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Sail   Listen
noun
Sail  n.  
1.
An extent of canvas or other fabric by means of which the wind is made serviceable as a power for propelling vessels through the water. "Behoves him now both sail and oar."
2.
Anything resembling a sail, or regarded as a sail.
3.
A wing; a van. (Poetic) "Like an eagle soaring To weather his broad sails."
4.
The extended surface of the arm of a windmill.
5.
A sailing vessel; a vessel of any kind; a craft. Note: In this sense, the plural has usually the same form as the singular; as, twenty sail were in sight.
6.
A passage by a sailing vessel; a journey or excursion upon the water. Note: Sails are of two general kinds, fore-and-aft sails, and square sails. Square sails are always bent to yards, with their foot lying across the line of the vessel. Fore-and-aft sails are set upon stays or gaffs with their foot in line with the keel. A fore-and-aft sail is triangular, or quadrilateral with the after leech longer than the fore leech. Square sails are quadrilateral, but not necessarily square. See Phrases under Fore, a., and Square, a.; also, Bark, Brig, Schooner, Ship, Stay.
Sail burton (Naut.), a purchase for hoisting sails aloft for bending.
Sail fluke (Zool.), the whiff.
Sail hook, a small hook used in making sails, to hold the seams square.
Sail loft, a loft or room where sails are cut out and made.
Sail room (Naut.), a room in a vessel where sails are stowed when not in use.
Sail yard (Naut.), the yard or spar on which a sail is extended.
Shoulder-of-mutton sail (Naut.), a triangular sail of peculiar form. It is chiefly used to set on a boat's mast.
To crowd sail. (Naut.) See under Crowd.
To loose sails (Naut.), to unfurl or spread sails.
To make sail (Naut.), to extend an additional quantity of sail.
To set a sail (Naut.), to extend or spread a sail to the wind.
To set sail (Naut.), to unfurl or spread the sails; hence, to begin a voyage.
To shorten sail (Naut.), to reduce the extent of sail, or take in a part.
To strike sail (Naut.), to lower the sails suddenly, as in saluting, or in sudden gusts of wind; hence, to acknowledge inferiority; to abate pretension.
Under sail, having the sails spread.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sail" Quotes from Famous Books



... difficult in a moderate breeze, but the wind was blowing furiously and the schooner was greatly pressed with sail. He thought of calling the others to lower the mainsail peak, but with the weight of wind there was in the canvas he was not sure that they could haul down the gaff. Besides, they were busy securing the boat, which ...
— Masters of the Wheat-Lands • Harold Bindloss

... way of the Pacific on a voyage of discovery along with another soldier named Almagra; landed on the island of Gallo, on the coast of Peru, and afterwards returned with his companion to Spain for authority to conquer the country; when in 1529 he obtained the royal sanction he set sail from Spain with three ships in 1531, and on his arrival at Peru found a civil war raging between the two sons of the emperor, who had just died; Pizarro saw his opportunity; approached Atahualpa, the victorious one, now become the reigning Inca, ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood

... admiral. "I'd rather sail round the world with a shipload of vampyres than with such a humbugging son of a gun as you are. D——e, you're worse ...
— Varney the Vampire - Or the Feast of Blood • Thomas Preskett Prest

... would never be content to settle here for the rest of my life, while the great, wide world lay beyond. If Rex goes to India, why should you not all pack up some year and pay him a visit? You could sail down the Mediterranean and see all the lovely places on the way—Gibraltar, and Malta, and Naples, and Venice; stay a month or two in India, and come home overland through Switzerland and France. Oh, how delightful it would be! You would have so much to see and to talk about ...
— Sisters Three • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... wind caught the sail, and caused the boat to give such a lurch at this very moment that both ...
— Jack Harkaway and his son's Escape From the Brigand's of Greece • Bracebridge Hemyng

... of the 27th of July of the year 1830, a revolution took place in Paris. On the 30th of the same month, the king fled to the coast and set sail for England. In this way the "famous farce of fifteen years" came to an end and the Bourbons were at last removed from the throne of France. They were too hopelessly incompetent. France then might have returned to a Republican form of government, but ...
— The Story of Mankind • Hendrik van Loon

... I shall sail with it. I am weary of trees, and rocks, and water. I desire to see the cobbles of Rochelle and Perigny before I die. Have you no canary ...
— The Grey Cloak • Harold MacGrath

