the prospect of soon being back
home. We had a very easy time on the schooner, there being nothing to do
except to take our turns at steering. On a full-rigged ship it would
have been different, as it is invariably the practice to keep the crew
continually at work most of the time, most usually aloft, repairing the
rigging. We had passed the most dangerous part of our trip, through the
Florida Keys; the wind was "wing and wing"--that is, the foresail was
out on one side and the main-sail on the other. A good strong breeze was
driving us north at a rapid rate. That night it was my turn at the wheel
from ten to twelve o'clock. It being cloudy, no stars were visible. For
that reason it was more difficult to steer straight. By selecting a
bright star ahead when the vessel is on the right course, it is easier
to see which way the wheel is to be turned. Steering by compass alone,
the vessel either "goes off" or "comes up" considerably before the
compass shows it. The main boom was out to starboard the full length of
the sheet. A pennant--heavy rope--from the end of the boom was hooked to
a tackle and fastened forward in order to prevent the boom from swinging
back. I had been at the wheel about an hour, and was watching the
compass carefully. Suddenly the light in the binnacle went out. Then I
had neither stars nor compass to steer by. As we were going dead before
the wind, I tried to keep the old schooner straight, but it was useless.
In a few minutes she yawed to starboard, and the main-sail was taken
aback. All the strain of that big sail was then on the boom pennant and
tackle leading forward. Before anything could be done to relieve us from
our dilemma there was a sharp snap forward. The belaying-pin which held
the tackle had broken, the boom flew over to the other side, and the
sheet tautened out like a bow-string. It took hardly a second for the
sail to jibe over.

I was lying on deck badly stunned, the wheel-post broken short off, and
the wheel broken into small pieces. The old Pennsylvania was sailing in
all directions. The "sheet" may be better understood by calling it a
large double tackle. As the boom swung in, the sheet, of course,
slackened up, and the bights, going over the quarter-deck, had caught
everything in the way. If I had been caught under the arm or chin I
should have been hurled quite a distance from the schooner without any
possible chance of being rescued. Small tackles were fastened to the
tiller,