"Astern" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... the darkness was lit up by a vivid flash, a thunderous boom traveled across the bay, and the heavy shot tore its way screaming over the Raleigh, quickly followed by a second, which fell astern of the Olympia and Raleigh. The Spaniards had discovered the approach of the squadron. The Raleigh, Concord, and Boston replied; all the shots ...
— Dewey and Other Naval Commanders • Edward S. Ellis
... the blow was so stunning that he did no more than instinctively cling to the object which had injured him. It sustained his weight, but, in the wind-lashed waves and darkness, he and his support were unseen. The tide was running out swiftly, and he and the pole had been swept well astern, while Bodine looked at the spot where they thought he had sunk-a point from which the negro's frantic oar-strokes ...
— The Earth Trembled • E.P. Roe
... ahead, astern, and on the beam, two hydroplanes circling and paralleling above, and a solitary observing balloon hovering over the Long Island shore, our ship and convoys stood ...
— The Greater Love • George T. McCarthy
... order. The shot was seen to touch the water twice before it disappeared, but whether it struck the dhow seemed doubtful. Again the gun was got ready, but this time was aimed at the next vessel ahead, which almost immediately lowered her sails, the one astern ...
— Ned Garth - Made Prisoner in Africa. A Tale of the Slave Trade • W. H. G. Kingston
... she blows!" hailed the look-out from the mast-head, as a school of whales hove in sight, about three miles astern, one afternoon, when they had been four months on the whaling grounds. It was the first discovery that had been made, they having been thus far unsuccessful. All hands were immediately called up; every man was at his post, making ready for ...
— Natalie - A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds • Ferna Vale
... was on the engine-room telegraph, and down into the depths of the ship went the signals. First to "stop," and the tremor all over the ship ceased. The bell rang again, and the index moved to "astern-slow;" then in a minute or two, to, "half;" then he called out to the second officer—"Man overboard! Stand by to lower away the gig," which was quickly obeyed, and four hands, a coxswain, and a man for the boat's bow were instantly off and ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson
... high boots in the cabin, the three young men went on deck. The leading vessel of the British fleet was not more than a mile astern, while the French fleet was three miles ahead, having gained more than a mile since the chase began. Mike had been given four louis, which he said he ...
— In the Irish Brigade - A Tale of War in Flanders and Spain • G. A. Henty
... glance towards "the valley," and descended by a very steep and difficult path to the river Jhelum, which forms the boundary between the two territories. Here a couple of queerly-shaped, rudely-constructed boats, with two huge oars apiece, one astern and one at the side, formed the traveller's flying bridge. Into one of these the whole of our possessions and coolies, &c. were stowed, and we commenced the ...
— Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet • by William Henry Knight
... a stunning scream. In another moment her funnel began to rain soot upon me—for the so-called first-class cabin was well astern—and then came small cinders mixed with the soot, and the cinders were occasionally red-hot. But I sat burning upon the water- melons for some time longer, trying to imagine a way of changing my position without committing another ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan • Lafcadio Hearn
... and gave me a drink of Jamaica rum with fresh limes in it, and a black cigar; and when his steward brought them, I talked to him in Spanish just for the sound of it. For half an hour I was under the Southern Cross, and New York was 3,000 miles astern. ...
— Captain Macklin • Richard Harding Davis
... tumble over each other in their efforts to get something to eat. Such a noise as they did make with their squabblings! Many sharks were caught and I never knew a sailor to have any compunctions about disposing of these man-eating creatures. A shark line was towed astern at different times and one day it took the combined efforts of five men to haul one in. Whales, all of ninety feet in length, stayed about the ship several days at a time. We saw many sun-fish which are a light gray in color. They have one large fin out ...
— Cape Cod and All the Pilgrim Land, June 1922, Volume 6, Number 4 • Various
... keep out of her way; and, as you said, it's better to do that and lose a day or two, than be snapped up by an enemy." The captain ordered all hands to remain on deck at their stations, ready to shorten sail at a moment's notice. I saw him frequently look astern, not so much at the stranger as at ...