... Palos, where, a few days before, he had begged a morsel of bread and a cup of water for his wayworn child,—his final farewell to the Old World at the Canaries,—his entrance upon the trade winds, which then, for the first time, filled a European sail,—the portentous variation of the needle, never before observed, the fearful course westward and westward, day after day, and night after night, over the unknown ocean, the mutinous and ill-appeased crew; at length, when hope had turned ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... West-Indies, and filled them with their robberies and Assaults. From these occasions have they been in continual watch and ward, and kept their Militia in constant exercise, as also their Garrisons pretty well provided and paid; as fearing every sail they discovered at Sea, to be Pirats of one Nation or another. But much more especially, since that Curasao, Tortuga, and Jamaica have been inhabited by English, French, and Dutch, and bred up that race of Hunts-men, than which, ...
— The Pirates of Panama • A. O. (Alexandre Olivier) Exquemelin

... sought to follow, but he escaped, the girl fleet beside him, and they crouched together on a shadowy hillside. She was so slim, so white, so eager! She cried that he was gay and valiant, that she would wait for him, that they would sail...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... "I shall sail as soon as may be now," he told her. "Iceland will be hateful to me if it ...
— Gudrid the Fair - A Tale of the Discovery of America • Maurice Hewlett

... occupied by mast-yards, places that seem like play-rooms for grown men, crammed fuller than any old garret with those odds and ends in which the youthful soul delights. There are planks and spars and timber, broken rudders, rusty anchors, coils of rope, bales of sail-cloth, heaps of blocks, piles of chain-cable, great iron tar-kettles like antique helmets, strange machines for steaming planks, inexplicable little chimneys, engines that seem like dwarf-locomotives, windlasses that apparently ...
— Oldport Days • Thomas Wentworth Higginson

... prayer Is meet for men who mourn their slain; The living shall unmoor and sail, But Death's dark anchor secret deeps detain. Yet glory slants her shaft of rays Far through the undisturbed abyss; There must be other, nobler worlds for them Who nobly yield ...
— Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War • Herman Melville

... descended the mound, he scanned their travelling outfit, that he might guess their errand. They carried no cargo, nor was their canoe the broad-built, slate-coloured conveyance of the Hudson Bay Company; it was birch-bark, constructed for speed, and carried in the bow a miniature sail. They must be the bearers of a letter, ...
— Murder Point - A Tale of Keewatin • Coningsby Dawson

... ancestral Vandykes, without any concern as to the questions agitating the world. A kind of fat commercial dulness, a lack of that personal distinction which justifies magnificence, seemed to Odo the prevailing note of the place; nor was he sorry when his packet set sail for Naples. ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton

... Sir Peter Parker, the British commander, with seventy sail of men-of-war, anchored in Newport harbor, landed a body of troops, and took possession of the place. Providence was at once thrown into confusion and alarm. Forces, hastily collected, were massed throughout ...
— The New England Magazine, Volume 1, No. 1, January 1886 - Bay State Monthly, Volume 4, No. 1, January, 1886 • Various

... the quarterdeck than the laboratory. Denied the sea as a profession, his heart was for ever in ships; and when at length preferment took him inland to one of the ancient seats of learning, the ordered training of his mind turned his hobby towards the history and evolution of all craft that sail upon the waters. ...
— The Book-Hunter at Home • P. B. M. Allan

... follow them," said Groslow; "they cannot be far off. We will give them the stem; sail right ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 361, November, 1845. • Various

... simply imbedded in the flesh, and attached to strong muscles. "They serve," says Dr. Buckland, "as in the Chimaera (Figure 379), to raise and depress the fin, their action resembling that of a movable mast, raising and lowering backward the sail of a ...
— The Student's Elements of Geology • Sir Charles Lyell

... Cahersiveen town in a sail-boat up the water (not crossing at the ferry). I had accommodated my time to the wish of the boatman, who desired to be there in time for prayers: so that I had a long waiting at Cahersiveen for the mail car. In walking through the little town, I passed ...
— Autobiography of Sir George Biddell Airy • George Biddell Airy

... the 15th Century, Hakluyt Society, 1858). Though the word is used generally of any craft along the East African coast, it is usually applied to the vessel of about 150 to 200 tons burden with a stem rising with a long slope from the water; dhows generally have one mast with a lateen sail, the yard being of enormous length. Much of the coasting trade of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf is carried on by these vessels. They were the regular vessels employed in the slave trade from the ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 8, Slice 3 - "Destructors" to "Diameter" • Various

... needle point north and south. Now let waves buffet either side, typhoons roar, and maelstroms whirl; we have, out of the invisible, insensible sea of magnetic influence, a sure and steady guide. Now we can sail out of sight of headlands. We have in the darkness and light, in calm and storm, an unswerving guide. Now Columbus can ...
— Among the Forces • Henry White Warren

