. ”

“ No one who had not passed through the circumstances which Falconer describes, could have painted them as he has done; and of the comparatively few who have had the opportunity of drinking in the fearful inspiration of such scenes, and survived to tell of them, Falconer is the first who appears to have possessed the genius requisite to retain and embody the impression, with the vigour of imagination and the fidelity of memory. It was not more necessary [6] that he should be a poet, than that he should be a seaman. ”

“ HARBOUR, havre, a general name given to any sea-port or haven; as also to any place convenient for mooring shipping, although at a great distance from the sea. The qualities requisite in a good harbour are, that the bottom be entirely free from rocks or shallows; that the opening be of sufficient extent to admit the entrance or departure of large ships, without difficulty; that it should have good anchoring-ground, and be easy of access; that it should be well defended from the violence of the wind and sea ”

“ DECKS, ponts, (decken, Dan. to cover) the planked floors of a ship, which connect the sides together, and serve as different platforms to support the artillery, and lodge the men, as also to preserve the cargo from the sea in merchant-vessels.
As all ships are broader at the lower-deck than on the next above it, and as the cannon thereof are always heaviest, it is necessary that the frame of it should be much stronger than that of the others; and, for the same reason, the second or middle deck ought to be stronger than the upper deck, or forecastle. ”

“ Again in shivering streamers they may rend; [77]
Or should they stand, beneath th’ oppressive strain
The down-pressed ship may never rise again;
Too late to weather now Morea’s land,
And drifting fast on Athens’ rocky strand.”
Thus they lament the consequence severe,
Where perils unallayed by Hope appear:
Long pondering in their minds each feared event,
At last to furl the courses they consent;
That done, to reef the mizen next agree,
And try beneath it sidelong in the sea.
Now down the mast the yard they lower away,
Then jears and topping-lift secure belay ”

“ FAIR, a general term for the disposition of the wind, when it is favourable to a ship’s course, in opposition to that which is contrary or foul.
This term, when applied to the wind, is much more comprehensive than large, since the former seems to include about eighteen points of the compass, or at least sixteen; whereas large is confined to the beam or quarter, that is, to a wind which crosses the keel at right angles, or obliquely from the stern, but never to one right a-stern. ”

“ From Albert his opinion thus dissents.—
“Too true the perils of the present hour,
Where toils succeeding toils our strength o’erpower!
Our bark, ’tis true, no shelter here can find,
Sore shattered by the ruffian seas and wind: [89]
Yet where with safety can we dare to scud
Before this tempest, and pursuing flood?
At random driven, to present death we haste,
And one short hour perhaps may be our last:
Though Corinth’s gulf extend along the lee,
To whose safe ports appears a passage free,
Yet think! this furious unremitting gale
Deprives the ship of every ruling sail ”

“ To BALANCE, (balancer, Fr.) to contract a sail into a narrower compass, in a storm, by retrenching or folding up a part of it at one corner; this method is used in contradistinction to reefing, which is common to all the principal sails; whereas balancing is peculiar to few, such as the mizen of a ship, and the main-sail of those vessels, wherein it is extended by a boom. See Boom and Reef. ”

“ The helm to starboard moves; each shivering sail
Is sharply trimmed to clasp th’ augmenting gale—
The mizen draws; she springs aloof once more,
While the forestay-sail balances before.
The fore-sail braced obliquely to the wind,
They near the prow th’ extended tack confin’d;
Then on the leeward sheet the seamen bend,
And haul the bow-line to the bowsprit-end:
To top-sails next they haste: the bunt-lines gone!
Through rattling blocks the clue-lines swiftly run;
Th’ extending sheets on either side are mann’d,
Abroad they come! the fluttering sails expand ”