m to encumber the men." So,
acting on the principle that "a nod was as good as a wink to a blind
horse," I sheered over to the other side of the deck. Here, Sam
Pengelly was standing by the taffrail, and from this coign of vantage we
both watched with much interest the operation of getting the ship under
weigh.

The vessel's topsails, as I have mentioned before, were already cast
loose from the gaskets and her courses hung in the brails, while she was
lying in the stream, heading almost due south and facing the entrance of
the harbour, into which the tide was still running and, consequently,
keeping her cable as taut as a fiddle-string; but now, on the captain's
command causing the hands to man the topsail halliards and run up the
yards to the mast-head, the ponderous folds of canvas expanded with the
wind, which was still to the nor'-east and blowing from aft, and the
ship, in spite of the incoming tide, surged up to her anchor, bringing
it right under her fore foot, thus slackening the strain on the cable.

Another party of the crew, meanwhile, under the superintendence of the
boatswain, had manned the windlass, bringing in the cable slack with a
"slip-slap" and "click-clack" of the pall, as the winch went round, the
moment the skipper's warning cry, "Hands up anchor," was heard from aft.

"Hove short, sir," then sang out the boatswain.

"Up with it, then, men," returned the skipper; and in another minute,
for we were only in some six-fathom water, the anchor-stock showed
itself above the surface and was run up to the cathead.

Now, free from the ground, the bows of the vessel began to rise and fall
as she curtsied politely to the stream, which was just on the turn,
preparing to bid adieu to Cardiff harbour; so, Captain Billings himself
jumped from where he had been standing, by the pilot's side, to the
wheel, making the spokes rapidly fly round until the helm was hard up,
putting the ship before the wind and steering towards the mouth of the
harbour ahead.

"Sheet home!" was the next order; and, with a "yo-heave-ho," the clews
of the topsails were hauled out to the end of the yards, while the
clewgarnet blocks rattled as the main sheet was brought aft; then, the
yards were braced round a bit to the starboard and the vessel headed out
into the Channel, with the wind on her quarter, on the port tack.

"Hoist away the jib!" shouted out Captain Billings, on this much being
achieved; when the _Esmeralda_ began to