Richard Henry Dana

Name: Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV
Author: Richard Henry Dana

Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

Summary

“Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV”, is a work by Richard Henry Dana. It explores elements such as sail, forecastle and deck.

Quotes from Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV (Richard Henry Dana)

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ Clouds look black and wild; wind rising, and ship working hard against a heavy sea, which breaks over the forecastle, and washes aft through the scuppers. Still, no more sail is taken in, for the captain is a driver, and, like all drivers, very partial to his top-gallant sails. A top-gallant sail, too, makes the difference between a breeze and a gale. When a top-gallant sail is on a ship, it is only a breeze, though I have seen ours set over a reefed topsail, when half the bowsprit was under water, and it was up to a man’s knees in the scuppers. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ We carried them forward, stowed them away in the forecastle, refusing to have them cooked, and ate them raw, with our beef and bread. And a glorious treat they were. The freshness and crispness of the raw onion, with the earthy taste, give it a great relish to one who has been a long time on salt provisions. We were perfectly ravenous after them. It was like a scent of blood to a hound. We ate them at every meal, by the dozen; and filled our pockets with them, to eat in our watch on deck ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ There’s S—— aloft to furl the sail!”—Next thing, rigging is heaved down directly over our heads, and a long-drawn cry and a rattling of hanks announce that the flying-jib has come in.—The second mate holds on to the main top-gallant sail until a heavy sea is shipped, and washes over the forecastle as though the whole ocean had come aboard; when a noise further aft shows that that sail, too, is taking in. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ The ship is lying over half upon her beam-ends; lee scuppers under water, and forecastle all in a smother of foam.—Rigging all let go, and washing about decks; topsail yards down upon the caps, and sails flapping and beating against the masts; and starboard watch hauling out the reff-tackles of the main topsail. Our watch haul out the fore, and lay aloft and put two reefs into it, and reef the foresail, and race with the starboard watch, to see which will mast-head its topsail first. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ A Double Reef-Top-Sail Breeze—Scurvy—A Friend in Need—Preparing for Port—The Gulf Stream From the latitude of the West Indies, until we got inside the Bermudas, where we took the westerly and south-westerly winds, which blow steadily off the coast of the United States early in the autumn, we had every variety of weather, and two or three moderate gales, or, as sailors call them, double-reef-topsail breezes, which came on in the usual manner, and of which one is a specimen of all.—A fine afternoon; all hands at work, some in the rigging, and others on deck ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ During all the middle, and for the first part of the morning watch, it blows as hard as ever, but toward daybreak it moderates considerably, and we shake a reef out of each topsail, and set the top-gallant sails over them and when the watch come up, at seven bells, for breakfast, shake the other reefs out, turn all hands to upon the halyards, get the watch-tackle upon the top-gallant sheets and halyards, set the flying-jib, and crack on to her again. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ But so far from that, unless a ship meets with some accident, or comes upon the coast in the dead of winter, when work cannot be done upon the rigging, she is in her finest order at the end of the voyage. When she sails from port, her rigging is generally slack; the masts need staying; the decks and sides are black and dirty from taking in cargo ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ Spray begins to fly over the forecastle, and wets the yarns the boys are knotting;—ball them up and put them below.—Mate knocks off work and clears up decks earlier than usual, and orders a man who has been employed aloft to send the royal halyards over to windward, as he comes down. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV

“ Depending upon the westerly winds, which prevail off the coast in the autumn, the captain stood well to the westward, to run inside of the Bermudas, and in the hope of falling in with some vessel bound to the West Indies or the Southern States. ”

Richard Henry Dana

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Quotes from Two Years Before the Mast — Chapter XXXV (Richard Henry Dana)

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