Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, ) 
Six Months, $1.50. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20 , 1912 . 
j VOL. LXXVIIL—No. 3. 
I No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A SEAMAN ON THE EAR OF THE TOPGALLANT YARD. 
A VIEW FROM ALOFT. 
To Honolulu in a Bark 
July 28, 1911; wind north-northeast, varying- to south- 
south east; course, south, 59“ west. 
NDERNEATH the cabin floor is a store¬ 
room for sails, and the crew roused the 
passengers this morning by hauling out a 
great bundle of canvas which proved to be an 
upper fore topsail and which was to be put in 
place of the present sail that needed repairing. 
The passengers hurried through breakfast to see 
the operation of changing sails. 
First the yard holding the old sail was 
By PALMER H. LANGDON 
{Continued from last week.) 
lowered down until it rested on the cross stick 
beneath it, and then the entire crew of eight 
men were ordered aloft to unbend (unfasten) 
the wornout canvas. A block and tackle, called 
a gantline, was made fast to the mast above 
the yard, and when the sail was unhitched it 
was lowered down via the gantline and the new 
one hoisted up to the mast. The sailors grabbed 
the canvas and first fastened it in the center 
and then hauled it out on each end of the yard, 
attaching the earings (end ropes). They then 
began to bend (fasten) the sail by weaving spun 
yarn (small tarred rope) through the eyelets 
in the canvas to the jackstay of the yard, which 
stay is a small iron rod running lengthwisce of 
the stick. When this had been accomplished 
the real fun began of hauling the yard up to its 
right place. There was no steam for the engine 
now, and the entire crew and the carpenter 
were mustered on deck for action. As the 
mate shouted, “Haul away!” John, the Yankee 
sailor, who was leading the gang, piped a wang 
