332 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XI. 
started in the worst of the gale to get on board. The 
vessel was badly managed, and, by wearing instead of 
tacking, missed the boat, which was thus left about 
three miles from the station, in the midst of a heavy 
tide-rip, to struggle back against a spring-tide and 
gale of wind. For two hours the boat remained 
pulling in the same spot, unable to advance. At 
length the tide slackened, and we saw the tired crew 
haul up the boat on the ways. The brig was by this 
time ten miles off, and the gale more violent than 
ever. One of the men muttered as he walked to his 
house that " he had not signed to pull after Sydney 
" brigs." The "old man" turned round and said with 
a string of oaths, " You grumble, do you ? I shall pull 
"out to her again. — Launch my boat!" and it was 
with great difficulty that he was dissuaded from the en- 
terprise, which would probably have been his last. This 
man's station on Tokomapuna, or Evans's Island, was 
always a model of discipline. His boat might have 
been taken for a fancy gig from a man-of-war or yacht. 
She was painted flesh-colour, with a red nose bearing 
the Prince of Wales's feather ; and her name, the 
" Saucy Jack," was painted near the stern. The crew 
were generally in a sort of uniform ; — red or blue 
worsted shirts, with white binding on the seams, — 
white trowsers, and sou'-westers. A mat was in the 
stem sheets ; the tholes, were carefully covered with 
matting ; the harpoons, lances, mast and sail, and the 
very whiff, were protected by covers of canvass painted 
green. When she dashed alongside a vessel at anchor, 
the oars were shipped, and the steer-oar was drawn in 
and received by the after-oarsman as the headsman 
left the boat. She was then shoved off, with a line 
from her bow thwart to the vessel, each man remain- 
ing at his place, in regular man-o'-war style. The 
