I confess, that once I stole behind the
foremast to try it.
On the 10th of April, 1710, we arrived safe at Amsterdam, having lost only three men by sickness in the voyage, and a fourth, who fell from the
foremast into the sea, not far from the coast of Guinea.
There are HIS anchors, HIS headgear, his
foremast, his station for manoeuvring when the captain is in charge.
Captain Doane climbed even higher, seating himself on the stump of the
foremast with legs a-straddle of the butt of the foretopmast.
A three-cornered table within arm's reach ran from the angle of the to the
foremast. At the after end, behind a well-used Plymouth stove, sat a boy about his own age, with a flat red face and a pair of twinkling grey eyes.
Scarcely were we clear when the
foremast dropped down on the fastenings, dashing the jib-boom into the water with its load of demented human beings.
I could see its green and red lights, and its white lantern hanging from the large
foremast. An indistinct vibration quivered through its rigging, showing that the furnaces were heated to the uttermost.
After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, English; a Dutch carpenter, and three
foremast men.
From the deck to the truck of the maintopmast is something over a hundred feet, while the
foremast with its topmast is eight or ten feet shorter.
All the stern and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and
foremast were brought by the board - that is to say, broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm.
`Up with the jib, reef the tops'l halliards, helm hard alee, and man the guns!' roared the captain, as a Portuguese pirate hove in sight, with a flag black as ink flying from her
foremast.
Named for the abbreviated form of forecastle -- used to describe the upper deck forward of the
foremast nearest the bow of a ship -- this title reflects the nautical connections of the castle's former owners, the Kennedy clan, who used the castle's coastal position for sailing, shipbuilding and even smuggling when they occupied Culzean.
foremast - the mast nearest the bow in vessels with two or more masts