The captain of our battered little vessel had always some rough and ready expedient at his finger-ends. When one of the iron davits of the quarter boat was bent by a collision, he extemporised a forge with some pig ballast, on deck, and, though the planks beneath were somewhat scorched, he rendered the davit again effective. Once, when running before the wind, the mainsail jibed in consequence of careless steering, and the boom, being fastened by a “lazy guy,” a slovenly shift a little too common among us, broke short off; however, a good stout plank was found, cut into four pieces, which were laid round the fractured part so as to inclose it in a kind of packing-case, of which the four sides did not meet at their edges; wooldings of rope were passed round at intervals and tightened by driving in wedges, and the boom, though somewhat clumsy, was again fit for duty. (See illustration.)
If a spar, with both ends alike, breaks at either end, a very neat and effective scarf may be made by sawing it down the centre and reversing the two parts, end for end, so that the fracture in one half may come against the unbroken part of the other, as in our sketch (p. 181). If the fracture is long, there may be no need for that unsightly appendage called a fish, and, even if it is short, a very small one will serve the purpose.
If a mast breaks, much above the deck, it may be again used, with little or no diminution of its strength, by reversing it, and stepping what used to be the masthead upon the keelson, so that the fractured part may come below the deck, while that which was the heel is shaped and fitted to become the head. It will be evident from the sketches we give that in a ship with a very deep hold, where very nearly half the mast is below the deck, this plan is more likely to be of service than in a shallow one, where the part below bears but a small proportion to that above.
Kites.
As a substitute or as an auxiliary to the common sails, or as a means of sending up a signal or effecting communication between a ship and a lee shore, a kite of sufficient power would frequently be useful.
Every voyager knows how frequently all the lower and larger sails of a vessel are becalmed, the uppermost and smallest catching only a gentle air, while at a little height above them the wind, as indicated by the fleecy clouds, may be blowing much more briskly.
In this case, when even the flying kites, as the upper sails are figuratively called, have become useless, real kites flying at a sufficient elevation would do good service; and even though the wind might not be fair, still so long as it was a little abaft the beam the vessel might be steered to her course. One thing must be kept in mind, and that is, that when it has once fallen calm below the kites cannot be raised to the breeze that is blowing above, therefore it would be well either to send them up before the breeze fails, or at least to send up in preparation a small one, to the line of which the larger could be hitched, and jerked clear when it had been carried to a sufficient altitude.