[The Old Merchant Marine by Ralph D. Paine]@TWC D-Link bookThe Old Merchant Marine CHAPTER IX 6/37
Her log records her exploits in such entries as these: "Passed a ship under double reefs, we with our royals and studdingsails set....
Passed a ship laying-to under a close-reefed maintopsail....
Split all three topsails and had to heave to....
Seven vessels in sight and we outsail all of them....
Under double-reefed topsails passed several vessels hove-to." Much the same record might be read in the log of the medium clipper Florence--and it is the same story of carrying sail superbly on a ship which had been built to stand up under it: "Passed two barks under reefed courses and close-reefed topsails standing the same way, we with royals and topgallant studding-sails," or "Passed a ship under topsails, we with our royals set." For eleven weeks "the topsail halliards were started only once, to take in a single reef for a few hours." It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that, seventeen days out from Shanghai, the Florence exchanged signals with the English ship John Hagerman, which had sailed thirteen days before her. Two notable events in the history of the nineteenth century occurred within the same year, 1849, to open new fields of trade to the Yankee clipper.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|