124 ALL AFLOAT 



deck awash with a smother of foaming water, 

 and her crew apparently drowned. But pre- 

 sently her stern emerges through the dark, 

 green-grey after-shoulder of the wave. She 

 responds to the lift of the mighty barrel with a 

 gallant effort to shake herself free. She rises, 

 dripping from stem to stern. Her sails refill 

 and draw her on again. And when the next 

 wave comes she is just able to take it but no 

 more. 



The skipper has already decided to heave to 

 and wait for the storm to blow itself out. But 

 there is still too much canvas on her. Even 

 the main lower topsail has to come in. The 

 courses, or lowest square sails, have all come 

 in before. The little canvas required for lying 

 to must neither be too high nor yet too low. If 

 it is too high, it gives the wind a very dangerous 

 degree of leverage. If it is too low, it violently 

 strains the whole vessel by being completely 

 blanketed when in the trough of the sea and 

 then suddenly struck full when on the crest. 

 The main lower topsail is at just the proper 

 height. But only the fore and mizzen ones 

 are wanted to balance the pressure aloft. So 

 in it has to come. And a dangerous bit of work 

 it gives ; for it has to be hauled up from right 

 amidships, where the deck is wetter than a 



