At this moment we saw some of the crew tear our ensign from the gaff and carry it aft as a trophy; there was not a man in our ship who would not have gladly rushed aboard the enemy to recover it.
With frantic eagerness he hoisted the white pennon of his shirt and coat, thanking Heaven that the gaff was so long.
He decided that when daylight came he would dive under the upturned boat, cut away either the gaff or the boom, lash it to the bulwarks, and hoist his shirt upon it as a flag of distress.
After two or three deep breaths he dived again, and this time when he came up, he brought the long slender pole of the gaff with him.
Once around the building they ran to see if there was any other entrance.
He saw them break from the woods and dart into the corn-field.
The galliot is rigged with square sails on her mainmast, a fore and aft main-sail, a gaff mizzen and mizzen gaff top-sails, and a high bowsprit.
How the rod did not break I cannot understand, for the fish came up gradually from straight under the boat; but at last I had the gaff in the biggest but least sporting fish I had killed during the month.
Farlow makes a specially strong gaff lashed into a long ash or hazel handle.
He makes one or two feeble shots, and then, getting the gaff well home, attempts to lift the fish as I throw my weight on to the reverse side of the light boat to prevent an upset.
Gaff Topsails, about the highest point of the railway, sleet and light snow were falling and a bitter wind was blowing across the open barrens.
The sail had been reefed, so the gaff had not fallen as far as otherwise would have been the case.
I took you out of Hinkel's watch after the jigger-gaff incident to save your life when I got wind of the game.
With the light halliard in his hand, he clambered up the jigger shrouds and swung down from the top on to the gaff and sat astride it facing towards the stern of the ship.
Did you know that the two of them framed up that jigger-gaff accident off the Plate, and that Hinkel cut the tackle rope of the gaff vang to make sure you'd go overboard?
The vessel swung around in the trough, the sail commenced to flutter, and the men hauled the gaff down with lurid deep-water oaths and yells of encouragement.
The foremast stood denuded of sail, with gaff and boom swinging idly and festoons of canvas flapping from them.
Hanging on to the gaff was as hard as climbing out on it, so, perspiring and fearful, he made another shuffle.
At the barque's jigger-gaff flew a black flag, upon which was the skull and cross-bones in white.
McKenzie, and he scrambled down to thegaff again with half his body dragging through seething sea.
Ainslie will stand by thegaff down-haul, and I'll look after the wheel.
At the moment when he had almost reached the gaff-end, the weather vang carried away; the gaff swung to loo'ard and Donald was hurled violently off the spar.
I come down from the jaws of the gaffjust when we was snuggin' her before the gale in '66, and my arm went in four places.
In some mysterious fashion the mizen halliards had yielded and slipped for some distance after a sudden shock had cut the gaff halliards and let the jaws of the gaff free; so now the sail would neither haul up nor come down.
The gaff of the mizen had broken away, halliards and all, as if a supernatural knife had been drawn across by a strong hand.
Last night we had some hard luck; at five o'clock the gooseneck, the piece of iron that holds the main gaff to the barrel on the main boom, broke, and let down the gaff.
We took the gooseneck off the gaff of the storm trysail and replaced the one that had broken; and went below to supper.
And, indeed, that was an odd sight--the big fish slowly sailing round and round the pool, with the gaff still attached and the handle floating parallel with its side.
I will gaff him for you--but you must tell me how--for I never tried before.
When he was close to the water, he bared his right arm and grasped the gaff by the handle.
When he was close to the water, he bared his right arm and grasped the gaff by the handle; then he waited and watched, for the salmon was still too deep.
She knew what he was thinking of--of the tale that would be told among the keepers and the gillies of his having soused himself into the Geinig Pool in trying to gaff a fish.
The big gaff topsail was next hauled down and carefully stowed away, and finally the mainsail was lowered, stowed, and the coat put over it.
A small triangular sail having its foot extended upon the gaffand its luff upon the topmast.
It will be quite a time before the sail will stretch to its fullest extent, and it will be necessary to stretch it along the gaff and boom after every outing for some time to come or it will not set properly.