— The Two Supercargoes - Adventures in Savage Africa • W.H.G. Kingston
... cut out, and a splice made, the tests showing the cable as good as new, whereupon the women return to their chiffons, the child to her games, and the men, not on duty, to their cigars, until the cessation of noise from the cable machinery, or the engine-room bell signalling "full speed astern" warns us something else ...
— A Woman's Journey through the Philippines - On a Cable Ship that Linked Together the Strange Lands Seen En Route • Florence Kimball Russel
... dark blue from throat to feet, and saw his boat astern of his rival, saw it come up with, and creep ahead, amid the roars of the multitude. When she saw her lover, with bare corded arms, as brown as a berry, and set teeth, filling his glorious part in that manly struggle within eight yards of her, she ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade
... be seen on the deck, which was covered with snow. We hailed, and got no reply. I looked in through one of the circular glazed port-holes astern, and saw dimly the figure of a man seated at a table. I knocked on the thick glass, but he never moved. We got on deck, and opened the cabin hatchway, and went below. The man I had seen was before us, at ...
— Poor Miss Finch • Wilkie Collins
... cable was clear, and the men at the best bower-anchor; when, it being considered injudicious to lose so fair a breeze, we again set sail, to the disappointment of most persons on board; and Messina, with all its gay attractions, was soon far astern. The wind, though fair, was rising into a gale as we got into the open sea off Spartivento, and the ship rolled terribly. Dined to-day with the captain, and found some difficulty in stowing away his good fare, but got creditably through, until the wine began to circulate at the dessert, ...
— Journal of a Visit to Constantinople and Some of the Greek Islands in the Spring and Summer of 1833 • John Auldjo
... posteriors, backside scut^, breech, dorsum, loin; dorsal region, lumbar region; hind quarters; aitchbone^; natch, natch bone. stern, poop, afterpart^, heelpiece^, crupper. wake; train &c (sequence) 281. reverse; other side of the shield. V. be behind &c adv.; fall astern; bend backwards; bring up the rear. Adj. back, rear; hind, hinder, hindmost, hindermost^; postern, posterior; dorsal, after; caudal, lumbar; mizzen, tergal^. Adv. behind; in the rear, in the background; behind one's back; at the heels of, at the tail ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... westerly wind catches a ship before the channel is left well behind, she may be driven back to Plymouth or Falmouth, and all the agony of bills, news, leave-taking, and letters, has to be endured over again. Whereas, if she once gets the Lizard Light some fifty leagues astern of her, all these worrying distractions may be considered at an end. A totally new world—the "world of waters"—is now entered upon, far beyond the reach even of those long-armed persons, the "gentlemen of the press," or the startling sound of the postman's knock; that call which ...
— The Lieutenant and Commander - Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from - Fragments of Voyages and Travels • Basil Hall
... pipe-clayed belt—priests and friars—Maltese women in national costume sat side by side. Occasionally, a gig, pulled by man of war's men, might be seen making towards the town, with one or more officers astern, whose glittering epaulettes announced them as either diners out, or amateurs of the opera. The scene to Delme was entirely novel; although it had previously been his lot to scan more ...
— A Love Story • A Bushman
... night the sea is as tetchy as petrol. Trailing fingers are terminals which ignite living flames, and the propeller of the little boat creates an avengeful commotion of light which trails far astern. Blobs of light are cast off from her bows as she rounds the familiar sandspit and ...
— Tropic Days • E. J. Banfield
... of a step behind me. I turned to find Maarda almost at my elbow. The rising tide was unbeaching the canoe, and as Maarda stepped in and the klootchman slipped astern, it ...
— Legends of Vancouver • E. Pauline Johnson
... Nijni-Kolymsk, a settlement about three hundred miles down the river. The exile, who was expecting a letter from a fellow "political" domiciled at the latter place, paddled out into mid-stream and boarded the barge, leaving his canoe to trail astern. Ivanoff, who met him at the gangway, had been drinking heavily, as was his wont. His only answer to Kaleshnikoff's polite inquiry was an oath, and a shameful epithet, to which the other naturally replied with some warmth. An angry discussion followed, with the result ...
