SAILING CRAFT 119 



and the reader was a green one, he would just 

 about begin to know the ropes and find his sea 

 legs by the time that our Victoria had run her 

 southing down to within another day's sail of 

 the foul-weather zone in the roaring forties 

 round the Horn, which seamen call ' Old 

 Stiff.' Sails are shifted again, and the best new 

 suit is bent ; for the coming gales have a clear 

 sweep from the Antarctic to the stormiest coast 

 of all America, and the enormous, grey-backed 

 Cape Homers are the biggest seas in the world. 

 The best helmsmen are on duty now. Not 

 even every Bluenose can steer, any more than 

 every Englishman can box or every French- 

 man fence. There are a dozen different ways 

 of mishandling a vessel under sail. Let your 

 attention wander, and she '11 run up into the 

 wind and perhaps get in irons, so that she won't 

 cast either way. Let her fall off when you 're 

 running free, and she '11 broach to and get 

 taken aback. Or simply let her yaw about 

 a bit instead of holding true, and you '11 lose a 

 knot or two an hour. But do none of these 

 careless things, observe all the rules as well, 

 and even then you will never make a helms- 

 man unless it 's born in you. Steering is 

 blown into you by the wind and soaked into 

 you by the water. And you must also have 



