[Illustration: Fig. 12. Hinge for Spars.]

[Illustration: Fig. 13. Leather Mast Step.]

[Illustration: Fig. 14. Wooden Mast Step.]



The Danish Sail.

[Illustration: Fig. 15. The Danish Sail.]

[Illustration: Fig. 16. Topsail of the Danish Rig.]

But the most satisfactory sail we found to be the Danish sail, though it
was not until we had served quite a long apprenticeship and sustained many
pretty bad falls that we mastered the art of manipulating these sails
properly. Our ideas on this sail were obtained from a French illustrated
paper which Dutchy Van Syckel picked up in his father's library. This sail
was formed with a topsail so arranged that it could be lowered when the
wind was too strong. The dimensions of the sail as we made it are given in
the drawing (Fig. 15). The top of the sail was lashed to a spar, which was
connected by a short stick to another spar tied to the mainsail about
eighteen inches lower down. The sail was strengthened with an extra strip
of cloth along the lower spar, and the tie strings were applied in the
usual way. The connecting stick, or topmast we may call it, was hinged to
the lower spar by means of a short piece of leather strap, which was
passed round the spar in the form of a loop and its two ends nailed to the
bottom of the topmast. The topmast extended above the upper spar a short
distance, and to this we fastened the flag which our society had adopted.