Hornblower - and more YM, sort of...

[benjenbav]

Fellow devotees of Hornblower will remember that his Lieutenant's examination was interrupted by a French fireship attack at a point when he was struggling to deal with the following question; which is never answered in the books as the examining board does not reconvene:

"You are close-hauled on the port tack, Mr Hornblower, beating up channel with a nor-easterly wind blowing hard, with Dover bearing north two miles. Is that clear?
... Now the wind veers four points and takes you flat aback. What do you do, sir? What do you do?"

Bearing in mind that the ship is square-rigged (of which I have no relevant experience) I still think that the correct answer is to wear immediately onto the starboard tack (to head NNW towards Folkestone) and, as soon as possible thereafter, wear again onto the port tack, to head south with plenty of searoom to deal with whatever might follow (including the dismasting that one of the examiners throws into the mix as Hornblower hesitates).

Clearly, tacking in the first instance is not going to work. I have always thought that the question is intended to make the examinee worry that the lee shore is too close for wearing to be a sensible choice and to suggest clubhauling the ship through the eye of the wind: to my mind a fancy but very risky approach when there really is plenty of room to play it safe.

Anyway, what thinks the panel?

 

[fisherman]

When I have a similar problem in Helford, my boat is not brisk coming about and sometimes doesn't, I sidle across to a mooring buoy and plant the forequarter against it until she comes about.
Hornblower's problem rather depends on whether the ship is handy or a lumbering old tub.
If the former, leave the forsails, brace the main and mizzen yards round and hope she sails backwards onto the other tack .
If the latter, burst into tears.
I wondered, each time we failed to come about square rigged, if the spanker was sheeted across too quickly, and if it would have shoved the stern around if left sheeted hard to windward.

 

[bedouin]

I am not sure how realistic the situation is - in a square rigged ship sailing close hauled the wind veering 4 points is not going to take you aback

 

[neil_s]

Wouldn't it be best to put the helm down and refill the sails - the wind has veered four points, that's a lot less than a complete tack and the ship has good way on.

 

[Poignard]

I am not sure how realistic the situation is - in a square rigged ship sailing close hauled the wind veering 4 points is not going to take you aback

Of course it would, in this situation. If the ship is already pointing as close as she can on the port tack, and the wind shifts 45 degrees to starboard of her, she must be taken aback.

 

[Poignard]

Wouldn't it be best to put the helm down and refill the sails - the wind has veered four points, that's a lot less than a complete tack and the ship has good way on.

She wouldn't react quickly enough.

 

[bedouin]

Of course it would, in this situation. If the ship is already pointing as close as she can on the port tack, and the wind shifts 45 degrees to starboard of her, she must be taken aback.

Being taken aback means the wind is now on the wrong side of the sails. A square rigged ship in a strong wind is not going to be pointing so close that the wind veering 4 points can take her aback. Probably can't even get within 6 points of the wind.

 

[neil_s]

Back the fore-yards?

 

[fisherman]

Back the fore-yards?

I think that could work to push the bow to stbd and set her on the port tack again....maybe.

 

[Poignard]

Being taken aback means the wind is now on the wrong side of the sails. A square rigged ship in a strong wind is not going to be pointing so close that the wind veering 4 points can take her aback. Probably can't even get within 6 points of the wind.

The question says she is close hauled, not close reaching, ie she can't point up any more. If she does, the wind will come onto the wrong side of the sails. If it veers 45 degrees, she will be well aback.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

As the follow-on by the examiner says, a square-rigger in Nelsonian days would be in grave danger of being dismasted if taken aback by a sudden wind-shift. The rigging is all designed to take thrusts from aft, and less so from forward, and of course, it's hemp and not steel. I think the first priority would have to be to relieve the pressure on the sails by letting go the sheets, then using fore-and-aft sails to tack. But I have no experience whatsoever of square rigs!

 

[Poignard]

One of the first actions would be to wake the carpenter!

 

[Biggles Wader]

Id pipe "up spirits" and drift into Dover for a few beers.

 

[Sandy]

I don't care, its a film they make things up to suit the story. @Biggles Wader has a great idea, just wish I had found a half decent pub when I stopped in Dover. The improvements to the marina had stopped due to the withdrawal of funding from the mainland.

 

[Povremeni pomorac]

Get into the futtock shrouds as quickly as possible.

 

[Povremeni pomorac]

And get the crew ready to do a cunt-splice.

 

[Poignard]

Get into the futtock shrouds as quickly as possible.

and sit on the cat-harpins.

 

[Poignard]

And get the crew ready to do a cunt-splice.

I won't google that.

 

[Povremeni pomorac]

I won't google that.

Not as rude as it sounds!

 

[Poignard]

Not as rude as it sounds!

I will take your word for it.

I still get a frisson of horror at what appeared when I googled Eric Hiscock. ?