... from all quarters, and our hopes rose high. But there was no slackening of our efforts to get in the head. By the time it was dark we managed to get the junk on board, and by the most extraordinary efforts lifted the whole remainder of the head high enough to make sail and stand off to sea. The wind was off the land, the water smooth, and no swell on, so we took no damage from that tremendous weight surging by our side, though, had the worst come to the worst, we could ...
— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... not seem to dread it so much, but Handspike and Timbo fully agreed with me that we should be prepared for the worst. Deserted by the crew, even should the wind come off the shore, we could with difficulty make sail, and then it would be a hard matter to navigate the vessel. We only, hoped, however, that they would return on finding the unattractive appearance of the coast. The mist clearing away to the west, the rays of the sun glanced almost horizontally across the waters, over which they cast a ruddy glow, ...
— In the Wilds of Africa • W.H.G. Kingston

... of the Laguna. There's a four-mile current to help. They've a scant two days' start, and we'll catch up some, for their boat is heavier and their sail is no good with the wind in this direction. If we don't catch up some," he added grimly, "I wouldn't want to insure our young friend's life. So it's all aboard, ...
— Average Jones • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... to the seas again, the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a gray mist on the sea's face and a ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... this time to serve in the navy. Afterward, he did so for many years, and saw every variety of service in every class of ships belonging to our navy. At one time, when yet a boy, he was captured by pirates, and compelled to sail with them; and the end of his adventurous career was, that for many a year he has been lying at the bottom ...
— Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 8, January, 1851 • Various

... 1887, the elder Stevenson died, breaking the last tie that held them to England, and three months later Louis Stevenson, with his mother, wife, and stepson, set sail for America. ...
— The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson • Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

... through the defiles and ravines and matted growths of the mountains. On the fourth dawn they were on the summit of a lofty mountain-rise; below them the sun, shooting a current of gold across leagues of sea. Then he that had spoken with Bhanavar said, 'A sail will come,' and a sail came from under the sun. Scarce had the ship grated shore when the warriors lifted Bhanavar, and waded through the water with her, and placed her unwetted in the ship, and one, the fair youth among the warriors, sprang on board with her, remaining by her. So the captain pushed ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... "that we could now maintain twelve ships-of-the-line, perhaps twenty, with a due proportion of frigates and smaller vessels. And I am tolerably certain that, while the United States of America pursue a just and liberal conduct, with twenty sail-of-the-line at sea, no nation on earth will dare to insult them. I believe also, that, not to mention individual losses, five years of war would involve more national expense than the support of a navy ...
— Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 - Volume 1 • Alfred Thayer Mahan

... flexibility act in concert. The name is given to the curve formed by a chain suspended by two of its points which are not placed on a vertical line. It is the shape taken by a flexible cord when held at each end and relaxed; it is the line that governs the shape of a sail bellying in the wind; it is the curve of the nanny-goat's milk- bag when she returns from filling her trailing udder. And all this answers to the ...
— The Life of the Spider • J. Henri Fabre

... you're a human youngster with a human desire for a good time. A mere lad," he added, reflectively, and went on: "Go down to Bermuda with a light heart, my boy, and enjoy yourself,—it will do your church as much good as you. Play tennis and sail—fall in love if you find the right girl,—nothing makes a man over like that." North was putting out his hand. "And remember," Litterny added, "to keep an eye out for my thief. You're retained as assistant detective ...
— The Militants - Stories of Some Parsons, Soldiers, and Other Fighters in the World • Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews

... him to go to America in order to be quite free, and to be able to hunt in untrodden fields where no gun license was necessary. He went to Paris to set sail from Havre, but he had not enough money for the voyage. He then fell back on Africa, but there he found a second France with laws, gendarmes, and forest-keepers. He tried working a grant of land, and then a clearing, but that kind of labour did not suit him. The ...
— Rene Mauperin • Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt

... for in order to protect a fleet of merchantmen that were bound to the Baltic, and were to sail under the convoy of our ship and the Countess of Scarborough, commanded by Captain Piercy. And thus it came about, that, after being twenty-five days in His Majesty's service, I had the fortune to be present at one of the most severe and desperate ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... to visit his birthplace in the West Indies, we bid 'addio' to fair Florence, where for three years we have dwelt together and followed our profession, and, embarking in a French steamer at St. Nazaire, we set sail for the Pearl of ...
— The Pearl of the Antilles, or An Artist in Cuba • Walter Goodman

... boss! Good day, missus! Good day, all about," he said in cheerful salute, as he trundled towards us like a ship's barrel in full sail. "Me new cook, me—" and then Sam appeared and ...
— We of the Never-Never • Jeanie "Mrs. Aeneas" Gunn

... shipping and an air of marine capacity which no apparent result justifies. It sits upon the shore like an antiquated sea-captain, grave and silent, in tarpaulin and duck trousers, idly watching the ocean upon which he will never sail again. ...
— Literary and Social Essays • George William Curtis

... huge white ships are coming out of the east, and the waves glide away at their wake in widening glassy hues. How they speed! How they speed, without oar or sail! ...
— Hypolympia - Or, The Gods in the Island, an Ironic Fantasy • Edmund Gosse

