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wrought on the fairy vessel with a tracery of gossamer . Yet so well fitted are all parts to each other , that , though her canvass has blown away in the squall , not a spar is sprung . She is an armed craft , yet she shows no ports . Look closer at her . What see you on her deck ? An enormous long gun traversing on a frame , which throws sixty pounds of iron at every discharge , with rifle accuracy and at a safe distance . She wears no flag , but have you not yet made her out to be a schooner of three hundred tons , of Baltimore build , three weeks old , and bound round the Horn to
cruise in the Pacific with a Patriot commission , under which she will sweep the commerce of Spain from the face of the waters ? But hark again ! Listen to the shouts of the mariners . They are bending fresh sails of white cotton duck to the yards and booms ; the rigging is strewn with men ; the helm is once more in hand ; the south wind blows . Look forward where the wave is
streaking with ripply patches ; the sails flap heavily against the spars ; it was but a puff which died away . Hark ! how the master whistles a low note to wile it back ; slowly it comes ; again the masses of canvass are bellying , but still it is not sure ; yes , yes , the clouds are clearing off to the south , and the sky is streaked with mares' tails ; the breeze comes ; the vessel is going about ; how like a live thing she moves ! See , she lies her course ,
the wind is three points before the beam , but yonder red patch on the log-line marks that her way is eleven knots . Glance your eye over the taffrail . Draw a line down yonder whitening wake , and it would strike through stem and stern-post . The slate will be broken , and the log-book expended , ere her dead reckoning records leeway This , this is beauty ; a sublime combination of nature and of art .
Many days have passed away . Look to the south ! farther 1— - farther still ! Yonder sails the gallant craft . The breeze is strong , and two points abaft the beam , yet the log tells but nine knots on the hollow troughy sea . The mariners are all clad in their wintry garments , the light spars are housed , and the upper masts are shortened , and half her canvass is reefed and taken in .
The water smooths and the speed of the craft increases to twelve knots . A deep mist is around , and neither sun , moon , nor stars , have been seen for three days . * Breakers ahead ! ' shouts the mariner in the foretop , and the master shortens sail , while the stormy peterel flits to and fro athwart the stern with its gloomy wings , and ever and anon encircles the mizen truck , uttering its
unearthly ominous scream . Two hours have elapsed , and a heavy fall of snow has heaped the deck ; the wind has changed , and blows steadily from the north , while the mist has cleared away , and a faint glimpse of sunshine illumines the wintry sky . The craft is in a strait scarce seven miles wide , with lofty mountains on either hand . The water is smooth , but covered with white foamy crests , and the log tells nine knots , yet how slowly
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 91, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/23/
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