ke it,
can in a moment be brailed completely up. They carry a lofty topmast and
large topsails, and these they seldom lower, even when obliged to have
two reefs in the mainsail. They are capital sea-boats, fast, and very
handy; and it requires a good yacht to beat a bawley with a brisk wind
blowing. The men are keen sailors, and when the trawls are taken up and
their heads turned homewards it is always a race to be first back.

Ten years ago all the bawleys were clinker-built--that is, with the
streaks overlapping each other, as in boats; but the new bawleys are now
all carvel-built, the planks being placed edge to edge, so as to give a
smooth surface, as in yachts and large vessels. They now for the most
part carry spinnakers, boomed out when running before the wind, and
balloon foresails, thereby greatly adding to their speed in light winds.
One peculiarity of the bawleys is that, when at anchor, the mainsail,
instead of being stowed with its spars parallel to the deck, is made up
on its gaff, which is then hoisted with the throat seven or eight feet
up the mast, while the peak rests on the stern.

This is done to give more room on deck, and enable the men to get more
easily in and out of the fo'castle. It has, however, a curious
appearance, and a fleet of bawleys at anchor resembles nothing so much
as a flock of broken-backed ducks.

Ben Tripper and his mate, Tom Hoskins, finished tarring the boat under
her water-line soon after four o'clock in the afternoon, Jack's share of
the work consisting in keeping the fire blazing under the pitch kettle.

"What time shall we go out, uncle?"

"Not going out at all, Jack. We will finish tarring her the first thing
in the morning, and there are two or three odd jobs want doing."

"Will you want me, uncle? because, if not, I shall go out early with
Bill Corbett cockling. His father has hurt his leg, and is laid up, so
he asked me to lend him a hand. I told him I didn't know whether you
were going out again to-night or whether you could spare me in the
morning, but that if you didn't want me I would go with him."

"You can go, Jack; besides, you will be in early anyhow. We will do the
tarring without you."

CHAPTER II.

CAUGHT BY THE TIDE.

JACK ran home.

"I thought you would have been in by two o'clock, Jack," his mother said
reproachfully, "so as to see Lily before she went off to school again."

"So I should have done, mother, but I had to stick at the wo