TOP-GALLANT BRACE AND PARREL CARRIED AWAY.

In this case, where sending men to the mast head is out of the question, and clue lines have failed, there is every chance of losing the mast if you hold on, and of the clues getting round the stay if you let go the sheets. The lower and topsail yard must be braced by, and the ship, if necessary, sufficiently touched with the helm, to throw the top-gallant sail slightly aback.

PREVENTER BRACES, LIFTS, AND CLUE LINES.

Preventer brace pendants, made long enough to reach from the yard arm to the top, are not only quickly attached to the whips, but the risk sometimes incurred in sending men on the yards greatly diminished. Preventer topsail braces have more drift and a more downward pull than the standing ones; and, therefore, should never be so taut, or be hauled upon, until the lifts are well up.

In carrying a press of sail, Burtons on the topsail yards give great support, especially if they have been pulled up in concert with the standing lift when the sail was being hoisted, or during a good "lift."

The general rule for topsail lift jiggers, is to put them on when the second reefs are taken in. And it is good to make a habit of putting the spare parrels and preventer braces on when the third are taken in.

When top-gallant yards are sent down on account of weather, throw the top-gallant sheets out of the snatches; reeve them through the bow line bridle of the topsails up before all, and hitch them to the lugs of the tie blocks. They will be found to act even better than leech lines of courses when taking in topsails.

From their greater length, the sail tackles are generally used for preventer lower; and the topmast studding sail halyards for the Preventer topsail braces.

REEFING TOPSAILS AND COURSES.

Haul up the courses, lower the topsails, and round all the weather braces in to touching; the reef burtons and reef tackles

will now haul out easily. Haul taut topsail halyards, lee braces, lifts, trusses, and rolling tackles, and haul the topsail buntlines well up out of the way of the men on the lower yards. If a becketed topsail, the fourth reef earing hauls out before the yard, as the others; with pointed topsails, that earing is passed abaft the yard.

As with four reefs in the topsails it is always good to keep the sheets eased off some four feet, they may be hauled up thus far when the reef tackle is being hauled out; but if the yards are well laid, the sails will be both quicker and more easily reefed if the practice of entirely clueing up top sails for a third or fourth reef is dispensed with. Of course when courses are set

the topsails must be differently handled. After reefing courses the leech and slab line blocks will require to be shifted further out. It is recommended to haul the sheets of courses aft first, and haul the tack down, letting the yard go forward at the same time; but if there is option, it is preferable to get the topsail up while lifting, the lift taut, and then draw the lower tack down, easing braces, trusses, and rolling tackles to liking; bearing in mind that as the lee foremost topmast shrouds should not be too much pressed by the lee quarters of the topsail yards, there is no good object gained in bracing lower yards quite up. Under such sail as this there is generally much motion, and the chafe in the nips of the stays, as well as in the wake of sharp up yards, is beyond the power of protection from any description of service or scotchmen.

A head sail should always be set, and great care should be observed whilst taking in reefs that the ship is not taken aback. Moving the yards for the purpose of trimming sails, or indeed for any purpose, when the men are on them, is most perilous; for the foot of the topsails will sweep the lower yards, and the lower yards themselves be for a time quite adrift.

REEFING TOPSAILS AND COURSES.

These evolutions are sometimes performed at the same time, but when there is much motion, it is considered more Ship-shape to defer reefing the courses until the top-sails are reefed and reset. By so doing, the ship is kept more steady whilst the people are aloft.

Lower Yards should be well placed before sending men on

them for the purpose of reefing or furling courses. When it becomes necessary to perform either of these operations at sea, there is generally considerable motion; and an attempt to remedy neglect or want of judgment in this particular, by handling the braces whilst men are on the yards is always attended with great danger to them especially in the case of main-yard men, who are mostly composed of inexperienced hands - for the yards on becoming released from the nip of the stays, lee-rigging, and trusses, will not only "sally" from side to side, but scend violently fore and aft.

Whilst getting a pull on the tacks of courses, petty officers frequently make use of a bad habit of letting go the lower lifts, thereby exposing the yards to great risk of being sprung until again supported by these ropes. It should be remembered that the object aimed at is not to pull the weather yard-arm down, but to tauten the weather leech; and this is not effected by merely getting the tack block nearer the bumpkin or chesstree. If the yard is already in a horizontal line, the lift should be kept fast, the bowline let go, and the luff of the sail made taut by putting a tackle on the tack.

