Presently the sheets were let fly, the main-topsail was backed against the mast.
We soon afterwards made out a brig, and in order to weather her, the driver and topsail were set.
There and then, with a bight of the gaff-topsail halliards, he gave me such a dressing down as I have never forgotten, You Sing standing by with a face like a door-knocker for expressionless calm.
Overhead, the topsail cut black against the sky, and the water had grown more luminous in the eddying wake.
Whitney found six feet, and looked around as he heard thetopsail flap.
I could just lay my course down the coast, and I hung on to big jib and topsail while I could.
Get the topsail down," Andrew ordered after a while.
Andrew stopped, and for some minutes the silence was broken by the rustle of the flapping topsail and the soft splash at the bows.
I've seen a big jib give two men trouble when they had to take it in, and you were alone and had thetopsail up.
At first, it had no clear outline, but Andrew knew it was the topsail of a cutter-rigged boat, beating in against the tide.
The companies went forward, and above that salt lake they saw the mirages begin to shimmer, citadels and hanging gardens, tall towers and waving woods and majestic galleons, topsail over topsail, floating upon summer seas.
Yes; whether it's lacing your topsail or taking in a reef, one must take one's risks.
The foresail and fore-topsail were now tolerably well set; and as the craft drew seaward, the breeze freshened.
But soon the main-topsail was given to the breeze, which still freshening, came from over the quarter.
Cornbury, who had taken a particular fancy for great-gun exercise, practised upon the rigging to such advantage that he brought the mizzen topsail and cross-jack yard in a clatter about the ears of the fellows upon the poop.
The Sally presented a forlorn appearance with her main topsail torn to shreds.
Her bright new fore-topsail bore the arms of Spain, and the long pennons floating from her trucks and poles proclaimed the high condition of her passengers.
Stand by, there, some of you, to jump aloft and loose the topsail when I give the word.
We were about ten miles off shore when our look-out reported a large sail on our weather beam, coming down under studding-sails, and it being my watch on deck I went up on to the topsail yard to have a better look at her.
She remained head to wind for so long a time that at length the skipper caused our own helm to be put down and the topsail laid to the mast lest we should stand on too far and get within range of her guns.
The single shot that the lugger had fired flew fair between our masts, cutting our lee topsail brace.
We must get the topgallant-sail and flying-jib on her again, Mr Bowen, and shift our small gaff-topsail for the big one.
The topsailwas by this time sheeted home, and the men were mast-heading the yard.
With this head sail we were also enabled to give the frigate her close-reefed mizzen-topsail and spanker; with which canvas we began to move through the water at quite a respectable pace--that is to say about four knots per hour.
The helm was put up, and at length, through the haze of a warm summer morning, the stranger was discovered, with her mizen topsail aback and her main topsail shivering, evidently awaiting the arrival of the Phoenix.
Falling overboard afterwards during a heavy gale, in the same locality, where sharks abounded, when all hope of being saved had abandoned him, Uncle Boz from the topsail of the ship saw him struggling.
The foresail was rendered useless, and was cut away, and being only able to set a close-reefed main topsail for fear of the cap giving way, we were not able to follow his lordship.
The enemy were edging away from the wind, and several of their ships were changing stations in the line; some of them without topmasts and topsail yards.
At this time our maincap was seen to be so badly sprung as to oblige us to take in the main topsail; the larboard topsail sheet block was likewise shot away.
A topsailwas set up on the highest part of the reef, and a large blue ensign, with the union downwards, was hoisted to it as a signal of distress.
The canvas was stowed, down to the lower fore and main topsail and the fore-topmast stay-sail, and the men were about to hurry down from aloft when Captain Staunton stopped them.
Two or three minutes passed, and there still lay the ship prone on her side, with her lee topsail and lower yard-arms dipping in the water, she would not pay off.
After another broadside the pirate backed her main topsail and hove to at less than a cable's length off.
With a flash and a roar the iron missile sped on its way, striking the pirate's topsail yard.
There was a shower of splinters and the broken spar fell, till brought up by the strain on the topsail and t'gallant sail, and at the same time the halyards of the foresail parted, bringing that sail down to the deck with a run.
Ever since he had left Maracaibo upon the Main, with his full lading of sugar and red pepper, he had winced at every topsail which glimmered over the violet edge of the tropical sea.
