ON BEAM-ENDS.--A vessel is usually thrown upon her beam-ends by a sudden squall taking her, when under a press of sail, and shifting the ballast. She must be righted, if possible, without cutting away the masts. For, beside sacrificing them, the object can seldom be accomplished in that way, if the ballast and cargo have shifted. Carry a hawser from the lee quarter, with spars and other good stop-waters bent to it. As the ship drifts well to leeward, the hawser will bring her stern to the wind; but it may not cast her on the other side. If a spring can be got upon the hawser from the lee bow, and hauled upon, and the stern fast let go, this will bring the wind to act upon the flat part of the deck and pay her stern off, and assist the spring, when the sails may be trimmed to help her in righting. If she can be brought head to the wind, and the sails be taken aback, she may cast on the other tack. When there is anchoring ground, the practice is to let go the lee anchor, which may take the sails aback and cast her. Then the ballast and cargo may be righted.
If there is no anchoring ground, a vessel may still be kept head to the wind, by paying a chain cable out of the lee hawse-hole; or by bending a hawser to a large spar, which may be kept broadside-to by a span, to the centre of which the hawser is bent. The same operation may be applied to a vessel overset, and is preferable to wearing by a hawser. Make fast the hawser forward to the lee bow, carry the other end aft to windward and bend it to the spar, and launch the spar overboard. By this means, or by letting go an anchor, though there be no bottom to be reached, a vessel may often be recovered.
LOSING A RUDDER.--The first thing to be done on losing a rudder, is to bring the ship to the wind by bracing up the after yards. Meet her with the head yards, as she comes to. Take in sail forward and aft, and keep her hove-to by her sails. A vessel may be made to steer herself for a long time, by carefully trimming the yards and slacking up the jib sheets or the spanker sheet a little, as may be required.
Having got the ship by the wind, get up a hawser, middle it, and take a slack clove-hitch at the centre. Get up a cable, reeve its end through this hitch, and pay the cable out over the taffrail. Having payed out about fifty fathoms, jam the hitch and rack it well, so that it cannot slip; pay out on the cable until the hitch takes the water; then lash the cable to the centre of the taffrail; lash a spare spar under it across the stern, with a block well secured at each end, through which reeve the ends of the hawser, one on each quarter, and reeve them again through blocks at the sides, abreast of the wheel. By this, a ship may be steered until a temporary rudder can be constructed.