— From Paris to New York by Land • Harry de Windt
... 21st the allies, who had stopped after dark, appear again to have made sail. Consequently, when day broke, the British found themselves some distance astern and to windward— northeast; the wind continuing easterly. Their line, indifferently well formed in van and centre, stretched over a length of nine miles through the straggling of the rear. Lestock's ship was six miles from that of Mathews, whereas it should not have been ...
— Types of Naval Officers - Drawn from the History of the British Navy • A. T. Mahan
... pyramid of canvas spreading far out beyond the hull and towering up almost, as it seemed in the indistinct night, into the clouds. The sea was as still as an inland lake; the light trade-wind was gently and steadily breathing from astern; the dark-blue sky was studded with the tropical stars; there was no sound but the rippling of the water under the stem; and the sails were spread out wide and high—the two lower studding-sails stretching on either side far beyond the deck; the topmost studding-sails like wings ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot
... proceeded about a mile down the river, the fisherman paddled to the bank, and having desired Mr. Park to jump out, tied the canoe to a stake; he then stripped off his clothes, and dived into the water, where he remained so long that Mr. Park thought he was drowned, when he suddenly raised up his head astern of the canoe, and called for a rope. With this rope he dived a second time, and then got into the canoe, and with the assistance of the boy, they brought up a large basket, ten feet in diameter, containing two fine fish, which the fisherman carried ...
— Lander's Travels - The Travels of Richard Lander into the Interior of Africa • Robert Huish
... steady strokes of the three paddles the bark canoe sped rapidly over the water. When the moon was fairly above the edge of the hill they halted for a moment and looked back. The two columns of fire still blazed brightly on the island, which was now three miles astern, and two dark spots could be seen on the water about halfway between ...
— True to the Old Flag - A Tale of the American War of Independence • G. A. Henty
... Mazatlan. I reckon she didn't get on with him any better than the men, for she ups and dies one day, leavin' her baby, a year-old gal. One o' the crew was fond o' that baby. He used to get the black nurse to put it in the dingy, and he'd tow it astern, rocking it with the painter like a cradle. He did it—hatin' the cap'en all the same. One day the black nurse got out of the dingy for a moment, when the baby was asleep, leavin' him alone with it. An idea took hold on him, jest from ...
— Frontier Stories • Bret Harte
... in sight, before noon, of a great land, with two islands near the coast, around which were many shoals. On nearing the shore, the Moorish pilots recognized it, and said that the Christian island of Quiloa was three leagues astern; on which the general was much grieved, believing certainly that the natives of Quiloa had been Christians, as represented by the pilots, and that they had purposely taken a wrong course that the ships ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr
... sand churned up from the bottom—but this is mere supposition. Passengers and mails were put on board from two tenders, and nothing could have given us a better idea of the enormous length and bulk of the Titanic than to stand as far astern as possible and look over the side from the top deck, forwards and downwards to where the tenders rolled at her bows, the merest cockleshells beside the majestic vessel that rose deck after deck above them. Truly she was a magnificent boat! There was something so graceful ...
— The Loss of the SS. Titanic • Lawrence Beesley
... trout-stream that I loved so well, among my alders, through my bits of wood, along my hills—with Lafitte and L'Olonnois standing, each alert, silent, peering ahead under his flat hand to see what might lie ahead (I astern with Partial's head on my knee), I felt rise in my soul the same sweet grateful feeling that I had when the new world of music opened to me, what time I first caught the real meaning of the Fruehlingslied. My heart leaped anew in ...
— The Lady and the Pirate - Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive • Emerson Hough
... or rather were rowed by four stalwart Negroes, along the northern shore of the gulf, while the sun leapt up straight astern, and made the awning, or rather the curtains of the awning, needful enough. For the perpendicular rays of the sun in the Tropics are not so much dreaded as the horizontal ones, which strike on the forehead, or, still more dangerous, on ...