... haughty ones left behind, sullen and untamed, but with a horrible indefinable dread on them that was worse than death, or mere pain, howsoever fierce—these saw all the ships go out of the harbour merrily with swelling sail and dashing oar, and with joyous singing of those aboard; and Svend's was the last ...
— The World of Romance - being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856 • William Morris

... of the north-west, and a cloudless sky. At the landing-stage Griswold made himself useful, paying out the sea-line of the movable mooring buoy and hauling on the shore-line until the handsome little craft lay at their feet. Strictly under orders he made sail on the little ship, and when the captain had taken her place at the tiller he ...
— The Price • Francis Lynde

... the ship lay; I was conducted on horseback by an elderly black man, (a mode of travelling which appeared very odd to me). When I arrived I was carried on board a fine large ship, loaded with tobacco, &c. and just ready to sail for England. I now thought my condition much mended; I had sails to lie on, and plenty of good victuals to eat; and every body on board used me very kindly, quite contrary to what I had seen of any white people before; I therefore began to think that they were not all of the same ...
— The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African - Written By Himself • Olaudah Equiano

... land. The country all around seemed to be on fire in the morning. The thermometer, as I stood on the deck, was 94 degrees. In the evening the wind came round to the north-west, and, desirous of availing ourselves of such a favourable breeze, we got on board and set sail, but were obliged to stand well out to sea to clear the reefs. Towards night it fell calm again, and there was some ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 2 (of 2) • George Grey

... that his intentions were harmless; but he was not believed, and was expelled from the House. Later the Continental Congress adjudged him guilty, and ordered him confined in jail. Released later on account of his health, he was allowed to sail for the West Indies. His vessel ...
— The Siege of Boston • Allen French

... bent an inch or two, or the bridge raised its back like a yawning cat, or the river given in, it would have been all right with me. But they took no notice of my helplessness. That is the very reason why I could make use of the river, and sail upon it with the help of the mast, and that is why, when its current was inconvenient, I could rely upon the bridge. Things are what they are, and we have to know them if we would deal with them, and knowledge of them is possible because our wish is not their law. ...
— Sadhana - The Realisation of Life • Rabindranath Tagore

... less good than his word, for when the Good Samaritan set sail with a favoring wind for the island of Jamaica, Master Harry found himself established as ...
— Stolen Treasure • Howard Pyle

... ship keepers had trimmed the yards to the wind and hauled up the courses, so that simply putting the helm down deadened our way and allowed the boats to run clear without danger of fouling one another. 5 To shove off and hoist sail was the work of a few moments, and with a fine working breeze away ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... illusion—the heir, the son you love, was not really dead; The Lord is not dead—he is risen, young and strong, in another country; Even while you wept there by your fallen harp, by the grave, What you wept for, was translated, pass'd from the grave, The winds favoured and the sea sail'd it, And now with rosy and new blood, Moves to-day in ...
— Child and Country - A Book of the Younger Generation • Will Levington Comfort

... together these meagre possessions—rich in bullion value, but meagre in happiness, considering all that might have been, and to-morrow I sail for London. There, following Henriette's advice, I shall enter the study of the ministry, and when I am ordained shall buy a living somewhere and settle down to the serene existence of the preacher, the pastor of a ...
— Mrs. Raffles - Being the Adventures of an Amateur Crackswoman • John Kendrick Bangs

... of tools is not accidental, but inherent and essential. The contours of a ship's sail bellying in the wind are not more inevitable, nor more graceful, than the curves of an adze-head or of a plough-share. Cast in iron or steel, the gracefulness of a plough-share is more indestructible than the metal, yet pliant (in the limits of its type) as a line of English blank ...
— Progress and History • Various

... to me laden with ecstatic voices. The bobolinks sail and tinkle in the sensuous hush, now sinking, now rising, their exquisite notes filling the air as with the sound of fairy bells. The king-bird, alert, aggressive, cries out sharply as he launches from the top of a poplar tree upon some buzzing insect, ...
— A Son of the Middle Border • Hamlin Garland

... with full packs, very full packs. Then, a few miles out, one would see out of the corner of his eye, a shirt sail quietly across the hedge-row; an extra pair of boots in the other direction; another shirt, a bundle of writing paper; more shirts, more boots. Packs were lightening. Down to fifty pounds now; forty, thirty, twenty, ten ... the ...
— Private Peat • Harold R. Peat

... to sail this evening, the stores are by no means complete. The steward is getting in lots of cases; and what a quantity of pickles! Hens are coming up to fill the hen-coops. More sheep are being brought; there are many on board already; and here comes our ...
— A Boy's Voyage Round the World • The Son of Samuel Smiles

