[Page 70], l. 3-6.
That task performed, they first the braces slack,
Then to the chess-tree drag th’ unwilling tack.
And, while the lee clue-garnet’s lower’d away,
Taught aft the sheet they tally, and belay.
The braces are here slackened, because the lee-brace confining the yard, the tack could not come down until the braces were cast off. The chess tree, called by the French taquet d’amure, consists of a perpendicular piece of wood, fastened with iron bolts, on each side the ship: in the upper part of the chess-tree is a large hole, through which the tack is passed; and when the clue or lower corner of the sail comes down to it, the tack is said to be aboard. Taught, the roide of the French, and dicht of the Dutch sailors, implies the state of being extended, or stretched out. Tally, is a word applied to the operation of hauling the sheets aft, or toward the ship’s stern. To belay is to fasten.
[Page 71], l. 21, 22.
They furled the sails, and pointed to the wind
The yards, by rolling tackles then confined.
The rolling tackle is an assemblage of blocks or pullies, through which a rope is passed, until it becomes four-fold, in order to confine the yard close down to leeward when the sail is furled, that the yard may not gall the mast, from the rolling of the ship. Gaskets are platted ropes to wrap round the sails when furled.