"No conundrums of that sort. We take things as we find them, and we are not inventing a system. We speak of a weather and a lee helm. As you may see by the position of the wheel, this boat carries a weather-helm; and it only means that the trim of the craft inclines her to stick her head up into the wind, and we have to carry the helm a little to the weather-side in order to make her go straight ahead. If I should let go the wheel, the boat would come to."
"Come where?" queried Con.
"Come to means to come up into the wind, or turn her head in the direction from which the breeze comes. If she carried a lee-helm, she would turn the other way, if left to herself; and in that case she would be likely to upset, or have the mast taken out of her if it were blowing fresh. It is a good thing, therefore, to have a boat carry a weather-helm, within reasonable limits; and a lee-helm is a very bad trick in any craft."
"But suppose the boat has a lee-helm: you can't help yourself," said Syl Peckman.
"Yes, you can. Shifting the ballast will sometimes correct it, by bringing her down more by the head or stern, as the case may require. Possibly the position of the mast in a sloop may have to be changed. There are two other terms that apply to the helm."
"More of them!" exclaimed Archie. "A fellow can never remember them."
"Why not, as well as the different names of a vehicle? The other terms are up and down, and these depend upon the position of the boat in regard to the wind. When you put the tiller away from the wind, it is down. We have the wind on the port-side now. If we put the tiller to starboard, it is down. Never mind what will happen, Archie, if we put it to port. We shall have more to say about down and up farther along, when we are dealing with the sails."
"Why not tell us now, while we are on the subject?" asked Con.
"Because you will not understand it so well now as you will then. But there is another matter that may be told now. From which side do we get the wind just now, Ben?"
"From the port-side. Give me something harder," replied he.