OF WINDS4 285 



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greater no man can choose but look after), so we will first 

 look after these lower winds, which questionless cannot 

 perform so much as the higher. 



4. As concerning the winds which blow chiefly about the 

 sides of the ships, and under their sails, it is the office of 



i the main boarsprit-sail, which lies low and sloping, to 

 I gather them into it, that there may be no waste nor loss of 

 ! wind ; and this of itself does good, and hinders not the 

 ; wind which fills the other sails. And about this I do not 

 i see what can be done more by the industry of man, unless 

 I they should perchance fix such low sails out of the middle 



of the ship, like wings or feathers, two on each side when 



the wind blows right. 



5. But concerning the bewaring of being robbed, which 

 happens when the hinder sails (in a fore-right wind) steal 

 the wind away from the foresails (for in a side wind all the 

 sails are set a work), I know not what can be added to the 

 care man hath already taken to prevent it, unless when 

 there is a fore wind, there may be made a kind of stairs or 

 scale of sails, that the hindermost sails of the mizenmast 

 may be the lowest, the middle ones at the mainmast a little 

 higher, the foremast, at the foremast, highest of all, that 

 one sail may not hinder but rather help the other, deliver 

 ing and passing over the wind from one to another. And 

 let so much be observed of the first fountain of impulsion. 



6. The second fountain of impulsion consists in the man 

 ner of striking the sail with the wind, which if through the 

 contraction of the wind it be acute and swift, will move 

 more, if obtuse and languishing less. 



7. As concerning this, it is of great moment, and much 

 to the purpose, to let the sails have a reasonable extension 

 and swelling ; for if they be stretched out stiff, they will, 

 like a wall, beat back the wind ; if they be too loose there 

 will be a weak impulsion. 



8. Touching this, human industry hath behaved itself 

 well in some things, though it was more by chance than 

 out of any good judgment. For in a side wind they gather 

 up that part of the sail as much as they can which is oppo 

 site against the wind : and by that means they set in the 

 wind into that part where it should blow. And this they 

 do and intend. But in the mean season this follows (which 

 peradventure they do not perceive), that the wind is more 

 contracted, and strikes more sharply. 



9. What may be added to human industry in this, I 

 cannot perceive, unless the figure of the sails be changed, 

 and some sails be made which shall not swell round, but 



