It may be of interest, perhaps, to describe the method used by Duncan, the crack racing mate of Ariel, Titania, and Wild Deer, when taking in sail. For a topgallant sail he sent as many men as were available to the lee buntline and leachline; one hand, generally an apprentice, stood by the clewline, and another attended to the weather brace. Duncan himself would ease away a few feet of the halliards, then sing out:—“Let go your lee sheet!” Away would fly the sheet, followed by Duncan letting go the halliards; the hands on the buntline and leachline hauling away for all they were worth, the yard would run down and round itself in so that the boy on the weather brace only had to take in the slack. With smart hands on bunt and leachlines, the lee side of the sail would be spilt and up on the yard before it was well down and the apprentice on the clewline had only to get in the slack and make it fast. The lee side of the sail being well up, there was no trouble with the weather side. A hand in the top was almost unnecessary as the lee sheet needed no lighting up—it did that itself quick enough. The success of this method, of course, depended on the smartness of the hands on the bunt and leachline, but there were not many indifferent sailormen in a tea clipper’s foc’s’le.
In taking in a course Duncan used to man the lee bunt and leachlines well, with two hands only on the clew garnet; on the sheet being eased away bunt and leachlines were hauled smartly in, the sail was at once spilt and hauled up to the yard without a flap, the slack of the clew garnet being rounded up; then there was no trouble with the weather side.
This is also the method advocated by Captain Basil Hall in his Fragments of Voyages. Everything depended, of course, on having the necessary beef on the bunt and leachlines.
“Peter Denny.”
The Peter Denny was built by Duthie, of Aberdeen, of teak and greenheart with iron knees in the ’tween decks, and measured 998 tons.
She was not a very fast ship, her best run in the westerlies being 285 miles, but she was a very handy-easy working ship and, still better, a very comfortable happy ship. She was also well run and beautifully kept under Captain Adams.
The Albion Shipping Company, 1869 Ships.
In 1869 Duncan, of Glasgow, built the two fine little composite ships, James Nicol Fleming (afterwards renamed the Napier) and the Otago, for Patrick Henderson. They were sister ships of 993 tons register. Their top strake and bulwarks were of iron, but their bottoms were of wood with pure copper sheathing.
The Otago, by the way, must not be confused with a little iron barque of 346 tons, which was owned in Adelaide and at one time commanded by Joseph Conrad.