"I agree with you," said he, "in your comparative estimate of a
sailing vessel and a steamer, I like the former the best myself. It is
more agreeable for the reasons you have stated to a passenger, but it
is still more agreeable to the officer in command of her on another
account. In a sailing vessel, all your work is on deck, everything is
before you, and everybody under your command. One glance of a seaman's
eye is sufficient to detect if anything is amiss, and no one man is
indispensable to you. In a steamer the work is all below, the
machinery is out of your sight, complicated, and one part dependent on
another. If it gets out of order you are brought up with a round turn,
all standing, and often in a critical situation too. You can't repair
damage easily; sometimes, can't repair at all.
"Whereas carrying away a sail, a spar, a topmast, or anything of that
kind, impedes but don't stop you, and if it is anything very serious
there are a thousand ways of making a temporary rig that will answer
till you make a port. But what I like best is, when my ship is in the
daldrums, I am equal to the emergency; there is no engineer to bother
you by saying this can't be done, or that won't do, and to stand
jawing and arguing instead of obeying and doing. Clippers of the right
lines, size, and build, well found, manned, and commanded, will make
nearly as good work, in ordinary times, as steamers.
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