Explore "A Son of the Sea" by John Arthur Barry on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"BOY," said the second mate to Torre one morning, as the latter was busy feeding the fowls, "jump up and jockey the gaff, and reeve those signal-halliards. Look sharp now!"
This, perhaps, is one of the most dangerous jobs that can be given on board ship, even to an old and practised seaman, let alone a "first voyager." It meant climbing out some thirty feet to the end of a swaying spar which, projecting at almost an acute angle from the mast, has nothing except a few ropes such as vangs, lifts, etc., to steady it.