Barque

“ The barque was labouring unsteadily, with a long westerly swell—the ghost of the Cape Horn 'greybeards '—running under her in oily ridges.
It needed but a bite of freshening wind to rouse the sea; at the lash of a sudden gale the 'greybeards' would be at us again—whelming and sweeping. Even in quiet mood they were loath to let us go north, and we jarred and rattled, rolled, lurched, and wallowed as they hove at us. Heave as they did, we were still able to make way on our course, standing with yards in to the quartering wind and all plain sail on her. ”

“ The courses swung to the swell without response to the breathings of the air; and on high the light cotton-white royals were scarcely curved by the delicate passage of the draught.
Yet the barque had steerage way. When I looked through the grating at her metalled forefoot I saw the ripples plentiful as harp strings threading aft, and whilst I dried myself I watched the slow approach of a piece of timber hoary with barnacles, and venerable with long hairs of seaweed, amid and around which a thousand little fish were sporting, many-coloured as though a rainbow had been shivered. ”

“ The old barque ran well, reeling through the long, stormy slopes with buoyant spring, driving wildly to the trough, smashing the foam far aside. At times she poised with sickening uncertitude on the crest of a greater wave, then steadied, and leapt with the breaking water to the smoother hollow.
The Old Man stood by the helmsman, 'conning' her on. All night he had stood there, ordering, to the shock of following seas, a steady voiced command. Never a gainly man—short-legged, broad, uncouth—his was yet a figure in keeping with the scene ”

“ Enough if I say that in a very short time the Rose, fully clothed in canvas, was standing with her head direct for the barque, an able seaman at her wheel, the captain pacing the quarter-deck, the cook preparing breakfast for the men in the galley, and the sailors, each of them with a glass of grog in him, looking at the distant figure of the barque over the bows. ”

“ It is bad form for a sailor to inquire too closely into his shipmate’s past.
Tim was so insignificant looking among those picked men that I took little or no notice of him until one night when it was blowing a stiff gale and the barque was staggering along under topsails through an ugly cross-sea that made her old timbers groan with the wrench. ”

“ The barque evidently carried a large and well-armed crew, so he slewed round and pulled towards the little fleet, as those on the slaver yelled derisively, and again began firing with the nine-pounders, and small arms as well. ”

“ A barque passed between the blazing pile and our ill-omened craft. Her hull, sails, and rigging were reflected against that fearful blaze with a blackness of shadow that appeared to render still deeper the depth of our calamity, and which the morning’s light helped not to lessen, for the barque had disappeared. After the barque had departed, we fancied we saw a boat, somewhat like our own, close to us, and we hailed her, with all the power of our united voices, for oars ”

“ I directed the men in our barque to approach near the savages, and hold their arms in readiness to do their duty in case they noticed any movement of these people against us. ”

“ And here it may not be out of place to mention another subtlety: while a barque has three masts, being square-rigged at her fore and main like a ship, and differing from a ship-rigged vessel in having no top at her mizzen, but carrying a fore-and-aft spanker and gaff topsail, yet what is known among sailormen as the “Jackass” [302] barque resembles a barque proper, but has no crosstrees, does not spread lower courses and has no tops. ”

“ BARILLA. An alkali procured by burning Salsola kali and other sea-shore plants. It forms a profitable article of Mediterranean commerce. (See Kelp.)
BARK. The exterior covering of vegetable bodies, many of which are useful in making paper, cordage, cloth, dyes, and medicines.
BARK, or Barque [from barca, Low Latin] . A general name given to small ships, square-sterned, without head-rails; it is, however, peculiarly appropriated by seamen to a three-masted vessel with only fore-and-aft sails on her mizen-mast.—Bark-rigged. Rigged as a bark, with no square sails on the mizen-mast. ”

“ Bar′kantine, Bar′quentine, a three-masted vessel, with the fore-mast square-rigged, and the main-mast and mizzen-mast fore-and-aft rigged. [Fr. barque—Low L. barca; perh. from Gr. baris, a Nile-boat.]
Bark, bärk, n. the rind or covering of the trunk and branches of a tree: that used in tanning or dyeing, or the residue thereof, laid upon a street to deaden the sound, &c.: the envelopment or outer covering of anything.—v.t. to strip or peel the bark from: to rub off (skin) .—n. ”