... now awaited in hope the coming of the French fleet; and on the first of September, Count D'Estaing appeared suddenly on the coast of Georgia with thirty-three sail, surprised and captured four British warships, and announced to the government of South Carolina his readiness to assist in the recapture of Savannah. He urged as a condition, however, that his ships should not be detained long off so dangerous a coast, as is was ...
— The Colored Regulars in the United States Army • T. G. Steward

... Embark for the Peninsula. Arrival in the Tagus. The City of Lisbon, with its Contents. Sail for Figuera. Landing extraordinary. Billet ditto. The City of Coimbra. A hard Case. A cold Case, in which a favourite Scotch Dance is introduced. ...
— Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, in the Peninsula, France, and the Netherlands - from 1809 to 1815 • Captain J. Kincaid

... time came for him to leave Norfolk Island for his annual cruise, his energy revived. He spent seven weeks at Mota, leaving it towards the end of August to sail for the Santa Cruz group. On September 20, as he came in sight of the coral reef of Nukapu, he was speaking to his scholars of the death of St. Stephen. Next morning he had the boat lowered and put off for shore accompanied by Mr. Atkin and ...
— Victorian Worthies - Sixteen Biographies • George Henry Blore

... commissioned to carry to the fort those who were to take part in the exercises, and the gratifying announcement was afterwards received in Providence that a second steamer had been chartered, the "Oceanus," of our Neptune Propeller Line, to sail from New York for Charleston, on Monday, April 10th, at noon. Immediately, three Providence boys, two of us comrades in the Tenth Rhode Island Regiment, fired with the news just received of the fall of Richmond, made our plans for going to Charleston on the "Oceanus." We so well succeeded ...
— The Flag Replaced on Sumter - A Personal Narrative • William A. Spicer

... instantly became a whirlwind. It cut like myriads of teeth; it struck two-edged with the swish, slash of a sword; and it lifted the advancing cloud in a mighty swirl, bellied it as though it had been a gigantic sail, and shook from its folds a deluge of hailstones followed by snow. Through it all a grotesque shape that seemed sometimes a huge, abnormal beetle and sometimes a beast, worked slowly around the crag, now crawling, now rearing upright with a futile ...
— The Rim of the Desert • Ada Woodruff Anderson

... no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter, whose whole intellect seemed to be absorbed by "de bug," I now stepped into the boat and made sail. With a fair and strong breeze we soon ran into the little cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walk of some two miles brought us to the hut. It was about three in the afternoon when we arrived. Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expectation. He grasped my hand with ...
— Short Stories for English Courses • Various (Rosa M. R. Mikels ed.)

... St. Lawrence River Skiffs; rowboats; sailing canoes; paddling canoe; yacht tender and small sail ...
— Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1895 • Edited by Henry Chadwick

... life's voyage is o'er, And I sail no more On the ocean's troubled breast, Safe anchored above, In the haven of love, May the ...
— Sanders' Union Fourth Reader • Charles W. Sanders

... getting home again. But tell me, and tell me true, can Ulysses really have such a fine looking fellow for a son? You are indeed wonderfully like him about the head and eyes, for we were close friends before he set sail for Troy where the flower of all the Argives went also. Since that time we have never either of ...
— The Odyssey • Homer

... Winifred was dressed for dinner, and Eve and Marie-Louise scurried below to change. They dined on the upper deck by moonlight, and sat late enjoying the still warmth of the night. There was no wind and they seemed to sail through ...
— Mistress Anne • Temple Bailey

... of what he had achieved there and from the friendship of the people and the princes. (Spain was likewise devoted to him, but he could not reach it safely because Caesar had possession of both the Gauls.) Moreover he calculated that if he should sail away, no one would pursue him on account of the lack of boats and on account of the winter,—the late autumn being far advanced,—and meanwhile he would at leisure amass both money and troops, much of them from subject and much from allied territory. ...
— Dio's Rome • Cassius Dio

... answered with jeers and acclamations, which so increased his anger that he dismounted, and, giving his pig in charge of Captain Snider, led old Battle hurriedly on board, cursed them for an unthinking set, and set sail amidst the loud acclamations of the crowd. As the "Two Marys" sped seaward, Polly Potter and her three children were seen waving their ...
— The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter • "Pheleg Van Trusedale"

... "Ready to sail at ten minutes' notice," the young man assured him emphatically, "victualled and coaled to the eyelids. To tell you the truth, I have some idea of abducting Fedora ...
— Mr. Grex of Monte Carlo • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... except his spirit makes himself known unto thee. Or even in all your wisdom you will sail upon the unknown sea. ...
— The Secret of the Creation • Howard D. Pollyen

