Two Gallant Sons of Devon: A Tale of the Days of Queen BessCollingwood, Harry
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Two Gallant Sons of Devon: A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess
Collingwood, Harry
Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction
"No," answered Dick, "it is not, I know. But we are not going to take
our own boat to-night, Phil; we are going to take Gramfer Heard's
lugger. Gramfer is to Tavistock to-night; and he told me this morning
that I might use the lugger whenever I pleased, if he did not want her
himself. We'll have something like a sail to-night, Phil, for there is
enough wind blowing to just suit the lugger, while it and the sea would
be rather too much for our own boat."
So saying, Chichester led the way down the alley, and halted at a door
in the wall, nearly at its farthest extremity. Then, drawing a key from
his pocket, he unlocked the door, flung it open, and Stukely found
himself looking in upon Gramfer Heard's shipyard, the scene of Dick
Chichester's daily labours. He gazed, for a few seconds, with
appreciative eyes at the forms of three goodly hulls in varying stages
of progress, inhaled with keen enjoyment the mingled odours of pine
chips and Stockholm tar, and then hurried after Dick, who was already
busily engaged in unmooring a small skiff, in which to pull off to a
handsome five-ton lugger-rigged boat that lay lightly straining at her
moorings in the tideway.
A few minutes later they were aboard the lugger, busily engaged in
loosing and setting the sails; and presently they were under way, having
slipped their moorings and transferred them to the skiff, which they
left behind to serve as a buoy to guide them to the moorings upon their
return. The lugger was a beautiful boat, according to the idea of
beauty that then prevailed, having been constructed by Mr George
Heard--familiarly known as Gramfer Heard--shipbuilder of Devonport, and
Dick Chichester's master, as a kind of yacht, for his own especial use
and enjoyment. She was a very roomy boat, being entirely open from stem
to stern, and was conveniently rigged with two masts, the main and
mizzen, upon which were set two standing lugs and a jib, the mizzen
sheet being hauled out to the end of a bumpkin; consequently when once
her sails were set she could easily be handled by one man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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