We had now nothing left but a mainsail about the size of a pocket-handkerchief.
Angus would go on deck again; for now Captain John had resolved on lowering the topmast, and also on getting the boom and mainsail from their crutch down on to the deck.
In the meantimemainsail and jib were set, and the anchor hove short.
What a head to the gaff-topsail, as long as that of the mainsail itself!
I looked at her attentively, and then pointed her out to Snow, who was so earnest in seeing that his mainsail was stowed in the smoothest of skins, that he had not observed her.
Her sails were loosened and hoisted in a trice, the breeze took her foresail, the mainsail next filled, the jib-sheet was flattened aft, and slipping from her moorings she slowly glided towards the mouth of the river.
The sooner we get the mainsail altogether off her the better, sir," said Snow.
The topmast was struck; the jib was taken in, and a storm-jib set; the foresail was handed, and the mainsail meantime was closely reefed.
The idle flap of the mainsail showed us that there was a stark calm.
In fact, anybody might have taken her for some dandified yacht, rather than for a humble pilot-boat, which the number on her mainsail proclaimed her to be.
The mainsail was flattened down, but without avail.
Dick swung the tiller around, and in a few seconds the mainsail came down with a bang and was secured by the others.
In the meantime all ran to the Polly, and the sloop was poled out of the cove and the mainsail and jib were hoisted.
You fellows will have to tell me where to steer the sloop to," said Larry, after the mainsailhad been run up.
The "Frolic" having gone into action without a main-yard, the loss of the boom mainsail left her unmanageable and decided the action.
So long as the boom mainsail held, however, it was fairly offset by the fall of the "Wasp's" maintopmast and its consequences.
A cutwater like a knife, a noble length of bowsprit, and jibbooms, and a mainsail big enough to hold sufficient wind to send a Royal George along at ten knots.
Her mainsail is almost in the water, to the apparent danger of the ship.
It was no uncommon thing for the whole of the big square mainsail of a "cog" to be decorated with the arms of her owner.
Soon life buoys were thrown out to them, and a minute later the sloop, with her head to the wind and her mainsail snapping and cracking, lay close alongside.
In their disappointment the boys hunted up Captain Silas Brown, who was hoisting his mainsail to the breeze and preparing for the prospective trippers.
A most violent tempest of wind and rain overtook them; and the rais being completely overcome by fear, Bruce, unable to lower the yard, proposed to cut the straw mainsail to pieces.
The canja was no longer to be seen proudly striding over the opposing element; but, with her prodigious mainsail lowered, and even her masts unshipped, she was carried broadside down the stream in helpless captivity.
Get the wreck of that boom cleared away, Manton; we won't want the mainsail long.
Her masts and yards were gone, with the exception of their stumps and the lower part of the main-mast, to which the mainyard still hung with a ragged portion of the mainsail attached to it.
Her sails, mainsail and tiny jib, were spread, and she was pointed for Grassy Island, on the first leg of her beat into the wind.
They had already cut the mainsail halyards, and the big sail lay upon the boom, on the port side, in disarrayed folds.
Storm of Wind with Rain which brought us under our Mainsail with her Head to the Westward.
Mainsail to dry, it being Wet by the Water getting into the Sail room, occasioned by the Ship being very Leakey in her upper works.
At 11 unbent both Foresail and Mainsail to repair, and bent others and made Sail under them.
The forestay snapped, the mainsail split, and the lower yards and foremast were damaged.
We hove to under double-reefed mainsail and our little jigger, and waited for the gale to blow itself out.
I ordered the double-reefed mainsail to be set in the hope that we might claw off, and this attempt increased the strain upon the boat.
The weather conditions did not improve, and on the fifth day out the gale was so fierce that we were compelled to take in the double-reefed mainsail and hoist our small jib instead.
It tore the spray from the crest of the gathering waves, dashed it even against the French windows of Mainsail Haul, and came booming down the open spaces cliffwards, like the rumble of some subterranean artillery.
Before them loomed up the outline of Mainsail Haul.
Lessingham turned away, pushed open the gate, and walked up the drive of Mainsail Haul.
Of course, Mainsail Haul is an invitation to thieves.
Twilight was falling as he reached Mainsail Haul, where he found Philippa entertaining some callers, to whom she promptly introduced him.
They stopped to open a gate, the gate leading to the gardens ofMainsail Haul.
I asked you to come to Mainsail Haul whenever you felt inclined.
Presently Marston jumped to the foot of the mast and the peak of the mainsail swung down.
The boat yawed about and steering needed skill, since, if Wyndham let her swerve, spinnaker or mainsail would swing across and mast or boom would go.
The spinnaker swelled like a balloon and, with the tallmainsail on the other side, dwarfed the speeding hull.
Her dark mainsail looked very big and every now and then shook down a shower of dew as its slack curves swelled.
The ropes, however, were stiff and swollen with the dew, and the mainsailcame down slowly.
It had got impenetrably dark, but he had a vague notion that water rushed along the deck and the mainsail had broken loose and blown out between the ropes.
A white cloud hid the mainsail and foaming water flooded aft.
Now and then the topsail flapped and the mainsailhung slack.
He wished that he had lowered the mainsail before coming ashore.
They had made the start at midnight, as they had planned, and had sailed away under a fair wind; but before the sun rose the wind had died away, and the mainsail now swung back and forth and the boat drifted slowly with the current.
Then the mainsail filled and swung out, as the breeze came up.
Captain Enos was watching for her, and as soon as she was on board he swung the sloop clear of the wharf, ran up his mainsail and headed toward the outer channel.
On coming on board he found all the officers drinking, and that the mainsail had been partly hoisted so that the officers could not command a prospect of the shore.
Loose the foresheet, there, my lads; stand by the mainsail halyards.
As the boat swept majestically into the bay the jibs came in and the mainsail was lowered slightly, the boom being permitted to swing far out.
She had seen a man hauling in on the main sheets--the ropes that led from the mainsail back toward the cockpit.
What time she had come in Harriet had not the slightest idea, but it must have been early in the morning, because the skipper was just furling the mainsail as the girl emerged from the cabin.
In the meantime the captain had reefed the mainsaildown to the last row.
The anchor came aboard with a clatter, the mainsail was sent to the peak in short order, the boom swung over and the big sail caught the faint breeze that drifted in from the sea.
The mainsail was set to a chorus like the crying of sea fowl and the foresail and jib.
Main-boom: The spar that extends the foot of the mainsail of a fore-and-aft craft.
Crutch: Forked pieces of timber or iron fixed into a socket of the taffrail, and used to support the boom when the mainsail is stowed.
Some cutters carry enormous spinnakers, containing in one sail nearly as much canvas as is spread in mainsail and topsail.
Goose-winged: Said of a schooner whose mainsail and foresail are extended on opposite sides as she runs before the wind.
Mr. Hope thinking Lotus' mainsail too big for her, hoisted one belonging to a dinghy, the other boats starting closely reefed.
The area of the mainsail in this case could not have been very much less than 4,000 square feet, or one-eleventh of an acre.
A rope runs along this, from which the huge mainsail is suspended, running on rings like a curtain outwards both ways from the mast.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "mainsail" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