“ Barett, n., ‘skull-cap, hood,’ adopted in the 15th cent. from Fr. barrette, MidLat. birrétta, a deriv. from Lat. birrus, birrum, ‘cloak, pallium.’
Barke, f., ‘barque, boat,’ from the equiv. MidHG. barke, f.; corresponds to Scand. barke, ‘barque’; not of Germ. origin. The cognates are based upon an equiv. Rom. class with the primit. forms barca-barica (found even in the 7th cent. in Isidore) ; comp. Fr. barque (besides OFr. barge, from MidLat. barica; whence E. barge, LG. Barse) , Ital. barca; OIr. barc is of similar origin. The ultimate source of the cognates (Spain?) is uncertain. ”

“ I put the thirty thousand dollars I was now worth into such a shape that I could get its increase in regular remittances; packed the bird, the daguerreotype, and a small wardrobe, and took passage by barque for Genoa.
'At sun-rise one Monday morning, the barque's yawl took me out to her anchorage. As I went up the ladder at the side, I heard an opera-air playing on board, and when I reached the deck, the first thing that met my eyes was an Italian grinder, with his organ and monkey. ”

“ With evil omens from the harbour sails
The ill-fated barque that worthless Arnold bears,—
God of the southern winds, call up the gales,
And whistle in rude fury round his ears. ”

“ The sequel to this tragic and extraordinary experience will be found in the following statement, made by the people of the ship Forfarshire, from Calcutta to Liverpool:—"August 29, 1857. When in latitude 2° 15' N. and longitude 79° 40' E. we sighted a barque under all plain sail, apparently abandoned. The breeze was very scanty, and though we immediately shifted our helm for her on judging that she was in distress, it took us all the morning to approach her within hailing distance. ”

“ Before re-entering the house, I sent a look round from the shelter of the weather-bulwark, to observe what materials were to be obtained for a raft should the weather suffer us to launch such a thing, and the barque founder spite of our toil. There was a number of spare booms securely lashed on top of the seamen's deck-house and galley, and these, with the hencoop and hatch-covers, and the little casks or scuttle-butts out of which the men drank would provide us with what we needed. ”

“ Man seems a waif cast on the stream of time,
That bears him onward to the unknown shore;
That longed for, fearéd, dread, mysterious clime,
Toward which all hasten—to return no more.
Yet not so helpless is he as he seems,
Nor void of power to guide life's barque aright,
If Faith sits at the helm, and Hope's bright beams
Shine o'er the troubled waters when 'tis night,
Guiding and cheering like a beacon light,
Till peace is gained and life's cares gone like dreams. ”

“ In his voyage he first leaves the shore as a fledgling does the nest—he goes a short excursion, and returns; after a time he becomes more brave, and puts off more boldly. At first he probably finds a number of other barques as venturous as his own, and he becomes emboldened ”

“ The sixteenth day, one of our small barques, named the Gabriel, was sent by our general to bear in with the land, to descry it, where, being on land, they met with the people of the country, which seemed very humane and civilised, and offered to traffic with our men, proffering them fowls and skins for knives and other trifles, whose courtesy caused us to think that they had small conversation with the other of the straits. ”

“ Hear him expatiate on his little barkey, as he calls his wooden island, though she may carry a hundred-and-fifty guns and a crew of a thousand men. “Oh! she’s the fleetest of the fleet; sits on the water like a duck; stands under her canvass as stiff as a crutch; and turns to windward like a witch!” Of his wife he observes, “What a clean run from stem to starn! She carries her t’gall’nt sails through every breeze, and in working hank for hank never misses stays!” He will point to the bows of his ship, and swear she is as sharp as a wedge, never stops at a sea, but goes smack through all. ”

“ In the barge, at either end, go as many as twenty or even thirty men, some sitting rowing, others facing them and standing to row, and others punting with their poles of immense length that taper away at the top to the slight girth of a fishing rod. The shirts of the men, mauve, pink, white, red, or purple, their light blue or black coats, red sashes, trousers of velvet or velvet corduroy of many shades, from bright yellow to dark brown, the long shining yellow punt poles, and the white pyramids of salt on the sea of sapphire, combine to form a strange and beautiful sight. ”