— At Last • Charles Kingsley
... out, it was decided to remove the two engines from the after car and replace them with a single engine of 250 horse-power; secondly, to remove the swivelling propeller gear from the after car and substitute one directly-driven propeller astern of the car. This as anticipated reduced the weight very considerably and in no way lessened the speed ...
— British Airships, Past, Present, and Future • George Whale
... breech, dorsum, loin; dorsal region, lumbar region; hind quarters; aitchbone[obs3]; natch, natch bone. stern, poop, afterpart[obs3], heelpiece[obs3], crupper. wake; train &c. (sequence) 281. reverse; other side of the shield. V. be behind &c. adv.; fall astern; bend backwards; bring up the rear. Adj. back, rear; hind, hinder, hindmost, hindermost[obs3]; postern, posterior; dorsal, after; caudal, lumbar; mizzen, tergal[obs3]. Adv. behind; in the rear, in the background; behind one's back; at the heels of, at the tail of, at the ...
— Roget's Thesaurus • Peter Mark Roget
... her measurements help you much. She draws about eighteen inches forward, and more than that,—at least half an inch more, astern, and when she's loaded down with an excursion crowd she draws a good two inches more. And above the water,—why, look at all the decks on her! There's the deck you walk on to, from the wharf, all shut in, with windows along it, and the after cabin with the long table, and above that the deck ...
— Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town • Stephen Leacock
... for once our good fortune failed us. For we had had good fortune. Aeroplanes had bombed, and missed us by yards. Zeppelins had come down in flaming ruin before our astonished eyes. Islands had loomed under the very fore-foot of our ship in a fog, and we had gone astern in time. But this time it was our turn. We were, in the succinct phraseology of the ...
— Aliens • William McFee
... Messina, that eye of mine hath not seen. No want of look-outs and land-marks in that quarter! Here we are close aboard of America, which lies some eight or ten leagues there-away to the northward of us, and some forty astern; and yet, if it were not for our departure, with the color of the water, and a knowledge of the soundings, one might believe himself in the middle of the Atlantic. Many a good ship plumps upon America before she knows ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper
... of Marathon lay far astern, blushing faintly with their scarlet tamarisk blossoms. The strange purple glow of sunset upon Hymettus had long since faded. A hush grew over the sea, now a marvelous cobalt blue. The earth, gently sleeping, manifested dreamily. ...
— The Centaur • Algernon Blackwood
... after the soup was placed on the table, came in from the deck with the one man of his watch, closed the tower and signaled for changing to the electric motors. Then he filled the forward tanks and those amidships, at last filling the tanks astern. We came below so gently that you very intent young men never noticed the change. We are now on the bottom—-in about how many feet ...
— Dave Darrin's Fourth Year at Annapolis • H. Irving Hancock
... running low when he let himself softly down into the water from the Victoire. The blanket tied on his head held food kept from his rations, with stone and flint and other things. He was not seen, and he dropped away quietly astern, getting clear of the Victoire while the moon ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... in the following order: their flagship came first and then the other vessels, the bow of one right against the stern of the other. Although they could have raked the "San Juan Bautista," which was astern of the flagship, or have borne down upon the "San Miguel," which lay to leeward, they cared only to defeat the flagship. Since our ships could not get to windward, they passed it very closely, each ship raking it. But our flagship was not asleep, and kept replying in such a way ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 • Emma Helen Blair
... eyes from mine long enough to spear Fuddy and Duddy alternately with a long pole, remarking, quietly but with feeling: "Dern your skin," as if they enjoyed that integument in common. Observing that my request for a ride took no attention, and finding myself falling slowly astern, I placed one foot upon the inner circumference of a hind wheel and was slowly elevated to the level of the hub, whence I boarded the concern, sans ceremonie, and scrambling forward seated myself beside the driver—who took no notice of me until he had administered another indiscriminate ...
— Can Such Things Be? • Ambrose Bierce
... watching the lights of Three Rivers fade astern and the broad white wake of the paddles stream back across the glassy surface of the lake. The girl must have learned much of human failings since she left her sheltered home, but he thought the sweetness of character which could not be spoiled ...
