A further advantage of perforated sails was their aid in spilling the wind out of a sail when the sail had to come in in heavy weather. The advocates of the holes claimed that they prevented a sail from ballooning up over the yard, and made it very much easier to muzzle and put the gaskets on. The perforated sails were also considered very useful in light airs and calms, because on the calmest day there always seemed to be a draught through the holes, and this kept the sails “asleep” and stopped that irritating flogging of canvas against the masts which is so trying to a skipper’s temper and also constantly necessitates the hauling up of courses in the doldrums. Captain Holmes, who always used them in the _Cimba_ and _Inverurie_, wrote to me that he considered them specially valuable in light winds, and he did not adopt perforated sails without testing their efficiency in every way he could. He even had sand bags made to fit the holes, and thus was able to test his sailing when in company with another ship, first by seeing how he did with holes, and then filling up the holes with sandbags, by seeing how he altered his bearing when without holes. By this means he proved the benefit of the holes very clearly once when going down Channel. The _Cimba_ was in company with another outward bound ship of nearly the same speed; and it was found that as soon as the sand bags were put in the holes the _Cimba_ began to drop astern, whereas, with the holes open, she went ahead. Captain Holmes also tied a rag on the end of a stick, and held it up to the holes, and even in very light airs the rag was sucked through the perforations. In this way with a handkerchief on the end of a long rod, he tried to find out the result of the holes on the crossjack, by walking it all over the after part of the sail. And he told me that the handkerchief flopped stupidly about in the dead wind until it was abreast of the holes, when it at once blew out straight. Captain Pattman, of _Loch Torridon_, adopted perforated holes in 1892: Captain Poppy used them on the _Aristides_, and Captain Cutler, when he took over _Port Jackson_, had her sails cut for holes, and his successor continued to keep them in the sails. All these four captains were noted passage-makers, and unless the perforated sails had had very certain advantages, it is hardly likely that they would have adopted them. Hine’s Clipper Barques. Before turning to the New Zealand trade I must not forget to mention the fine little fleet of barques belonging to Hine Brothers, of Maryport, which brought home wool from Adelaide, Brisbane and the two Tasmanian ports. The following will still be remembered by the older inhabitants of these ports.