"Bowline" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... circumstance of the winds veering so far to the southward as to permit her to lay her course, when she made a great run to the westward. When the wind again hauled, as haul it was almost certain to do, Captain Crutchely believed himself in a meridian that would admit of his running with an easy bowline, on the larboard tack. No one but a sailor can understand the effect of checking the weather-braces, if it be only for a few feet, and of getting a weather-leach to stand without 'swigging out' on its bowline. It has much the same influence on the progress of a ship, ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper
... piece of rope— top-gallant-studding-sail halyards, or something of the kind— is taken up to the mast-head from which the stay leads, and rove through a block for a girt-line, or, as the sailors usually call it, a gant-line; with the end of this, a bowline is taken round the stay, into which the man gets with his bucket of tar and bunch of oakum; and the other end being fast on deck, with some one to tend it, he is lowered down gradually, and tars the stay carefully as he goes. There he "swings aloft 'twixt ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... you like, though I do not know why I should risk the lives of my crew. Where's Bowline? Pass the word for Bowline," ...
— The Wizard of the Sea - A Trip Under the Ocean • Roy Rockwood
... is the main point. When a man has got all he wants of a thing, any addition is like over-ballast. Whenever I can get fifteen knots out of the ship, I make it a point to be satisfied, especially under close-reefed topsails and on a taut bowline." ...
— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper
... hach & his here strau{n}ge, Noe at ofte neuened e name of oure lorde, Hy{m} a[gh]t-su{m} i{n} at ark as ael god lyked, er alle lede[gh] i{n} lome lenged druye, 412 [Sidenote: The ark is lifted as high as the clouds, and is driven about, without mast, bowline, cables, anchors, or sail to guide its course.] e arc houen wat[gh] on hy[gh]e w{i}t{h} hurlande gote[gh], Kest to kythe[gh] vncoue e clowde[gh] ful nere. Hit walt{er}ed on e wylde flod, went as hit lyste, Drof vpon e depe dam, ...
— Early English Alliterative Poems - in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century • Various
... ever hauled on the main braces, sung the topsail-halliard chanty, learned the intricate Matty Walker, the bowline-and-a-bite and a crowd of kindred knots, had a warm spot for any yarn by Jacobs. Night after night, the storeman held the audience with the humorous escapades of 'Ginger Dick', 'Sam' and ...
— The Home of the Blizzard • Douglas Mawson
... mantel-piece, that is to say, to the left of it, and fastened to the wall, was a length of rope cunningly tied into what is called a "running bowline," above this, on a shelf specially contrived to hold it, was the model of a full-rigged ship that was—to all appearances—making excellent way of it, with every stitch of canvas set and drawing, alow and aloft; ...
— The Money Moon - A Romance • Jeffery Farnol
... of blocks for'ard, and the huge mainsail loomed above him in the night. Bill cast off the bowline, the Cockney followed suit with the stern, 'Frisco Kid gave her the jib as French Pete jammed up the tiller, and the Dazzler caught the breeze, heeling over for mid-channel. Joe heard talk of not putting up the side-lights, and of keeping a sharp lookout, though ...
— The Cruise of the Dazzler • Jack London
... good fortune you chance for to get A ship that ain't hungry or wicked or wet, That answers her hellum both a-weather and lee, Goes well on a bowline and well running free, A skipper that's neither a fool nor a brute, And mates not too free with the toe of their boot, A sails and a bo'sun that's bred to their trade, And a slush with a notion how vittles is made, And a crowd that ain't ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. CLVIII, January 7, 1920 • Various
... abandon Adair. On board the brig the hands were still aloft sending down topgallant-masts. Jack hoped against hope that the gale would decrease, and that he should then be able to tow Adair out of the bay; if he once weathered the headland, the brig might stand away on a bowline and gain the offing—but within the bay she lost, each time she tacked, more ...
— The Three Commanders • W.H.G. Kingston
... Grace her attempt to make a "clove-hitch" and a "running bowline carry out her noble deed" and she flashed a significant look at Madaline, who shared a part ...
— The Girl Scout Pioneers - or Winning the First B. C. • Lillian C Garis
... there I hung with the bottomless pit below and the ice-crusted sides alongside, so narrow that to step over it would have been quite easy had I been able to see it. Bill said, 'What do you want?' I asked for an Alpine rope with a bowline for my foot: and taking up first the bowline and then my harness they got me out."[166] Meanwhile on the surface I lay over the crevasse and gave Birdie the bowline: he put it on his foot: then he raised his foot, giving me some slack: I held the rope while he raised himself on his ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard
... a care!" the bailiffs cried From their cockleshell that lay Off the frigate's yellow side, Tossing on Scarborough Bay, While the forty sail it convoyed on a bowline stretched away. "Take your chicks beneath your wings, And your claws and feathers spread, Ere the hawk upon them springs,— Ere around Flamborough Head Swoops Paul Jones, the Yankee falcon, with his beak ...
— Complete Poetical Works of Bret Harte • Bret Harte
... half-way across the Bay of Biscay, and the ship proving to be a regular flyer, everybody, from the skipper downwards, was in the very best of spirits. Then came a change, the wind backing out from south-west with squally weather which placed us at once upon a taut bowline; and simultaneously with this change of weather a most disagreeable discovery was made, namely, that the Daphne was an exceedingly ...
— The Congo Rovers - A Story of the Slave Squadron • Harry Collingwood
... stables, long before the surveyors came. 'They surveyed me in,' was his frequent statement. And there he lived and carried on until Father grew up, married, and built this home. Grandfather registered his cattle brand as the Bowline. It is a bent bow with a taut string. Father carried the same brand, but folks began calling it the B-line and both ranches go by that name. And it's really one to the outsider. The difference in methods ...
— David Lannarck, Midget - An Adventure Story • George S. Harney
... she should sail well enough, going large and none so ill on a bowline, by her looks. 'Tis true scat-boat—yes. Are you a ...
— Martin Conisby's Vengeance • Jeffery Farnol
... had acquired at sea, I could never tell. It was the only name that I ever heard given him, and that by which he was entered in the ship's books. It is quite possible that "Ben Brace" was his real name—for among seamen such appellations as "Tom Bowline", "Bill Buntline," and the like are not uncommon—having descended from father to son through a long line ...
— Ran Away to Sea • Mayne Reid
... if she don't smell us a-coming and bear away from us. And yet she must be a clean, fast vessel, but we'll overhaul her going roomer or on a bowline." ...
— Black Bartlemy's Treasure • Jeffrey Farnol
... a good hit, bawls out, "Haul away! haul away!" upon which the men stationed at the line run away with it, and the struggling wretch is raised high into the air. Two or three of the smartest hands have in the mean time prepared what is called a running bowline knot, or noose, the nature of which may be readily described by saying that although it slips up, or renders, very easily, it is perfectly secure, without being subject to jamming. This running bowline, of which ...
— The Lieutenant and Commander - Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from - Fragments of Voyages and Travels • Basil Hall
... English sailors to madness. That one man, and he partly bound, should keep four stalwart seamen at bay was too much for their temper. They rushed at the pirate again, and this time seized him securely; then, tripping him up, they slipped a running bowline over his ankles and hauled it taut, thus rendering the man helpless. Yet even then they could scarcely keep their grip on him, so enormous was the strength with which he turned and ...
— Across the Spanish Main - A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood
... breakfast, took up the book showing how various sailor knots should be made. With a piece of twine she tied "figure-eights," now and then slipping into the "grannie" class; she made half-hitches, clove hitches, a running bowline, and various other combinations, until Amy declared that it made her head ache to ...
— The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake • Laura Lee Hope |
