Naval Occasions, and Some Traits of the Sailor-man

arting-line sped away before the wind. The bay to windward resembled the shallows near the nesting-ground of white-winged gulls as the remaining

breeze is freshening, and it looks like a "Galley's day." A 32-feet cutter (handiest and sweetest of all Service boats to sail) goes skimming past on a trial run. Her gilded badge gleams in the spray, and there is a sheen of brasswork and enamel

st head. This, steadied by the boat-hook, will serve us as a spinnaker during the three-mile run down-wind; and, in a Service rig race, is

Check away the sheets. Sp

e off! Hois

nches are manoeuvring for positions. The cutter has "goose-winged" her dipping-lug and is running dead before the wind. In a narrow boat like a galley this is dangerous and doe

the mark-buoy. Imperceptibly the breeze freshens, till the wind is whipping a wet smoke off the tops of the waves. Casey, tending the main-sheet, removes his pipe and spits overside. "I reckons

he gunwale as we luff and luff again. There's nothing for it: we must reef, and while we do so, round come the remainder, some reefed and labouring, others lying up in the

" As he spoke, our rival, the 32-ft. cutter, went thrashing past under full sail, her c

to bail with,

plied seven

of the cutter. Even Casey's big toe curled convulsively as he braced himself against the thwart and spat on his hands to get a fresh grip on the main-shee

'is foremast gorn!" He gazed astern enraptured. "Commander's weather-shroud carried away, sir, an' 'im a-drifting 'elpless.... Them whalers is bailin' like loo-natics-" he gave a h

a launch as she came crashing along on our quarter, but once round the secon

had displayed since the green seas began to break over him. "She's missed s

rt tobacco juice into the sacred bottom of his own boat. "Yessir,

" when she lies dead head-to-wind

idshipman avoided our eyes as we passed, but his expression of incredulous exasperation I have seen matched only on the face o

Isn't s

able by inches as we wore to bring us on to the finishing line. Even then the launch nearly had it; but I think that the observations exchanged, as we slipped round side by side

gainst the blue of sea and sky, the tremor of the boat's frame as the water raced hissing past her clinker-built sides, the bucket and shrug,

*

ent and handed back an empty

the race required adequate embellishment, and less formal surroundings in which to do the occasion ju