WHAT IS MAN? AND OTHER ESSAYS OF MARK TWAIN

shop-talk is the shop-talk of a veteran practitioner or only a

machine-made counterfeit of it gathered from books and from

occasional loiterings in Westminster.

Richard H. Dana served two years before the mast, and had

every experience that falls to the lot of the sailor before the

mast of our day. His sailor-talk flows from his pen with the

sure touch and the ease and confidence of a person who has LIVED

what he is talking about, not gathered it from books and random

listenings. Hear him:

Having hove short, cast off the gaskets, and made the bunt

of each sail fast by the jigger, with a man on each yard, at the

word the whole canvas of the ship was loosed, and with the

greatest rapidity possible everything was sheeted home and

hoisted up, the anchor tripped and cat-headed, and the ship under

headway.

Again:

The royal yards were all crossed at once, and royals and

sky-sails set, and, as we had the wind free, the booms were run

out, and all were aloft, active as cats, laying out on the yards

and booms, reeving the studding-sail gear; and sail after sail

the captain piled upon her, until she was covered with canvas,

her sails looking like a great white cloud resting upon a black

speck.

Once more. A race in the Pacific:

Our antagonist was in her best trim. Being clear of the

point, the breeze became stiff, and the royal-masts bent under

our sails, but we would not take them in until we saw three boys

spring into the rigging of the CALIFORNIA; then they were all

furled at once, but with orders to our boys to stay aloft at the

top-gallant mast-heads and loose them again at the word. It was

my duty to furl the fore-royal; and while standing by to loose it

again, I had a fine view of the scene. From where I stood, the

two vessels seemed nothing but spars and sails, while their

narrow decks, far below, slanting over by the force of the wind

aloft, appeared hardly capable of supporting the great fabrics

raised upon them. The CALIFORNIA was to windward of us, and had

every advantage; yet, while the breeze was stiff we held our own.

As soon as it began to slacken she ranged a little ahead, and the

order was given to loose the royals. In an instant the gaskets

were off and the bunt dropped. “Sheet home the fore-royal!”–

“Weather sheet’s home!”–“Lee sheet’s home!”–“Hoist away, sir!”

is bawled from aloft. “Overhaul your clew-lines!” shouts the

mate. “Aye-aye, sir, all clear!”–“Taut leech! belay! Well the

lee brace; haul taut to windward!” and the royals are set.

What would the captain of any sailing-vessel of our time say

to that? He would say, “The man that wrote that didn’t learn his

trade out of a book, he has BEEN there!” But would this same

captain be competent to sit in judgment upon Shakespeare’s

seamanship–considering the changes in ships and ship-talk that

have necessarily taken place, unrecorded, unremembered, and lost

to history in the last three hundred years? It is my conviction

that Shakespeare’s sailor-talk would be Choctaw to him. For

instance–from “The Tempest”:

MASTER. Boatswain!

BOATSWAIN. Here, master; what cheer?

MASTER. Good, speak to the mariners: fall to ‘t, yarely,

or we run ourselves to ground; bestir, bestir!

(ENTER MARINERS.)

BOATSWAIN. Heigh, my hearts! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts!

yare, yare! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master’s whistle.

. . . Down with the topmast! yare! lower, lower! Bring her to

try wi’ the main course. . . . Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her

two courses. Off to sea again; lay her off.

That will do, for the present; let us yare a little, now,

for a change.

If a man should write a book and in it make one of his

characters say, “Here, devil, empty the quoins into the standing

galley and the imposing-stone into the hell-box; assemble the

comps around the frisket and let them jeff for takes and be quick

about it,” I should recognize a mistake or two in the phrasing,

and would know that the writer was only a printer theoretically,

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