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quarter , and how deliciously soft that music sounds as it winds towards us : its air , —its particular tune , is undefinable at this distance ; but there is witchery in it thus , it touches the combustion spark of the soul , and fans the imagination into a blaze of rich creations : it is the realization of a fairy revel , so bland , so mild , so sweet , so gentle . And there the ship rides along ; her
mountain weight scarcely lifting to the rolling sea : yet onward she swings , wnile her lofty royal masts sway to and fro , cutting , triply , vast arcs across the dappled sky ; while that transport under our starboard bow , though of four hundred tons burthen , is a very plaything for the sportive billows ; they toss her green coppery breast out of her path , till it points to heaven ; they bound along , and down again it plunges into the hollow they have left behind . Her decks are crowded , booms and all , with idle soldiers ;
and some other half-a-dozen , apart on the quarter-deck , hold talk and comment on the beauty and order of the frigate so near . Those men on the booms are saying , < My eyes , Jim / and blow me , Joe , she ' s a gallows fine craft : ' for pass a ship twenty times a day at sea , she will always present a new form and new points of beauty to gaze on , admire , or censure . On board the A everything is hushed , everybody is motionless , " except , that
fourfeet-high reefer , who , contrary to orders , is scrambling up the after carronade , from which he may get a better view of the Admiral . ' Young gentleman , if a certain eye see you , you will very likely try a journey to the mast-head to fit you for climbing / Now we are nearly alongside of the great ship : then follows an interchange of hat lifting from either quarter-deck , and a wave of the hand or handkerchiefs from forecastles ; and the band strikes
up a crashing burst in salutation , not a word spoken till it ceases . The admiral ' s voice is heard : € How d ' ye do , Captain M . &c . ;' and ' there is a straggler or two out on the larboard beam ; drive them up , that we may have them all snug by sunset . ' And with
a . few spokes' turn of the wheel , the A sweeps round , crowds all sail ,, as if by magic , and dashes out laterally from the admiral , threading her way through the fleet . Now she seems bent on dashing into the bowels of this ship , yet shoots past under her stern , near enough to grasp her mizen boom : now she slips across the bow of that , so close that her mainsail may be bored by the jib-boom end ; but no , all is as clearly passed as if there had been a mile between them . Then on she bowls and swings ,
ploughing up whole hillocks into spray , and dashing them from her bows in a succession of cataracts . Signal to close with the commodore is made to the lazy or lubberly ones , and they crack under every stitch of sail , at the peril of their masts , in obedience to the order , for sunset is now fast drawing on . And such sunsets as we had there ! I had read and heard much talk of the
g lorious beauty and splendour of these things , but never saw one , till I was out on the bosom of the Atlantic , and watched the sun
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A uiobiozraphv of Pel . Verjuice . 33
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No . 85 . D
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 33, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/33/
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