f one in my life who was not, after
a single trip, always fond of relating his hair-breadth perils and
escapes, and of seizing every opportunity to display his marine
knowledge by framing his conversation _ship shape_, and decorating his
oratory with a few of those lingual localisms, which to a landsman must
be almost unintelligible without the aid of ~150~~a naval glossary.
A fortnight's tuition under the able auspices of my friend Horace had
brought me into tolerable good trim in this particular; I already
knew the difference between fore and aft, a gib, a mainsail, and a
mizen;could hand a rope, or let go the foresail upon a tack; and having
gained the good opinion of the sailing captain, I was fast acquiring a
knowledge how to box the binnacle and steer through the Needle's Eye.
But, my conscience! as the Dominie says, I could never learn how to
distinguish the different vessels by name, particularly when at a little
distance; their build and rigging being to my eye so perfectly similar.
In all this, however, my friend Horace was as completely at home as if
he had studied naval architecture at the college; the first glance of a
vessel was quite enough for him: like an old sportsman with the pedigree
of a horse or a dog, only let him see her, through his glass head or
stern, or upon a lee lurch, and he would hail her directly, specify her
qualities and speed, tell you where she was built, and who by, give you
the date of her register, owner's name, tonnage, length and breadth
of her decks, although to the eye of the uninitiated there was no
distinguishing mark about her, the hull being completely black, and
the rigging, to a rope, like every other vessel of the same class.
"For instance," said Horace, "who could possibly mistake that beautiful
cutter, the Pearl? See how she skims along like a swan with her head
up, and stern well under the wind! Then, look at her length; there's
a bowsprit, my boy! full half the measurement of her hull; and her new
mainsail looks large enough to sweep up every breath of wind between
the sea and the horizon. Then only direct your fore lights to her trim;
every rope just where it should be, and not a line too much; and when
she fills well with a stiff breeze, not a wrinkle in all her canvas from
the gib to the gaff topsail. Then observe how she dips in the bows, and
what a breadth she ~151~~has; why she's fit for any seas; and if the
Arrow ever shoots past her, I'll forfeit every shot in