Practical Boat-Sailing: A Concise and Simple Treatise

by Douglas Frazar

TO PLACE A COMPASS TO STEER BY.

The periphery of the circular casing in which the card revolves should be marked plainly with a perpendicular black line; and this black line should, by moving the compass-box, be brought to bear in a direct line with the keel of the yacht, and the box secured in that position. One has then only to move the helm to bring each and every point on the compass-card opposite to this black mark on the compass-box, and, having once brought the point needed to this position, keep it there by moving the helm when necessary; and this act of keeping it there is called "keeping the vessel on her course."

For instance: if the wind allows, suppose by the chart it is desired to steer N.E., to reach a certain place. Go on deck, and, by moving the helm, bring the N.E. point of the compass-card opposite to the black perpendicular mark on the compass-casing, and keep on your way, after having trimmed your sails so as to hold the wind properly. The yacht will not keep on N.E. exactly, but will yaw to and fro, which will seem as if the compass-card was moving; and this will occur more or less according to the roughness of the water. And, if one looks too much to the compass, the yacht will be off the course before the compass shows it: it is therefore well, if possible, to get some bearing, miles ahead, that cuts the weather-shrouds or jib-stay, when the yacht is on her course; then, by looking at that, one can easily see when she is off her course, casting an eye to the compass once in a while. In the night-time very fine steering can be done by picking out a star, and steering by it, after getting it to range on some part of the yacht. Steering by a compass is a great accomplishment: few amateurs do it well. It used to be said at sea, that the best helmsmen looked at the head of the vessel oftener than the compass, and were thus enabled to check with the helm any disposition of the vessel to leave the true course, long before the departure was shown by the compass-card.

VELOCITY OF WIND.

Generally speaking, a wind that blows sixteen miles an hour is called a fresh breeze. One that blows eighteen miles an hour calls for a single reef; and twenty miles, a close reef. Twenty-four miles an hour is a gale; whilst thirty miles an hour is a fresh gale.

THE LOG, REEL, AND HALF-MINUTE GLASS.

This method of ascertaining how fast the yacht is moving through the water, and hence to calculate her position, has been almost done away with by the use of what is termed the "patent log," which is now almost universally used, and which consists of a small propeller of brass, which is towed astern, and records its own revolutions on dials. But, to enable one to use the common log-line and glass, the following description is written: The half-minute glass is of the same form as an hour-glass, and contains such a quantity of sand as will run through its neck in twenty-eight seconds of time; or a watch with a second-hand may be used, if the glass is not handy. The log is a piece of thin board of a quadrantal form, about the size and shape of a quarter-section of the bottom of a common water-pail, loaded on the circular side with enough lead to make it swim upright in the water. To this is fastened a line, about one hundred and fifty fathoms in length, called the log-line, which is divided into intervals called knots, and is wound on a reel which turns very easily.

To ascertain the velocity at which the yacht is sailing is called heaving the log, and is performed as follows: one person holds the reel, and another the half-minute glass, whilst a third throws the log over the stern on the lee-side; and, when he observes that the stray line has run off (which is about ten fathoms), and the first mark (which is generally a red rag) has passed the stern, he sings out, Turn: the glass-holder answers, Turn, and, watching the glass, the moment it has run out, sings out, Stop. The reel being immediately stopped, the last mark run off shows the number of knots that the yacht has sailed during the last hour, if the wind has been constant.

The log-line is marked as follows: allow ten fathoms for stray line, and then insert a red rag, and at every 47.6 feet mark the line as follows: at one, one leather; at two, two knots; at three, three knots; and also have a small mark at each half-knot, and so on to ten and twelve knots.

The principle of the log-line is, that a knot is the same part of a sea-mile that half a minute is of an hour: therefore the length of a knot should be one hundred and twentieth the length of a sea-mile, or fifty-one feet; but, as it is more convenient to have the knot divided into eight parts of six feet each, the proportional reduction is necessary in the half-minute glass.