Yards, sheets and sails seemed to be acting in the most singular manner.

He could not remember reading of any parallel case in the treatises on navigation which he had perused.

Every now and then the Cap'n or one of the crew would be jerked clean off his feet by some quick and unexpected motion of a sail and flung into the water.

When this occurred the person who had been ducked crawled out on the bank of the canal again and went on board by way of the gangplank, returning stubbornly to his task.
The booms in particular were possessed of a restless and unstable spirit.

They made sudden swoops, sweeps, and dashes in all directions.
Sometimes as many as three of the crew of the Jasper B.would be knocked to the deck or into the water by a boom at the same time.