When it is proper to slack the lower lifts, whilst getting tacks down, the topsail lifts, top bowlines, and lee main brace (if taut) should also be slacked off at the same time.

As in securing a lower yard under a press of sail, a pull on the weather brace slacks the truss, and a pull on the weather truss slacks the brace, it is advisable to haul these ropes taut together.

TAKING IN A COURSE.

The most proper way to take in a course during heavy weather has been a matter of controversy ever since the times of the Great Harry. Until then, the yards were lowered on the deck when it became necessary to take in the sail.

In hauling up the weather clue garnet first, the weather yard-arm, released from the downward pull of the tack, and bent upwards by the bellying canvass of the course and drag of the topsail sheet, is in great danger of being carried away underneath in the nip of the stay moreover, as the bulk of the sail goes bodily over to leeward the instant the tack is let go, it

is not properly embraced by the bunt and leech lines. When all the gear is hauled close up, there remain one or two balloon s on the lee side, which, throwing themselves backwards over the yards and furlers as the ship comes nearer the wind, and then leaping forward bursting with wind as she falls off, are not to be controlled in any other way than sending men to the yard arm by the lift, and making them work from thence inwards with the sea gaskets.

When it is determined to haul up the weather gear first, the sheet should be slacked off short of splitting the sail by shaking heavily; and then all the lee gear hauled well taut before starting the tack. In this way the lee leech and buntline will grip the sail nearly at their proper places, and the difficulty we have alluded to be partially diminished.

In hauling the lee clue garnet up first, the canvass is gripped by the leech and buntlines to leeward of their natural place in the first instance; and then, by their pulling inwards as the sail is clued up, the canvass that would otherwise have been slack is stripped of wind, and hauled in taut along the lee yard-arm. Whatever canvass may be left slack on the weather side after hauling up the weather gear, is blown into the weather side of the bunt, where it is steadied and bound against the mast and stay, and is easily secured.*

TAKING A TOPSAIL IN WHEN BLOWING HARD.

Excepting as to the tendency of the weather lower yard-arm to fly upward, which is chiefly owing to the pull of the topsail sheet, all that we have remarked upon the subject of taking in a course in heavy weather, applies to taking in a topsail.

If there be no course set below, and the ship be on a wind, round in the weather lower and topsail brace until the sail lifts.

Falconer's often quoted maxim:

he who strives the tempest to disarm

Will never first embrail the lee yard-arm,"

was, on his own showing, an innovation upon "long tried practice." The charm of the poetry must not be permitted to cover an error in seamanship, or shake our faith in a method which the author of the "Shipwreck" terms "barbarous." A soldier (and consequently a sailor) is no more exempt from saying a foolish thing than a man of letters.

Let go the halyards and lift-jiggers, clue the yard down, haul taut and belay the halyards. If there are hands enough, and there be three or four reefs already in the sail, all the gear may be run up together; if not, haul up the lee first, then the weather. If the top-gallant sheets have been rove round the clues, as before described, they will bring all the slack sail taut along the yard. Belay the clue lines, and steady up the topsail sheets, braces, and rolling tackle before sending the men up to furl.*

Before the wind, there is often great difficulty in getting the bunt of the topsails secured for furling, and it is not unfrequent to carry away the buntlines in the attempt. When this happens there is every probability of the sail being split and lost, unless the ship be rounded to and the sail thrown aback. When the course may not be altered, steady the bowlines, overhaul the top-gallant mast rope down before all, send its end up abaft the sail, and make it fast to the cap, lash a snatch block to the topmast above the yard, score the mast rope in it, and haul up on the deck end.

If the Course be set, the lower yard cannot be braced in, and the topsail must be "spilt " by rounding in the weather topsail brace, and hauling up the lee clue line at the same time. When this is done, haul up the weather gear, lower and secure the yard for furling.

SENDING A TOPSAIL UP IN BAD WEATHER.

It has been recommended to send a topsail up in bad weather, through the weather side of lubber's hole, because the sail is thus prevented from flying to leeward. However well it may go up in this way, great labour is involved in getting it across the fore part of the top afterwards; and there is considerable risk of finding a "turn" in the sail upon hauling it out, in consequence of having bent the gear in so crowded a place.

Let us suppose the main topsail.-If on a wind, send the sail tackle and topsail buntlines down to windward before the main lift and main top, and abaft the main yard. Send the weather

*Topsails will stand very long in strong gales, if the sheets are kept well eased off and stoppered, but the nips must be frequently freshened.