... possessed a submerged Constitution that might be extracted from her annals had a difficult task. Lanjuinais desired to sail by a beacon and to direct the politics of 1789 by a charter of 864. There was a special reason, less grotesque than the archaeology of Lanjuinais, which made men averse to the Declaration. Liberty, it was said, consists in the reign of the national will, ...
— Lectures on the French Revolution • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... from his cigar sail towards the long box of geraniums on the sill of the open window. He whistled to the canary that swung in a brass cage above the foliage. Then his glance wandered about the room, over the bookcases, the ...
— Every Man for Himself • Hopkins Moorhouse

... population of Manilla as being very small—the native population large. It is but four days' sail, with a good breeze, from Manilla to Canton. Always a favourable ...
— A Political Diary 1828-1830, Volume II • Edward Law (Lord Ellenborough)

... wheels and make the distance of twelve miles in about an hour and a quarter. Steam locomotives at this time were in their infancy and, until the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad in this same year, they had attained a speed of only six miles an hour. Horses and mules, and even sail cars, made more rapid progress than did the earliest locomotive. In spite of these crude and primitive facilities for transportation, however, the traffic on the new railroad was of large volume from the beginning, and the company could not handle the amount ...
— The Railroad Builders - A Chronicle of the Welding of the States, Volume 38 in The - Chronicles of America Series • John Moody

... cargo on board, they have been known, I have heard say, to make her people walk the plank, and sink or burn her, so that no one may know anything about the matter. Now our skipper has no fancy to be caught in that fashion, and if we were to sight a suspicious looking sail, as the 'Chieftain' has got a fast pair of heels of her own, we should do our best to keep out of her way. You see when once fellows take to slaving they go from bad to worse. I have known something of the trade in my ...
— The African Trader - The Adventures of Harry Bayford • W. H. G. Kingston

... Spanish Armada, accident fought on our side. The French fleet succeeded in reaching the coast of Scotland before the ships of the defenders; but it overshot its arranged landing-point, and had no hope but to sail back ingloriously to Dunkirk. Meantime, Defoe had satisfactorily discharged himself of his mission. Godolphin showed his appreciation of his services by recalling him as soon as Parliament was dissolved, to travel ...
— Daniel Defoe • William Minto

... a little; just a little, you know. It is a sort of tribute to my husband, and so can't be very wicked. Oh, I remember, I was thinking what fun it would have been to chaperon you two girls at one of our grand balls in the good old times. I would sail around like a great ship of the line, convoying two of the trimmest little crafts that ever floated, and all the pirates, I mean gallant young men, my dears, would hover near, dying to cut you out right ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe

... gun ports on each side of the Dundee are raised and a row of untompioned cannon are seen pointing towards the enemy's broadside. The stratagem, according to the account given by the younger Scoresby,[1] was such a huge surprise for the enemy that he suddenly hauled off under full sail and not a shot was fired on ...
— The Evolution Of An English Town • Gordon Home

... island that, in the first rays of the sun, gleamed like fire. On coming closer to it he saw that it was clad with trees, so covered with bright red berries that hardly a leaf was to be seen. Soon the boat was almost within a stone's cast of the island, and it began to sail round and round until it was well under the bending branches. The scent of the berries was so sweet that it sharpened the prince's hunger, and he longed to pluck them; but, remembering what had happened to him on the enchanted island, he was afraid to touch them. But ...
— The Golden Spears - And Other Fairy Tales • Edmund Leamy

... don't see but everything is settled," the manager declared, as he started back through the grove of pines. "I gave orders up at the toolhouse that you were to have whatever boards, nails, and tools you wanted, so don't hesitate to sail in and ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett

... ordered an iron steamer to be built and fitted with Ericsson's propeller. This vessel was named the Stockton, and was launched in July, 1838, and, after being thoroughly tested and her success demonstrated, she was sent under sail to the United States in April of the next year, and was soon after followed by Captain Ericsson; when, in consequence of the representations of Captain Stockton, the government ordered the Princeton to be built under Ericsson's ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume V, Number 29, March, 1860 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... greater part of the other markets of India, ten, or at most twelve ounces of silver, will purchase an ounce of gold; in Europe, it requires from fourteen to fifteen ounces. In the cargoes, therefore, of the greater part of European ships which sail to India, silver has generally been one of the most valuable articles. It is the most valuable article in the Acapulco ships which sail to Manilla. The silver of the new continent seems, in this manner, to be one of the principal commodities by which the commerce ...
— An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations • Adam Smith

... gave his last orders, and away we went, pulling three pairs of oars to gain our positions. We were in the weather boat, and so had a longer pull than the others. The first, second, and third lee boats soon had all sail set and were running off to the southward and westward with the wind beam, while the schooner was running off to leeward of them, so that in case of accident the boats would have ...
— Dutch Courage and Other Stories • Jack London

... they hearkened to his call. So they raised the mast of pine tree and set it in the hole of the cross plank, and made it fast with forestays, and hauled up the white sails with twisted ropes of oxhide. And the wind filled the belly of the sail, and the dark wave seethed loudly round the stem of the running ship, and she fleeted over the wave, accomplishing her path. Then they made all fast in the swift black ship, and set mixing bowls brimmed with wine, and poured drink offering to the deathless gods that are ...
— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.

