I did not know the center of effort in her sails, except as it hit me in practice at sea, nor did I care a rope yarn about it.

Mathematical calculations, however, are all right in a good boat, and the _Spray_ could have stood them.

She was easily balanced and easily kept in trim.
Some of the oldest and ablest shipmasters have asked how it was possible for her to hold a true course before the wind, which was just what the _Spray_ did for weeks together.

One of these gentlemen, a highly esteemed shipmaster and friend, testified as government expert in a famous murder trial in Boston, not long since, that a ship would not hold her course long enough for the steersman to leave the helm to cut the captain's throat.

Ordinarily it would be so.