And now he’s gone aloft.”
“Yes! yes! Tom Bowling is a favourite song. Now tell us about the sails of a ship.”
“The principal sails are, the courses, or lower sails; the top-sails, the top-gallant sails, and the top-gallant-royal sails. When there is a sail higher than these it is called a sky-scraper. You know, I dare say, that the rope part of a ship is called the rigging, but if you know the names of half the ropes, blocks, and tackling, you are wiser than I take you to be. The lower rigging of a ship consists of the shrouds, and the stays, that keep the lower masts in their places; the standing rigging is fixed, and the running rigging moves in altering the sails and the yards.
“What a pity that a ship should ever be wrecked.”
“A pity indeed; and a capital thing it is, when a wreck does take place, if a life-boat is at hand. A life-boat is so constructed that it will live among breakers that would swamp a common ship’s boat directly. Many a brave red-coat and blue-jacket has been saved by the life-boat.
“The life-boat! the life-boat! The whirlwind and rain,
And white-crested breakers oppose her in vain!
Her crew are resolved, and her timbers are staunch—
The vessel of mercy—God-speed to her launch!
The life-boat! the life-boat! how fearless and free