should be taken not to alter leads about the deck except for good cause. So much of the handling of gear is done in the dark that the men may be confused, perhaps at a critical moment, if the position of any running rigging is frequently varied from that sanctioned by well-established custom. CHAPTER X. SAILS. CANVAS is made of hemp, of flax, or of cotton. All canvas used in the navy for sails is flaxen, made in cloths of eighty yards in length, and in breadth of twenty inches. These cloths are rolled up in separate packages, called bolts. The stoutest canvas is No. 1; from this number it increases in fineness, and diminishes in strength, to No. 9. In selecting canvas for sails, considerable practice and close observation are required. A good test is to bore a fid through the canvas, when, if bad, the threads are easily broken. It is of importance that canvas should have a good and even selvage, and be free from tightness. There is a great deal of difference in the stretching of canvas-that which is badly struck stretching most. The principal sails of a ship are the courses, or sails on the lower yards; the topsails, which are next in order above the courses, and the top-gallant sails, which are extended above the topsails. For sails, see Plate 4, and corresponding reference numbers. In all quadrilateral sails, the upper edge is called the head; the sides are called the leeches; and the bottom, or lower edge, is termed the foot. If the head is parallel to the foot, the lower corners are denominated clews, and the upper corners head-earing cringles. In all triangular sails, and in those four-sided sails wherein the head is not parallel to the foot, the foremost corner at the foot is called the tack, and the after lower corner the clew; the forward corner of the head the nock, the after corner the peak, or head. The foremost edge (or side) is called the fore-leech, or luff, and the aftermost edge the after-leech. Stay Sails. These are extended upon stays between the masts, taking their names from the stay on which they set. Those used in the navy are the fore-topmast staysail, main-topmast and main-topgallant staysail and mizzen topmast staysail. Studding Sails are set out beyond the leeches of the foresail, topsail and topgallant sail, also beyond the main-topsail and topgallant sail, being known as the lower, topmast and topgallant studding-sails. Their upper edges are extended by studding-sail yards, the lower edges by booms rigged out beyond the extremities of the ship's yards. These sails are used only in favorable winds and moderate weather. Additional Sails. Above the royals may be set sails called moonsails, sky-scrapers, &c. In the navy nothing is set above royals. In the merchant service rarely anything above a skysail. The sails usually set forward of the foremast are the fore-topmast staysail, jib and flying-jib. Some vessels carry outer-jibs, jib-of-jibs, or jib-topsails. Storm-Sails are made of the strongest canvas, and are used, as the name indicates, only in the heaviest weather. These consist of the fore, main and mizzen storm staysails and the "storm-mizzen." The storm-staysails set on the respective lower-stays, or better, on a temporary stormstay, toggled in the collar of the lower stay. The storm mizzen is a triangular sail set abaft the mizzen-mast on a vertical "stay," hooked under the after trestle-tree, and set up on deck. The fore and main trysails are also used in bad weather and frequently take the place of the main and mizzen storm-staysails. The term light sails is generally understood in the service to apply to the topgallant sails, royals, flying-jib, and studding-sails. Jibs are of great command with any side wind, but especially when the ship is close-hauled, or has the wind abeam; and their effect in casting the ship, or turning her head to leeward, is very powerful, and of great utility. Although the yards on the foremast are termed head-· yards, yet the fore-topmast-staysail and the jibs alone are known as the head-sails. The after-sails, which are those that belong to the mainmast and mizzenmast, keep the ship to the wind; on which account ships sailing on a wind require a head-sail and an after-sail-one to counteract the other, so that the spanker being at one end of the lever, as it were, and the jibs at the other, they are of great assistance in steering and working a ship. When a ship sails with a side wind, the clews of the fore and main courses are fastened by a tack and sheet, the tack being to windward and the sheet to leeward. The tack is, however, not in use with the wind aft, whereas the sail is never spread without the assistance of one or both of the sheets. When on a wind, ships are said to have their starboard |