"
"That is no more than fair," said Dodd. The Yankee inventor demanded a
spare maincap, and cut away one end of the square piece, so as to make it
fit the stem-post: through the circle of the cap he introduced a spare
mizen topmast: to this he seized a length of junk, another to that,
another to that, and so on: to the outside junk he seized a spare
maintop-gallant mast, and this conglomerate being now nearly as broad as
a rudder, he planked over all. The sea by this time was calm; he got the
machine over the stern, and had the square end of the cap bolted to the
stern-post. He had already fixed four spans of nine-inch hawser to the
sides of the makeshift, two fastened to tackles, which led into the
gunroom ports, and were housed taut--these kept the lower part of the
makeshift close to the stern post--and two, to which guys were now fixed
and led through the aftermost ports on to the quarter-deck, where
luff-tackles were attached to them, by means of which the makeshift was
to be worked as a rudder.
Some sail was now got on the ship, and she was found to steer very well.
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