“ A laden bark draws near,
Through her rent sails the bleak winds moan,
All heavily and drear;
No light upon the headlands
Illumes her dangerous way,
No pilot-boat all fearless glides
Like sea-bird o'er the spray. ”

“ Bargees are the captains and crews of the big barges that are pulled up and down the river by slow horses. The horses do not swim. They walk on the towing-path, with a rope tied to them, and the other end to the barge. ”

“ Going one day as usual, and finding a small bark in a private harbour between two rocks, he, without the knowledge of any one, agreed with the master to transport him to the farther shore, which he did with a favourable gale, and landed him by the side of a forest, some distance from Sestus, the castle of his beloved Hero, and having dismissed the master of the bark with a reward suitable to his labour, he set him down to consider the best method to be taken without giving offence. ”

“ That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.’ A great merit of a barge as a house is that when she is ‘light,’ or almost ‘light,’ as the Ark Royal is, she can be sailed out of rough water on to a sand and left there, provided care be taken that she does not sit on her anchor. By the time there is only three feet of water the waves are very small, and thus, however strong the wind may be and however hard the sand, a barge will take the ground so gently that one can scarcely say when she touches. ”

“ See that our barge be manned forthwith, and tarry not for aught of state or ceremony. Thyself will go with us, and stop not thou to don thy newest-fashioned doublet: this is no matter that brooks ruffling!—’Sdeath, man! ’tis life or death! And now begone, sir! we lack our tirewoman’s service!”
An hour had not elapsed before a barge—easily distinguished as one belonging to the royal household, by its decorations, and the garb of the rowers—shot through a side arch of Westminster bridge, and passed rapidly, under sail and oar, down the swift current of the river, now almost at ebb tide. ”

“ We had been so long getting to the bark that the men belonging to her, unknown to us, had got out of her, gone up country, and brought these people to their assistance. Our blunderbusses being discharged, the men from behind the rocks kept up a constant fire at us; and, at the very first fire, our master received a ball just above his right eye, and another went almost through my right shoulder. We rowed directly to the bark. The lieutenant, myself, and four more leapt into her, and those that were in the boat handed in our arms. ”

“ If we had a barge we could anchor clear of the town, and when the holidays came we could up anchor and clear off to a place more after our own hearts. Of course a barge is the very thing—the most easily handled ship for her size in the world. I see the way out quite clearly now.’
A Barge at Sunset in the Lower Thames
‘Yes, that sounds very jolly, but there would be a lot of drawbacks too.’ The Mate began to retreat towards the drawing-room. ”

“ A fleet of barges shaking out their sails at the turn of the tide and moving off in unison like a flock of sea-birds is a picture that never leaves the mind. And darkness does not stop the bargeman even in the most crowded reaches so long as the tide serves. ”

“ The seamen crowded together, irresolute; the petty officers gathered round Farmer, whilst those who had been least active in the mutiny seemed half inclined to follow the counsel of the master. ‘Shipmates!’ said Farmer, ‘I wish to try your mettle. Think of a public execution! The yard-rope rove, the signal gun, and a death of infamy! Most of you have had your noble bravery and gallant daring already rewarded with the cat; but what is a dozen or two at the gang-way, compared with flogging through the fleet! ”

“ Launched the barge, cutter, and yawl over the gunnel, cut main and fore-mast by the board, and the sheet-anchor from the gunnel. The captain sent the barge ashore, with Mr S----w, the mate, to see if the place was inhabited, and to return aboard directly; but, without any regard to his duty, or the preservation of the lives of the people, he staid ashore. The barge not returning as expected, the lieutenant was sent in the yawl, with orders to bring off the barge. The lieutenant tarried ashore, but sent off the boat. ”

“ Adventures of James Wyatt, Written by Himself,” 1755
“We were three hours after we left the ship before we got within musket-shot of the bark. Our master ask’d us if we were all willing to board her. We answered, one and all, we were. We saw twelve men ashore, and made directly towards them. Our master said, ‘My boys, the bark’s our own, for these men belong’d to her, but have left her; let us give them one [Pg 109] volley, and then board the bark.’ We had two brass blunderbusses, mounted on swivels, in the bow of the boat. ”