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G) KNOWLEDGE OF THE HELMSMAN
1) ―Well, brother, you may yet learn something by questioning the young man at
the helm; I can hardly think that he is as ignorant as he pretends to be.‖
(The Pathfinder, Ch. XV, p.315/644 ; Library of America,
Leatherstocking Tales, vol. II: p. 240; Feb. / March 1840,
London and Philadelphia)
2) It was indeed so common with mariners to compare their compasses with the north
star, a luminary that was supposed never to vary its position in the heavens, as that
position related to man, that no experienced seaman, who happened to be at the helm
at nightfall, could well overlook the phenomenon.
(Mercedes of Castile, Ch. XVII, p. 272, Nov. 1840)
H) THE ALERT HELMSMAN – WHILE OTHERS SLEEP (…UNTIL HE SNORES!)
1) Why, they say aboard here, that when it blows hard, you seat the man you call
long Tom by the side of the tiller, tell him to keep her head to sea, and then pipe all
hands to their night-caps, where you all remain, comfortably stowed in your
hammocks, until you are awakened by the snoring of your helmsman.
(The Pilot, Cooper Edition, Ch. VI, p. 65, Jan. 1824)
2) The seaman at the helm alone kept his eyes open, and all his faculties on the
alert. This is a station in which vigilance is ever required; and it sometimes happens,
in vessels where the rigid discipline of a regular service does not exist, that others rely
so much on the circumstance, that they forget their own duties in depending on the due
charge of his by the man at the wheel.
Such, to a certain degree, was now the fact on board Le Feu-Follet. One of the best
seamen in the lugger was at the helm; and each individual felt satisfied that no shift of
wind could occur, no change of sails become necessary, that Antoine would not be
there to admonish some of the circumstance. One day was much like another, too, in
that tranquil season of the year, and in that luxurious sea, that all on board knew the
regular mutations which the hours produced; the southerly air in the morning, the
zephyr in the afternoon, and the land-wind at night, were as much matters of course as
the rising and setting of the sun. No one felt apprehension, while all submitted to the
influence of a want to rest, and of the drowsiness of the climate.
Not so with Antoine. His hairs were grey; sleep was no longer so necessary for
him. He had much pride of calling, too; was long experienced, and possessed senses
sharpened and rendered critical by practice and many dangers.
(The Wing-and-Wing – CSPCT, Vol. 22, Ch. XXVI, p. 295, 1842)
I) THE INSTINCT/SKILL OF THE HELMSMAN
1) Paul was at the helm, steering more by instinct than any thing else, and
occasionally nodding at his post; for two successive nights of watching and a day of
severe toil had overcome his sense of danger, and his care for others. Strange fancies
beset men at such moments; and his busy imagination was running over some of the
scenes of his early youth, when either his sense or his wandering faculties made him
hear the brief, spirited hail of,
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