falling off a little, by the counteraction of the sails and helm.
Here she rides out the storm, dipping her lee rail under, climbing the
wild, gigantic seas, and working off her course on the cyclone-driven
waters; but giving watch and watch about a chance to rest before she
squares away again.

Next morning the skipper hardly puts his head out before he yells the
welcome order to set the main lower topsail--from the lee yardarm of
which a dozen men had nearly gone to Davy Jones's locker only
yesterday. He takes a look round; then orders up reefed foresail and
the three upper topsails, also reefed. Up goes the watch aloft and
lays out on the yard. 'Ready?' comes the shouted {128} query from the
bunt. 'Ay, ay, sir!' 'Haul out to windward!' _Eh--hai, o--ho,
o--ho--oh_! 'Far enough, sir?' 'Haul out to leeward!' _Eh--hai,
o--ho, o--ho--oh_! 'That'll do! Tie her up and don't miss any
points!' 'Right-oh! Lay down from aloft and set the sail!' _Yo--ho,
yo--hai, yo--ho--oh_! Then the chanty rises from the swaying men,
rises and falls, in wavering bursts of sound, as if the gale was
whirling it about:

Blow the man down, blow the man down,
'Way-ho! Blow the man down.
Blow the man down from Liverpool town;
Give us some wind to blow the man down.

And so the gallant ship goes outward-bound; and homeward-bound the
same. At last she's back in Halifax, after a series of adventures that
would set an ordinary landsman up for life. But the only thing the
Nova Scotian papers say of her is this: 'Arrived from sea with general
cargo--ship _Victoria_, John Smith, master, ninety days from
Valparaiso. All well.'

No mention of that terrible Antarctic hurricane? No 'heroes'? No
heroics?

It's all in the day's work there.

{129}

CHAPTER VIII

STEAMERS

Steamers and all other machine-driven craft are of very much greater
importance to Canada now than canoes and sailing craft together. But
their story can be told in a chapter no longer than the one devoted to
canoes alone; and this for several reasons. The tale of the canoe
begins somewhere in the immemorial past and is still being told to-day.
The story of the sailing ship is not so old as this. But it is as old
as the history of Canada. It is inseparably connected with Canada's
fortunes in peace and war. It is Canada's best sea story of the recent
past. And, to a far greater extent than the tale of the canoe, it is
also a story of the pr