Lands of the slave and the free: or, Cuba, the United States, and Canada . the battens, the rollerspreventing friction, and the battens keeping the luff fixed tothe after centre line of the mast—without this ingeniousarrangement the huge mast would, if on a wind, becalm atleast three feet of the sail—three lazy-jacks are fitted to sup-port the huge mass of canvas when lowering the sail. The jib is 69 feet in the hoist, and 70 in the foot. The bobstays are of solid iron, rumrng 8 feet on each sideof the keel, and going through a strong iron cap over thebowsprit end, where, a strong iron washer
Lands of the slave and the free: or, Cuba, the United States, and Canada . the battens, the rollerspreventing friction, and the battens keeping the luff fixed tothe after centre line of the mast—without this ingeniousarrangement the huge mast would, if on a wind, becalm atleast three feet of the sail—three lazy-jacks are fitted to sup-port the huge mass of canvas when lowering the sail. The jib is 69 feet in the hoist, and 70 in the foot. The bobstays are of solid iron, rumrng 8 feet on each sideof the keel, and going through a strong iron cap over thebowsprit end, where, a strong iron washer being put on, theyare securely fixed with a nut. It will be seen that there is a slight discrepancy betweensome of the measurements which I have given, and thosewhich are marked on the print; I place confidence in thoseI have received direct from the fountain-head ; the differenceis, however, so trifling, as scarce to need any notice. I regretomitting to obtain the length of the after-leech of the main-sail, and of the head of the jib ; but I think the print, which. CHALLENGE TO THE 65 I believe to be very accurate, would justify me in conclud-ing that the former is about 110 feet and the latter about120 feet. Assuming these calculations to be correct—and they cannotbe very far wrong—the mainsail would contain about 5790square feet, and the jib about 2100 square feet. When it isremembered that the largest sail in the British Navy onlycontains 5480 square feet, some conception may be formedof their gigantic proportions. The gallant commodore was kind enough to trip his anchorand give me a short cruise. Unfortunately, there was scarcelya breath of wind ; but even under the influence of such scantypropelling power, the way she shot through the water, like adolphin in full cry, was perfectly marvellous; and the easewith which she came round, and the incredible distance sheshot ahead in stays, was, if possible, more astonishing still ;she steered as easy as a jolly-bo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, bookidlandso, booksubjectslavery
