"Gaff topsail" Quotes from Famous Books
... jib-sail run up and fill. Then up went the gaff topsail, and as it filled the cutter seemed to lie over, so that we could not see her deck, while the white water foamed away from her bows, and she ... — Devon Boys - A Tale of the North Shore • George Manville Fenn
... strength with lightness to the utmost possible extent. Her ordinary suit of sails consisted of the usual square sails in the foremast, fore topmast staysail and jib, large fore and main topsails, maintop sail, topgallant sail and royal, and on the mizen-mast spanker and gaff topsail. Occasionally, this rig would be varied, as was the case in entering Cherbourg, just before the close of her eventful career, when a crossjack yard was got up across the mizen-mast, with mizen topsail and topgallant yards to match; and the Alabama assumed for a time the appearance of a ... — The Cruise of the Alabama and the Sumter • Raphael Semmes |