— The Intriguers • Harold Bindloss
... he appears to have tried high and low for a more favourable current, but without success; and, feeling the danger of his situation, and, moreover, sighting no less than five vessels beating down the Channel, he boldly descended in the sea about a mile astern of them. He must for certain have been observed by these vessels; but each and all held on their course, and, thus deserted, the aeronaut had no choice but to discharge ballast, and, quitting the waves, to regain his legitimate element. His experiences at this period of his ...
— The Dominion of the Air • J. M. Bacon
... the deck-lights. The tarpaulined donkey-engine beneath the after-cargo booms rattled as the Vandalia's stern sank into a hollow, and the beat of the engines was muffled and deeper. A speck of white froth glinted on the black surface and vanished astern. ...
— Peter the Brazen - A Mystery Story of Modern China • George F. Worts
... discipline, and the confidence which brave men derive from them. The BLENHEIM then passing between them and the enemy, gave them a respite, and poured in her fire upon the Spaniards. The SALVADOR DEL MUNDO and SAN ISIDRO dropped astern, and were fired into in a masterly style by the EXCELLENT, Captain Collingwood. The SAN ISIDRO struck; and Nelson thought that the SALVADOR struck also. "But Collingwood," says he, "disdaining the parade of taking possession of beaten ...
— The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson • Robert Southey
... out to be an island, and that a low one. It is wonderful the way things loom up in the fog. This reminded me of the story of the pilot at home in the Droebak Channel. He suddenly saw land right in front, and gave the order, 'Full speed astern!' Then they approached carefully and found that it was half a baling-can floating ...
— Farthest North - Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship 'Fram' 1893-1896 • Fridtjof Nansen
... shoulder, as if luring him to a race. If her smile was a revelation to him, still more so was this first touch of feminine coquetry in her attitude. He pulled eagerly towards her; with a few long overhand strokes she kept her distance, or, if he approached too near, she dived like a loon, coming up astern of him with the same childlike, mocking cry. In vain he pursued her, calling her to stop in her own tongue, and laughingly protested; she easily avoided his boat at every turn. Suddenly, when they were nearly abreast of the river estuary, she rose in the water, and, ...
— Under the Redwoods • Bret Harte
... Rocks and the Main, having from 7 to 10 fathoms. The double Canoe which we saw last night follow'd us to-day under Sail, and keept abreast of the Ship near an hour talking to Tupia, but at last they began to pelt us with stones. But upon firing one Musquet they dropt astern and left us. At 1/2 past 10 Passed between a low flat Island and the Main, the distance from one to the other being 4 Miles; depth of Water 10, 12, and 15 fathoms. At Noon the flat Island* (* Motunau.) bore from North-East to East 1/2 North, distance 5 or 6 Miles; Latitude in per Observation ...
— Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World • James Cook
... he edged his way along between the narrow passageway and the washroom to a secluded spot astern. He liked this place because it was so lonesome and unfrequented and because he could hear the whir and splash of the great propellers directly beneath him as each big roller lifted the after part of the vessel out of the water. Here he could think about Bridgeboro and Temple Camp, and Roy Blakeley ...
— Tom Slade on a Transport • Percy Keese Fitzhugh
... boats, stowing the last of the lumbering stores, and clearing decks for action. Overhauling La Clue near Lagos, off the coast of Portugal, he ranged up alongside, flagship to flagship. But the French, fighting with equal skill and courage, beat him off. Falling astern he came abreast of the gallant Centaure, which had already fought four British men-of-war. Being now a mere battered hulk she surrendered. Then Boscawen, his damage repaired, pushed ahead again. La Clue, whose fleet was the smaller, seeing no chance of either victory ...
— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood
... use, at Siboney, an anchor and a stern-line to prevent a boat or a lighter from broaching to in the surf. It was a simple enough expedient, but nobody, apparently, had thought of it. By dropping an anchor astern, just before the lighter reached the outer edge of the breakers, and then slacking off the line until the boat was near enough so that thirty Cubans could rush into the water, seize it, and run it up ...
