ENTRY - John Maynard Home Page

B) THE OBEDIENT HELMSMAN
1) The man at the helm obeyed the order. Releasing his hold of its spokes, the wheel
made a quick evolution; and the ship, feeling a fresh impulse of the wind, turned her
head heavily towards the quarter whence it came,…
(The Red Rover, Ch. XII, p. 215/589, Nov. 1827)
2) …Roswell Gardiner went aft to the man at the helm, and ordered him to steer to
the southward, as near as the breeze would conveniently allow.
(The Sea Lions, Ch. XIV, p. 237/532, April 1849)
3) ―Let her luff,‖ cried Jasper to the man at the helm. ―Luff up, till she shakes.
There, steady, and hold all that.‖
The helmsman complied; and, as the Scud was now dashing the water aside merrily, a
minute or two put the canoe so far to leeward as to render escape impracticable.
(The Pathfinder, Ch. XIV, p.297/644; Library of America,
Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II: pp. 226-227; Feb. / March 1840,
London and Philadelphia)
4) ―Let him halloo himself hoarse!‖ growled Cap. ―This is no weather to whisper
secrets in. Port, sir, port!‖
The man at the helm obeyed, and the next send of the sea drove the Scud
down upon the quarter of the ship, so near that the old mariner himself recoiled a
step,… (The Pathfinder, Ch. XVI, p. 330/644 ; Library of America,
Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II: p. 251; Feb. / March 1840,
London and Philadelphia)
C) THE COURAGEOUS HELMSMAN
1) The tongue cannot always express what the eyes view, but Mabel saw enough,
even in the moment of fear, to blend forever in her mind, the picture presented by the
plunging canoe, and the unmoved steersman. She admitted that insidious sentiment
which binds woman so strongly to man, by feeling additional security in finding
herself under his care, and for the first time since leaving Fort Stanwix, she was
entirely at ease in the frail bark, in which she travelled.
(The Pathfinder, Ch. III, p. 55/644,; Library of America,
Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II: p. 47; Feb. / March 1840,
London and Philadelphia)
2) ―Charley Cap will not be likely to quit the helm because the ship is in danger.‖
(The Pathfinder, Ch. XVII, p. 344/644,; Library of America,
Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II: p. 261; Feb. / March 1840,
London and Philadelphia)
3) This was the crisis of the danger. There was an hour when the caravel careered
amid the chaotic darkness with a sort of headlong fury, not infrequently dashing
forward with her broadside to the sea, as if the impatient stern was bent on overtaking
the stem, and exposing all to the extreme jeopardy of receiving a flood of water on the
beam. This imminent risk was only averted by the activity of the man at the helm,
where Sancho toiled with all his skill and energy, until the sweat rolled down his brow,
as if exposed again to the sun of the tropics.
(Mercedes of Castile, Ch. XXIV, p. 389, Nov. 1840)
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