expression of her lovely countenance, and it excited in his heart an
undefinable and uncontrollable interest. We have already said that
Isabella inherited her mother's beauty, which had not one of the usual
characteristics of a Spanish female countenance; and it was this
peculiarity that struck the young seaman forcibly, and probably
increased the interest he felt towards her, and the curiosity to know
something more of her history, as he had only understood vaguely that
she was Don Gaspar's niece.
There is a peculiar phrase, or rather word, that I have left
unexplained, and concerning which I will now proceed to enlighten the
terrestrial and unenlightened reader. I spoke of whipping the ladies
into the ship. The whip, then, consists of a tail-block on the main
yard-arm, with a sufficient rope rove through it, and a similar purchase
on the collar of the main-stay. One end of each of these ropes is made
fast to a stout arm-chair, covered generally with the ship's ensign,
with the loose part of which the lady wraps her feet. The other ends are
in the hands of careful, steady seamen. The lady, being arranged and
fixed in the chair, with a "breast-rope" from arm to arm, (of the
chair, not of the lady,) is hoisted up by the yard-whip till she has
approached the zenith sufficiently to go clear of the waist
hammock-nettings, when the stay-whip is hauled upon, carrying her in a
horizontal direction over the gangway, when both whips being lowered,
she is disentangled of her "wrappers and twine," and received in the
arms of a lover, a husband, or a brother, as the case may be. Ladies and
gentlemen, whose curiosity on the subject of whips is still unsatisfied,
will find their theory demonstrated and illustrated by a diagram in
"Enfield's Natural Philosophy."
I have known the somewhat startling nautical command, "Get the whip
ready for the ladies," blanch many a fair cheek with sudden and most
causeless alarm. It cannot be denied that we "gentlemen of the ocean"
have singular names for things; but every thing at sea must have a name,
or there would be no getting along.
I have only farther to remark on this subject, that horses are
infinitely more tractable in taking on board a ship, than ladies; for
the moment the horse perceives his feet are clear of the ground, he
becomes perfectly quiet and passive; whereas, the lady is always quiet
while a handsome young officer is arranging the flags, &c. about her
feet; but as soon as she is fairly in the air, she begins to scream, and
kick, and bounce about, to the imminent risk of her bones; and just at
the time when common sense and instinct teach the quadruped to keep
perfectly still, women, who have but little common sense in such cases,
and no instinct at all, are the most intractable and restless.
Morton followed the last lady, namely, Isabella, and, as he stepped over
the gangway, was accosted by his brother officer.
"What a thundering pretty girl that last one is!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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