"Maintop" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... scant as it was, seemed inclined to become more scanty still, until at length, by "six bells"—that is to say, seven o'clock—our courses were drooping motionless from the yards, the maintop-sail was wrinkling ominously, with an occasional flap to the mast as the brig hove lazily over the long low undulations of the swell—and only the light upper canvas continued to draw, the ship's speed having declined to a bare two knots, which gave us little ...
— A Middy in Command - A Tale of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood
... think was to act. Looking around to see that neither the captain nor the mates were in sight to forbid him, he stepped to the rail, mounted Into the shrouds, or ladders, that are formed by the wire ropes supporting the mast, and was soon ascending toward the maintop, the highest point ...
— Bob the Castaway • Frank V. Webster
... 2nd and 3rd. The rest of the fleet passed to leeward. Their third ship gave us a severe broadside on the bow as we approached to pass under her stern, and which we took care to return by two on her quarter and stern. Before we had cleared her, her fore and maintop masts fell over the side, and she was silenced for a while, but it was only till we had passed her. Their rear ship received several broadsides even from our three-deckers, but kept her colours up. The Orion ran ...
— The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders • Ernest Scott
... AGAINST MOBILE (August 5) was under the command of Admiral Farragut. That he might oversee the battle more distinctly, he took his position in the maintop of his flag-ship—the Hartford. The vessels, lashed together in pairs for mutual assistance, in an hour fought their way past the Confederate forts, and engaged the iron-clad fleet beyond (map, p. 280). After a desperate resistance, the great iron ram Tennessee ...
— A Brief History of the United States • Barnes & Co.
... quarter. About nine o'clock they descried some ships, of which one seemed to be a great one; and coming nearer, they perceived an English ship to be with them. The 'Amarantha' fired a gun to warn them to strike sail, she carrying the flag in her maintop, and being a man-of-war of Sweden. The English captain did not obey, and Clerke commanded to shoot again at him; but Whitelocke ordered Clerke first to send his boat with some of Whitelocke's servants, to advertise the English ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke
... spars I see you've clapped Peak halliard blocks, all iron-capped. I would not christen that a crime, But 'twas not done in RODNEY'S time. It looks half-witted! Upon your maintop-stay, I see, You always clap a selvagee! Your stays, I see, are equalized— No vessel, such as RODNEY prized, Would ...
— More Bab Ballads • W. S. Gilbert
... with pleasure. That story of the Hunt was one of her sweetest recollections. For her bravery then she had been voted by the field "a good fellow," and an admiral present declared that she had a head "as long as the maintop bow-line." She loved admiration, though she had no foolish sentiment; she called men silly creatures, and yet would go on her knees across country to do a deserving man-friend a service. She was fifty and over, yet she had ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... fix I was in, gave me a helping hand, and up I crawled as far as the maintop. This, I must explain to my non-nautical reader, is not the mast-head, but a comparatively comfortable half-way resting-place, from whence one can look ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha
... spar and rigging tell of the scamped work of those whose names are not on our 'Articles.' Sternly superintended (now that the Mate has given up all hope of getting work out of the men), we elder boys are held aloft, reeving running gear through the leads in the maintop. On the deck below the new apprentices gaze in open-mouthed admiration at our deeds: they wonder why the Mate should think such clever fellows laggard, why he should curse us for clumsy 'sodgers,' as a long length ...
— The Brassbounder - A Tale of the Sea • David W. Bone
... momentary refuge in the hanging sails. The fell business took long, but it was done at last. Hardy the Londoner was shot on the foreroyal yard, and hung horribly suspended in the brails. Wallen, the other, had his jaw broken on the maintop-gallant crosstrees, and exposed himself, shrieking, till a second shot ...
— The Wrecker • Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne
... considered as certain that the enemy lost a large vessel with people and cargo in a severe storm. The foundation for this opinion is the fact that some days ago a mass of wreckage, such as maintop-sails, rigging, masts, etc., was found in the place ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XVIII, 1617-1620 • Various |