They ran to Topsail Inlet in North Carolina to refit, and then in the spring they were at the Grand Caicos, ready for a long cruise down the West Indies.
On going up an elevation commanding a better view, it proved to be a topsail schooner.
Before I had time to recover from the first revulsion of disappointment and grief, another vessel, a topsail schooner, came in by Point Dungeness.
Native topsail schooners laden with jerked beef, fruit, and timber come gliding serenely down the stream beneath their spread of sail.
The kassab, after having hung the fore-topsail halyards in the becket, strutted into the waist toward a row of men who stood idly with their shoulders against the side of the long boat amidships.
He had come up only for a moment, but finding the poop shaded by the main-topsail he remained on deck bareheaded.
Shortly after his Captain had disappeared from the deck Carter laid the main topsail to the mast.
The lank skipper, in a frock-coat, and the big mate with heavy moustaches, judged her almost too pretty for a Britisher, and wondered at the man on board laying his topsail to the mast for no reason that they could see.
The helm was put down, the yards on the main came slowly square and the wet canvas of the main-topsail clung suddenly to the mast after a single heavy flap.
Down on the upper topsail yard, Quoin's and Jaskett's voices rose simultaneously, and in the identical instant, their flares went out.
We now fully expected to see the ship immediately bear up on her course, but she did not; her topsail remained aback for nearly ten minutes longer, during which we continued to shout and wave for our very lives.
Watching the frigate carefully, the helm was put down at just the right moment; and as our topsail swept round and was braced up--bang!
We managed to box her off, however, in the right direction, when the topsail was backed, and we lay motionless on the half stagnant water waiting for the return of the boats.
Let go the topgallant andtopsail halliards, and clew up and furl the sails.
Loose and set the topsail and topgallant-sail, and throw them aback!
And then I scrambled as best I could down on the main-deck, and went floundering forward through the water that was now washing higher than my ankle to the fore-topsail halliards, which I let go.
When the rain before the wind, then your topsail halliards mind," chaunted the boatswain.
The terrible beating of the mizzen-topsail was making the mizzen-mast, from the mastcoat to the royal mast-head, jump like a piece of whalebone.
The foresail was split in halves, and the port mizzen-topsail sheet had carried away, and the sail was pealing like endless discharges of musketry.
For some time she held her ground right abreast of us; but our topsail being full, while the Russian was actually hove to, we slowly began to reach ahead of her.
Anyhow, never back yer fore-topsail without a cause--them's my sentiments.
The wheel was now righted, and away the Aurora went, scudding dead before it, under her close-reefed fore-topsail only.
This gave the Aurora another advantage over the schooner, as was at once apparent when Ritson recommenced his gun-practice; his first shot passing through the schooner's topsail in close proximity to the mast.
Then we'll take in the gaff-topsail and mizzen-topmast staysail as well," said George.
While Zeke was talking there came a sudden gust of wind, stronger than any that had preceded it, and the schooner's main-topsail went by the board.
Of course that did away with two sails, the main gaff-topsail and the main trysail, and her speed was lessened materially.
One could almost wish we could sail south with the topsail up under the moonlight--forever.
Got the biggest topsailon her, and she has a deck-plank in.
The big topsail swayed across it, blotting out the stars, and there was a rhythmic splashing beneath the bows.
Jimmy went up, and found the Sorata was smoothly slipping by the climbing pines; and a little later her dory with three white men in it came sliding toward them as he hauled the topsail down.
Two partly seen figures were busy bending on a gaff-topsail about the foot of her foremast, and Wheelock turned as one of them came slouching aft when the sail had been sent aloft.
By midnight the Sorata was close in with the coast, working fast to windward through smooth water with her biggest topsail set, while a half-moon hung low in the western sky.
There's just wind enough to bring the yacht after us if he gets the topsail up.
Jimmy did not get the topsail up when they rowed away, but sat down on the coaming with his arm around Anthea's shoulder.
Then Valentine and Jimmy came in along the booms, stowed the spinnaker with some difficulty, and dropped the topsail too, for the dim mainland shore was black ahead when the rest left the deck to them.
Aren't you going to get the main gaff-topsail on to her?
A landing was soon effected, and a topsail yard was set up as a flagstaff, with the blue ensign upside down, though but little hope was entertained of passing vessels in such a place.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "topsail" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
