The situation of the parties
was now so singular as to merit a particular description. The Ark
was within sixty yards of the castle, a little to the southward,
or to windward of it, with its sail full, and the steering oar
abandoned. The latter, fortunately, was loose, so that it produced
no great influence on the crab like movements of the unwieldy craft.
The sail being as sailors term it, flying, or having no braces,
the air forced the yard forward, though both sheets were fast. The
effect was threefold on a boat with a bottom that was perfectly
flat, and which drew merely some three or four inches water. It
pressed the head slowly round to leeward, it forced the whole fabric
bodily in the same direction at the same time, and the water that
unavoidably gathered under the lee gave the scow also a forward
movement. All these changes were exceedingly slow, however, for
the wind was not only light, but it was baffling as usual, and
twice or thrice the sail shook. Once it was absolutely taken aback.
Had there been any keel to the Ark, it would inevitably have run
foul of the platform, bows on, when it is probable nothing could
have prevented the Hurons from carrying it; more particularly as
the sail would have enabled them to approach under cover.
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