I've been reading through my collection of sailing-ships fiction, and finding that a lot of it doesn't give much detail on the topic I'm most interested in at the moment (that being ship handling: arranging the sails, coordinating the sails and the rudder to maneuver, etc). Plenty of combat, a good amount of chain-of-command politics and the friendships or simple sense of duty between people risking their lives far from home, but not enough of the mechanical descriptions I want to get a good feel for sailing the ship itself. I want a set of rules that take into account the restrictions of relying on the wind to move and don't just feel like driving a car around. The Lord Ramage novels are a major exception, so I'll be posting a lot from them as I go.
Also, all this reading was starting to feel more like procrastination and less like research, so I went looking for the file I was sure I had started back before I took a break from blogging, with the intent to post a little about hull variations or sail plans or something, but I'll be damned if I've found it yet. I may have to start all over on that; luckily rebuilding something you've already learned a fair bit about is at least somewhat easier than learning it in the first place.
Anyway, here's a piece from Ramage, where Lieutenant Ramage has been sent to take the crew off of a frigate that had stove in its side on a rock in an inlet off the Italian coast. After driving off some French soldiers who had taken part of the ship and rescuing the British crew, Ramage needs to get his vessel turned around and headed back out the way he came in.
As she lay alongside the frigate, the Kathleen's bowsprit pointed at an angle towards the cliffs on which the Belette's bow rested, and Ramage saw the only way to sail out was to let the wind swing the cutter's bow round while her stern was held against the frigate. That would take her clear of the rocks at the foot of the next headland.
“Evans,” he called to the Bosun's Mate, “cut away the for'ard four lines, but hold on to the aftermost two. Pay out and snub if need be, but keep our stern in. Quartermaster, put the helm down.”
By now the jib had been sheeted in aback so that the canvas was as flat as a board. The wind began to push the cutter's bow round to seaward, but her long, narrow keel diverted some of the effort into a fore-and-aft movement so the Kathleen began to move astern.
Ramage glanced aft; the frigate's stern gallery, looking very battered from the Kathleen's earlier assault, was drawing level with the cutter's transom. Evans was directing seamen and alternately paying out the grapnel lines to allow for the movement astern, and then snubbing them, to keep the cutter's stern against the frigate and help lever the bow around.
Ramage watched until the Kathleen's stern was well clear of the outlying rocks ahead. The foresail had by now been hoisted and, like the jib, sheeted aback.
“Mr. Southwick, I'll have jib and foresail sheeted home, if you please.”
As soon as they started drawing, the Kathleen's sternway would be checked and she would start moving ahead but, without the mainsail drawing, would still pay off to leeward.
“Quartermaster, tiller amidships.”
A sudden crackling of muskets made him glance up at the cliff: a group of French soldiers were kneeling, muskets at their shoulders. Almost at once the Marines along the Kathleen's bulwarks fired back and the French promptly ducked.
The Kathleen heeled slightly as the wind filled the headsails, and gradually started gathering headway.
“Evans, cut away those lines! Quartermaster, meet her! Mr. Southwick, aft the mainsheet!”
Ten minutes later the Kathleen was broad-reaching along the coast heading for Bastia, and Ramage handed over the conn to Southwick while he went over to Captain Laidman who had, he realized, been tactfully keeping himself to the lee side of the quarterdeck.
Ramage, Chapter 20
