A famous capstan chanty is well known on land, whence, indeed, it originally came:
And it's hame, dearie, hame; oh! it's hame I want to be. My topsails are hoisted and I must out to sea; But the oak and the ash and the bonnie birchen tree, They're all a-growin' green in the North Countree.
--which is quite as appropriate to the _Nova { 113} Scotia_ as to the one beyond the North Atlantic. A favourite sail-setting chanty is
_Solo_. Haul on the bowlin', the fore and maintop bowlin'-- _Chorus_. Haul on the bowlin', the bowlin' haul!
A good pumping-out chanty after a storm is
_Solo_. Old Storm has heard the angel call. _Chorus_. To my ay! Old Storm along!
_Reuben Ranzo_ is a grand one for a good long haul. The chorus comes after every line, striking like a squall, with a regular roar on the first word, Ranzo.
_Solo_. Hurrah for Reuben Ranzo! _Chorus_. Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Ranzo's progress from a lubberly tailor to a good smart sailor is then related with infinite variations, but always with the same gusto. _Ranzo_ is only really popular afloat. But _Blow the man down_ is a universal favourite.
_Solo_. Blow the man down, blow the man down, _Chorus_. 'Way-ho! Blow the man down. _Solo_. Blow the man down from Liverpool town; _Chorus_. Give us some wind to blow the man down.
When every sail is set and every stitch is drawing, there is no finer sight the sea can show. The towering masts; the canvas gleaming white, with its lines of curving { 114} beauty drawn by the touch of the wind; the whole ship bounding forward as if just slipped from her leash--all this makes a scene to stir the beholder then and for ever after. The breeze pipes up. She's doing ten knots now; eleven, twelve; and later on, fifteen. This puts the lee rail under; for she lays over on her side so far that her deck is at a slope of forty-five. Her forefoot cuts through the water like the slash of a scimitar; while her bows throw out two seething waves, the windward one of which breaks into volleying spray a-top and rattles down like hailstones on the fore-deck.
But next day the wind has hauled ahead, and she has to make her way by tacking. She loses as little as possible on her zigzag course by sailing close to the wind, that is, by pointing as nearly into it as she can while still 'keeping a full on' every working sail. Presently the skipper, having gone as far to one side of his straight course as he thinks proper, gives the caution; whereupon the braces are taken off the pins and coiled down on deck, all clear for running, while the spanker-boom is hauled in amidships so that the spanker may feel the wind and press the stern a-lee, which helps the bow to windward. Then the 'old man' (called { 115} so whatever his age may be) sings out at the top of his voice, 'Ready, oh!' The helm is eased down on his signal, so as not to lose way suddenly. When it is quite down he shouts again, 'Helm's a-lee!' on which the fore and head sheets (holding the sails attached to the foremast and bowsprit) are let go and overhauled. The vessel swings round, the spanker pressing her stern in one direction and the sails at the bows offering very little resistance now their sheets are let go. The skipper's eye is on the mainsail, which is the point of pivoting. Directly the wind is out of it and it begins to shiver he yells, 'Raise tacks and sheets!' when, except that the foretack is held a bit to prevent the foresail from bellying aback, all the remaining ropes that held the ship on her old tack are loosed. A roar of wind-waves rushes through the sails, and a tremor runs through the whole ship from stem to stern. The skipper waits for the first decided breath on her new tack and then shouts, 'Mainsail haul!' when the yards come swinging round so quickly that the men can hardly take in the slack of the braces fast enough. The scene of orderly confusion is now at its height. Every one hauling sings out at the very top of his pipes. The sails are struggling to find their { 116} new set home; while the headsheets forward thrash about like mad and thump their blocks against the deck with force enough to dash your brains out.