han
several others. Whom did you ever hear give that character to this
particular ship?"

"Why, sir, her reefers are always bragging as much as _that_; and a
great deal _more_, too."

"Her reefers!--Young gentlemen are particularly struck with the charms
of their first loves, both ashore and afloat, my boy. Did you ever hear
an _old seaman_ say that much for the Plantagenet?"

"I think I have, sir," returned Lord Geoffrey, blushing. "Galleygo, Sir
Gervaise's steward, is commonly repeating some such stuff or other. They
are furious braggarts, the Plantagenet's, all round, sir."

"That comes honestly," answered Bluewater, smiling, "her namesakes and
predecessors of old, having some such characteristic, too. Look at that
ship's yards, boy, and learn how to trim a vessel's sails on a wind. The
pencil of a painter could not draw lines more accurate!"

"Captain Stowel tells us, sir, that the yards ought not to be braced in
exactly alike; but that we ought to check the weather-braces, a little,
as we go aloft, so that the top-sail yard should point a little less
forward than the lower yard, and the topgallant than the top-sail."

"You are quite right in taking Stowel's opinion in all such matters,
Geoffrey: but has not Captain Greenly done the same thing in the
Plantagenet? When I speak of symmetry, I mean the symmetry of a seaman."

The boy was silenced, though exceedingly reluctant to admit that any
ship could equal his own. In the mean time, there was every appearance
of a change in the weather. Just about the time the Plantagenet braced
up, the wind freshened, and in ten minutes it blew a stiff breeze. Some
time before the admiral spoke the vessels outside, he was compelled to
take in all his light canvass; and when he filled, again, after giving
his orders to the frigate and sloop, the topgallant sheets were let fly,
a single reef was taken in the top-sails, and the lighter sails were set
over them. This change in the weather, more especially as the night
threatened to be clouded, if not absolutely dark, would necessarily
bring about a corresponding change in the plan of sailing, reducing the
intervals between the departures of the vessels, quite one-half. To such
vicissitudes are all maritime operations liable, and it is fortunate
when there is sufficient capacity in the leaders to remedy them.

In less than an hour, the Plantagenet's hull began to sink, to those on
a level with it, when the Carnatic tripped her