feet on one side, seven and one-half feet
on another side and six and one-half feet on the third. The six and
one-half foot side was secured to a boom, and the seven and one-half
foot side to a yard. The yard and boom were hinged together by a leather
strap nailed on as shown in Fig. 12, and to this hinge a rope was
attached, which served as a sheet. These spars were secured to a mast
erected perpendicularly to the boom and intersecting the yard a little
above its center. We had had some trouble with the first sails we made
in keeping the base of the sail against the body, and to overcome this
difficulty Bill proposed tying the bottom of the mast to the leg. This
was a rather risky thing to do, as we learned later, for in case of
accident it would be difficult to get clear of the sail. It was Reddy
who finally solved the problem by rigging up a step for the mast. It
consisted of a leather tag tied to the leg, and provided with a hole
into which the bottom of the mast was fitted. To prevent the mast from
slipping too far into the step the lower portion of it was whittled
down, leaving a shoulder which rested on the leather. Bill later devised
another step, which consisted of a wooden block (Fig. 14) strapped to
the leg and formed with a shallow socket to receive the end of the mast.

THE DANISH SAIL.

[Illustration: Fig. 15. The Danish Sail.]

[Illustration: Fig. 16. Topsail of the Danish Rig.]

But the most satisfactory sail we found to be the Danish sail, though it
was not until we had served quite a long apprenticeship and sustained
many pretty bad falls that we mastered the art of manipulating these
sails properly. Our ideas on this sail were obtained from a French
illustrated paper which Dutchy Van Syckel picked up in his father's
library. This sail was formed with a topsail so arranged that it could
be lowered when the wind was too strong. The dimensions of the sail as
we made it are given in the drawing (Fig. 15). The top of the sail was
lashed to a spar, which was connected by a short stick to another spar
tied to the mainsail about eighteen inches lower down. The sail was
strengthened with an extra strip of cloth along the lower spar, and the
tie strings were applied in the usual way. The connecting stick, or
topmast we may call it, was hinged to the lower spar by means of a short
piece of leather strap, which was passed round the spar in the form of a
loop and its two ends nailed to the bottom of the topm