... harbors always new and strange: Egypt, Palestine, Babylon, Arabia, Spain, at Turkey, at Holland and Russia. And to-day is also a test day for the Jews. And also this day will end, and many, many, but the ship will always sail on, will carry them all to new ...
— The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 • Various

... that date," he answered, "but not an hour beyond. He will sail out of this country for some port or other, or there will be a collision. You must not, you shall not defend him!" he added, as she was about to speak. "I know the harm he is doing, and it must ...
— A Black Adonis • Linn Boyd Porter

... wait till we have found another loophole into it, which it seems our fleet is gone to look for. I fear it is not even true that we have beat them in the Mediterranean! nor have I any hopes but in Admiral Forbes, who must sail up the Rhone, burn Lyons, and force them to ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole

... coming from the east, they had to pull for four hours before they weathered the southern point of the cove; they then hoisted sail and ran for Wilson's Promentory, which they rounded at ten o'clock a.m. At eight o'clock in the evening they brought up in a small bay at the eastern extremity of Western Port, glad to get ashore and stretch ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale

... whatever. He now, being prepared for his departure from Calcutta, and having finished all his other business, went up to Oude upon a chase in which just now we cannot follow him. He returned in great disgust to Calcutta, and soon after set sail for England, without ever giving the Directors one word of the explanation which he had so often promised, ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... received was most painful; his wife and two of his daughters had been carried off by the cholera, which had been very fatal during the previous rainy season. His remaining daughter was about to sail, in obedience to his wishes, in the Grosvenor East-Indiaman, under the care of Colonel and Mrs. ...
— The Mission • Frederick Marryat

... down the current of the Ohio to the spot where that river falls into the Mississippi, may be said to sail between liberty and servitude; and a transient inspection of the surrounding objects will convince him as to which of the two is most favorable to mankind. Upon the left bank of the stream the population is rare; from time to time one descries a troop of slaves ...
— Democracy In America, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alexis de Tocqueville

... his voice which she did not understand, he called back, "Perhaps I'll sail straight over to France. ...
— 'Smiles' - A Rose of the Cumberlands • Eliot H. Robinson

... Victory sitting on a trophy, or a statue of Hercules. You probably have no idea what a great personage is a "sea-insurer." He is accompanied by Arion on a dolphin; and in a picture a sea-haven, with a ship under sail making towards it; on the shore the figure of Fortune, and (who are, think you, the "supercargoes?") over the cargo "Castor and Pollux." In this mode of portrait-painting it would be absolutely necessary to go back to the old plan of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 55, No. 340, February, 1844 • Various

... lived at my one hous but Stephen deming & his Wife cept coming down & hanting of me til they got me up to thare house but presently I was deceived by them as Bad as Adam & Eve was by the Divel though not in the Same Shape for they got a bill of Sail of a most all by thare Sutilly & still hold the Same. perhaps the Jentlemen will say it is to pay my debt. Queri. Wherino a man that ows one pound to my shiling. I dont want it to pay his one, I believe he dos. My wife pretends ...
— Customs and Fashions in Old New England • Alice Morse Earle

... and kin and home forget, and all, To sail beyond the setting-sun, with me, Where dead love's dreamy recollections ...
— An Essence Of The Dusk, 5th Edition • F. W. Bain

... destination was known to be Harfleur, which, as it was strongly fortified and garrisoned, was like to offer a sturdy resistance. The fleet was a great one, consisting of from twelve to fourteen hundred sail, which the king had collected from all the ports of England and Ireland, or hired from Holland and Friesland. The army consisted of six thousand five hundred horsemen and twenty-four thousand footmen of all kinds. On the 13th of August the fleet anchored ...
— At Agincourt • G. A. Henty

... to Bretagne, according to Flor. S. Dunelm, etc.; but according to Henry of Huntingdon he fled directly to Denmark, returning afterwards with Cnute and Hacco, who invaded England With a fleet of 200 sail. ...
— The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle • Unknown

... fishermen in the villages there who would not have that feeling against me that the men here have, to take us to sea, or if that could not be managed, to get on board some little fishing-boat at night and sail off by ourselves in the hopes of being picked up by an ...
— In the Reign of Terror - The Adventures of a Westminster Boy • G. A. Henty

... narration, let it be said that on Wednesday, the 9th of July, the two brothers, the sister and their guest, with the proper array of the "great North River travelling-trunks" and other baggage, took the steamer Daniel Drew for a sail by daylight up the Hudson, as the mode of making half the journey least fatiguing to the recovering invalid. That the three New Yorkers, to whom the scenery of that noble river was thoroughly familiar, clapped hands and shouted their joy once more, nearly all day, at the flashing blue ...
— Shoulder-Straps - A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 • Henry Morford

