One At A Time, And With Great
Difficulty And Labor, The Old Sails Were Unbent And Sent Down
By The
Bunt-lines, and three new topsails, made for the homeward
passage round Cape Horn, and which had never been bent,
Were got
up from the sailroom, and under the care of the sailmaker, were
fitted for bending, and sent up by the halyards into the tops, and,
with stops and frapping lines, were bent to the yards, close-reefed,
sheeted home, and hoisted. These were done one at a time, and with
the greatest care and difficulty. Two spare courses were then
got up and bent in the same manner and furled, and a storm-jib,
with the bonnet off, bent and furled to the boom. It was twelve
o'clock before we got through; and five hours of more exhausting
labor I never experienced; and no one of that ship's crew, I will
venture to say, will ever desire again to unbend and bend five large
sails, in the teeth of a tremendous north-wester. Towards night,
a few clouds appeared in the horizon, and as the gale moderated,
the usual appearance of driving clouds relieved the face of the sky.
The fifth day after the commencement of the storm, we shook a reef
out of each topsail, and set the reefed foresail, jib and spanker;
but it was not until after eight days of reefed topsails that we
had a whole sail on the ship; and then it was quite soon enough,
for the captain was anxious to make up for leeway, the gale having
blown us half the distance to the Sandwich Islands.
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