If it were not for the length of the gaff a triangle would be formed by the base-line, the stay and the leach of the topsail and mainsail.
But the projection of the gaffspoils the triangle, and so the first thing to do is to measure the distance from the end of the boom to the forward side of the mast.
Put thegaff and boom in place, and lace the sail on.
The length of thegaff is next ascertained, and from this is subtracted eight-tenths of the height of the topmast.
Down came the disgraceful black flags the first thing, and up to the gaff went the ensign of Britain.
Captain Bacon brought out the American ensign, and with his own hands hoisted it to the monkey-gaff on the mizzen, dipped it three times in respectful salute, and left it at the gaff-end.
Item, my master gaffher vij^xx scynnes of fyne ermynes.
Item, my master gaff her a lytell gerdyll of sylke and goolde called a demysent and the harneys of goolde.
Item, my master gaff here a longe gowne of blak velvet furred with martrys and purfeled with marteres.
Item, my master gaff her a longe gowne of fyne grene velvet furred with menyver and purfeled with ermynes.
Item, my master gaff here a coler of goolde with xxxiiij.
Item, my master gaff her a longe gowne of fyne cremysen velvet furred with menyver and purfeled with ermynes.
Item, my master gaff her a nother ryng with an amytes.
Item, my master gaff her a longe of vyolet engreyned furred with martres and purfeled with martres.
Item, my master gaffher a gret sygnnet of goolde with the vernycle.
Item, my mastergaff her a noder pece of holand clothe, corser, conteynenge in lengthe more than xl.
Item, my master gaff her a gyrdyll of grene damaske and the harneys of sylver and gylte.
Item, my master gaff here a devyse of goolde with xiiij.
Item, my master gaff her a longe gowne of murrey furred with menever and purfeled with ermynes.
Item, my mastergaff her an nothe devyse of goolde of the same fassyon with odre xiiij.
Item, my master gaffher a cheyne of goolde with a lokke of goolde gernyshed with a rubye.
Item, my master gaff here a peyr of bedes for a gentylwomannes nekke gawdeid with viij.
One of those Benton boys was at the wheel, and before I knew what he was doing, the other was out on the gaff with the end of the new downhaul, trying to reeve it through its block.
The other one was swinging about on the gaff end, and every time she rolled to leeward, he brought up with a jerk that would have sent anything but a monkey flying into space.
There was some sea on, and the boom was off, and the gaff was slamming.
Take Josh's gaff then, and you shall hook in the first big one.
A new gaff and bowsprit, a new suit of sails, new bulwarks, and a few patches, and she would be as good as ever.
I was faster and more weatherly than she was, and having had the luck to smash the jaws of her gaff after a running fight of seven or eight miles, was able to get back to the prize and recapture her before the pirate came up.
There was a pause for a second or two, and then a burst of cheering as the gaff of the great mainsail of the brigantine was seen to collapse.
Dick got hold of the gaff and held it in the water with outstretched arm, while Frank slowly drew the conquered giant towards it.
He lay flat on his stomach, and, with the gaff to help support him, crawled out from the solid place, dragging the bag.
Billy kept his gaff before him--feeling his way much as a blind man taps the pavement as he goes along a city street.
Billy leaped to his feet, gaff in hand, and faced about, panting, but ready.
It was with his own true gaffthat Billy felt his way out of Duck Foot Cove as the night cleared away.
But Billy made the thrust, and the seal received the point of the gaff on his hood, as upon a shield: then advanced on his flippers, by jerky jumps, snapping viciously.
Andy, Tom, when we hauls her bow off, do you stand here with a gaff an' push.
Archie raised his gaff above the fluffy little jar, which was fanning itself with its flipper, and whining.
Then I managed to get the gaff under my chest, so that I could throw some part of my weight upon it, and began to crawl.
He raised himself on his flippers and reared his head to the length of his long neck, as the boy, stepping cautiously, gaff poised, drew near.
Then he broke away from his fellows, and ran towards the crew of the Lucky Star, with his gaff upraised.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "gaff" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