... I began it long since in the long winter evenings," said his friend, "and now 'tis done and 'tis thine. See, I shall put an apron on thee and thou shalt be my 'prentice and learn to build another quaint ship like her—to be her consort; and we will sail them together in the ...
— Harding's luck • E. [Edith] Nesbit

... time, to fathom Truth with Diligence, Reading by Day, Contemplating by Night, Till Conscience told me that I judg'd aright, Then to my Paper-World I'd have recourse, And by my Maps run o'er the Universe; Sail round the Globe, and touch at every Port, Survey those Shoars where Men untam'd resort, View the old Regions where the Persian Lord Taught Wooden Deities first to be Ador'd, Ensnar'd at last to Sacrifice his Life To the base Pride of an Adult'rous ...
— The Pleasures of a Single Life, or, The Miseries Of Matrimony • Anonymous

... Juniper, very verdant, and besprinkled with white-weed, clover, and buttercups. The juniper-trees are very aged and decayed and moss-grown. The grass about the hospital is rank, being trodden, probably, by nobody but myself. There is a representation of a vessel under sail, cut with a penknife, on the ...
— Passages From The American Notebooks, Volume 1 • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... down Jean set his sail, meaning to make a rapid dash across the bay, and seeing no cause for concealing his movements. There was more swell than he liked for so frail a craft, but wind and tide were favourable to the enterprise, and the night was exceptionally ...
— The Forest of Vazon - A Guernsey Legend Of The Eighth Century • Anonymous

... Harry. "I mean to go off for a while—say, two or three weeks or a month. Sail up the lake and camp out, you know." "Oh!" Jerry's face took on a pleased look. "I would like that myself, especially if we could go fishing and swimming ...
— The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview • Ralph Bonehill

... quarter-deck. The swell had passed in the night, leaving a long, oily sea, dotted round the horizon with the sails of a dozen fishing-boats. Between them lay little black specks, showing where the dories were out fishing. The schooner, with a triangular riding-sail on the mainmast, played easily at anchor, and except for the man by the cabin-roof—"house" ...
— "Captains Courageous" • Rudyard Kipling

... factory chimneys, towering above that sea of clustered roofs, began with one accord to exhale their quivering vapor, with the energy of a steamer about to sail. Life was beginning anew. Forward, ye wheels of time! And so much the worse for him who ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... an hour's time, the harbour was left behind; the vessel was out at sea. Suddenly, Mary heard loud cries behind her: a boat coming in under press of sail, through her pilot's ignorance had struck upon a rock in such a manner that it was split open, and after having trembled and groaned for a moment like someone wounded, began to be swallowed up, amid the terrified screams of all the crew. Mary, horror-stricken, pale, dumb, and motionless, watched ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - MARY STUART—1587 • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... designs upon that ear it behooved her to stop talking. Though her little picture was an oval of three inches by four, it had cost her more strokes than any canvas of ten times the size had ever done. And Eleanor was to sail in a fortnight! ...
— A Bookful of Girls • Anna Fuller

... sail'd away; He scour'd the sea for many a day; And now, grown rich with plunder'd store, He steers his way ...
— MacMillan's Reading Books - Book V • Anonymous

... pacific type. I note on his deck a lady and a gentleman (of German origin) with a bag, two of our all too rare civilians. No doubt the bag contains samples and a small conversation dictionary in the negroid dialects. (I think F. R. W. may turn out to be a Liberal.) Perhaps he will sail on and rescue the raided huts, perhaps he will land and build a jetty, and begin mining among the rocks to fill his hold with silver. Perhaps the natives will kill and eat the gentleman with the bag. All that is for Captain F. ...
— Floor Games; a companion volume to "Little Wars" • H. G. Wells

... allow. I had about sixty-four girls in that ballet, and it was staged by Theodore Kosloff, who is now in Los Angeles. He was formerly at the Empire Theatre in London, when I lived in London. He couldn't speak a word of English at that time. He had to sail for Europe before he finished staging this ballet, and he turned the ballet over to me, with a friendly request that I personally finish it for him, which I gladly did. He had explained what he wanted in costumes, and the management finally ordered some costumes made ...
— The Art of Stage Dancing - The Story of a Beautiful and Profitable Profession • Ned Wayburn

... day, Mr. P. went out fishing. He hired a boat, and a man to sail it, and while the man was getting ready to put off, Mr. P. took his seat in the bow and began to fix his lines. He always likes to sit in the bow. The tiller don't knock him so often in the back, and the boom don't bother his ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 14, July 2, 1870 • Various



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