The Sandman: His Sea Stories

by William John Hopkins

The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's and they owned the ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their office to Boston. After that, their ships sailed from a wharf in Boston.

A long time ago the brig Industry lay at that wharf in Boston, and she was all ready to sail for far countries. And there was a ship that was named the Augusta Ramsay lying at the next wharf, and she was all ready to sail, too, and she was going to the same country that the Industry was going to. Captain Sol had been on the Industry for a long time, seeing that the cargo was stowed as well as it could be stowed, and trying to hurry the lumpers. But he couldn't make them hurry very much.

Captain Sol wanted to get the Industry away before the Augusta Ramsay sailed, so as to gain as much time as he could. For, in those days, the owners of ships couldn't telegraph to far countries to find out what they had to sell and what they wanted to buy, but the captains of their ships had to find out those things when the ships got there. And the captains had to sell the things they brought for as much as they could get for them, and they had to buy what they wanted to carry back for as low a price as they could.

So it made a good deal of difference whether a ship got there first or not; for the ship that got there first could sell the things that she brought at a higher price, and could buy the things to bring back for a lower price than a ship that got there a little later. So Captain Sol knew that it would be a race, for the whole voyage, between the Industry and the Augusta Ramsay. And Captain Henry, of the Augusta Ramsay, knew it, too, and he was hurrying as fast as he could. The Augusta Ramsay was a good deal bigger than the Industry, but Captain Sol had his mind made up to beat her if he blew the sticks right out of the Industry.

So it happened that the ship Augusta Ramsay pulled out from her wharf at exactly the same time that the brig Industry pulled out from hers. And they both began to set all the sails that they possibly could. And the ship and the brig sailed down the harbor together before a fair wind. A fair wind is a wind that blows about the way the vessel is going. But the Augusta Ramsay was just ahead, going down the harbor, for the wharf that she started from was a little nearer to the channel than Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's wharf; and the channel that led out of Boston Harbor was even more crooked and narrow than it is now. So the Industry couldn't pass the Augusta Ramsay, while they were in the channel and setting all those many sails, and Captain Sol didn't try it.

By the time the Industry had got out into Boston Bay she had set her mainsail and her foresail, and her maintopsail and her foretopsail, and her maintopgallantsail and her foretopgallantsail, and her mainroyal and her foreroyal, and her mainskysail and her foreskysail, and all of her jibs and her spanker and her staysails; and the sailors were busy getting out her studdingsail booms. The studdingsail booms are sticks that stick out beyond the ends of the yards; and, as soon as the sailors had got out these booms, they set the studdingsails that belonged on them, so that it was just as if the foresail and the other sails that had studdingsails had been made so much bigger. And the Industry had set all the sail that she could set.

The Augusta Ramsay had all the sails that the Industry had and, besides those sails, she had the sails that belong on the mizzenmast: the cross-jack and the mizzentopsail and the mizzentopgallantsail and the mizzenroyal and the mizzenskysail and all the mizzenstaysails. But the Industry couldn't set those sails on the mizzenmast, because she didn't have any mizzenmast. And the two vessels leaned a good deal and the foam piled up under their bows and they just flew out of Boston Bay into Massachusetts Bay and out past Provincetown into the great ocean; but neither gained on the other any worth mentioning.

And night came and they didn't take in any of the sails that they had set, but they sailed on, in the moonlight. Captain Sol had to keep his crew pretty busy, changing the sails so that the wind would blow on them the right way, and so did Captain Henry. It is a good deal of a job to change these many sails. But morning came, and there was the Augusta Ramsay right abreast of them. And the wind increased, so that the two vessels leaned a great deal; but Captain Sol said that he guessed he could carry his sail as long as Captain Henry could carry his, and he wasn't going to be the first to take in sail. But the sailors didn't like to hear Captain Sol say that because they knew that it meant hard work for them.

They sailed on, that way, for a long time, and they never lost sight of each other. But, first, the Augusta Ramsay would be a little way ahead and then the Industry would gain a little and go ahead of the Augusta Ramsay. Then, one day, it began to blow harder and harder and Captain Sol knew that they would have a storm. And he got a little worried because he was afraid that he might have to take in some sail before Captain Henry did. For he wouldn't risk his ship just because he had said that he wasn't going to be the first to take in sail. And he looked, through his glass, at the Augusta Ramsay, to see if she took in any of her sails, and he waited as long as he dared to wait. Then, just as he was going to give it up, and take his glass down, he saw the sailors on the Augusta Ramsay going up on the yards. And he was very glad of it, and he gave orders for his sailors to reduce sail. And the sailors were glad, too, and they swarmed up aloft and took in the sails in a jiffy.

The storm lasted for three days and two nights. The wind blew harder and harder and the waves got higher and higher and the rain came down in sheets. Then it would stop raining, for a little while, and the wind would blow harder than ever, while the flying clouds seemed to be no higher than the masthead. Then it would begin to rain again. But they didn't lose sight of the Augusta Ramsay completely, although, at times, she was hidden by the rain and, for one whole day, they didn't see her at all. But she was there on the next morning. And the Industry, all through that hard blow, was sailing under double-reefed topsails, and so was the Augusta Ramsay. And double-reefed topsails is very little sail, compared to the enormous spread of canvas that the vessels had set when they left Boston.