— Campaigning in Cuba • George Kennan
... the purchases made in London had been a lamp with very fine reflectors. This Mr. Hume fixed on a movable bracket within reach of his arm as he sat at the wheel, and when the lights at the village faded astern, he lit the lamp, in order to thread a passage by its light through the dark waters. As the noise of shouting, the drumming, and the report of fire-arms died down, other sounds reached their strained hearing—the booming of the Congo bittern, the ...
— In Search of the Okapi - A Story of Adventure in Central Africa • Ernest Glanville
... boat on the Pacific Coast. There are some coal boats running to Coos Bay, but they're hardly big enough; and then I suppose they're kept pretty busy in the coal trade, aren't they? It seems to me that what you need for your business would be two of those big steel ore vessels, with their engines astern—the kind they use on the ...
— Cappy Ricks • Peter B. Kyne
... and Hannibal to escape in the skiff which was towing astern the Kentuckian rushed toward the bow. At his back he heard the door creak on its hinges as it was pushed open by Betty and the boy, and again he called to them to escape by the skiff. The fret of the current had grown steadily and from beneath ...
— The Prodigal Judge • Vaughan Kester
... fact, most yellow dogs of my acquaintance seem to be as happy as their brown or white or black relatives. I walked up the Lane, turned into the Lower Road, and headed for the village. The day was a gorgeous one, the air bracing as a tonic, and my thirtieth birthday was not yet so far astern as to be lost in the fog. After all, there were some consolations in being alive and in a state of health not ...
— The Rise of Roscoe Paine • Joseph C. Lincoln
... close pursuit. From the freshness of the wind and the quantity of sail she was able to carry, it was evident that the king's boat had little chance with her. As the chase came careering along, dropping the galley rapidly astern, the interest hinged on the apparent connexion between her and the boat which had just left Shorne Cove with its unknown freight. From their relative situations it was evident she must bring to for a short space if she intended to pick up the fugitive; and this delay might possibly enable the ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 579 - Volume 20, No. 579, December 8, 1832 • Various
... to answer our hail, and invited us aboard. I played the sailor and the man, fending off the skiff so that it would not mar the yacht's white paint, dropping the skiff astern on a long painter, and making the painter fast ...
— John Barleycorn • Jack London
... astride a three-bushel bag thrown across the ridge-pole of a big grey horse, with a coffin-shaped head, and built astern something after the style of a roughly put up hip-roofed box-bark humpy.* His colour was like old box-bark, too, a dirty bluish-grey; and, one time, when I saw his rump looming out of the scrub, I really thought it was some ...
— Joe Wilson and His Mates • Henry Lawson
... where the wind shifts and whips around Rubicon Point, over the white caps of Meek's Bay until by skillful maneuvering the jutting cape is weathered and quieter water is found in McKinney Bay. Full time there is, with the wind astern, to reach the river's mouth at Tahoe City, but the voyager who loves the woodland will tarry for a night in the dense fir forest of Blackwood, while his boat rides safely moored to the limb of ...
— The Lake of the Sky • George Wharton James
... when Sanford Browne arrived in his dugout, propelled against a head wind and heavy seas by Bob, the white redemptioner, and Jocko, the negro boy. The planter himself sat astern steering, with little Sanford crouched between his knees. Leaving the two servants in the canoe, the planter and his son went aboard the ship, while the convicts crowded against the guard rail to get a look at the naked figure of Jocko, his black skin being a novel ...
— Duffels • Edward Eggleston
... for a feast on a kind of bird like spur-kites, the flesh of which was very delicate. He stopped another night at another island, because "of a great kind of shellfish of a foot long," which the company called whelks. As soon as these delectable islands had been left astern, the pinnaces "hauled off into the sea," across the bright, sunny water, blue and flashing, gleaming with the silver arrows of the flying-fish, in order to make the Isles of San Barnardo. They chased two frigates ashore before they came to moorings, ...
— On the Spanish Main - Or, Some English forays on the Isthmus of Darien. • John Masefield
... sight, for which reason we lay by all the night, after we had taken the prize, for Captain Saunders and Lieutenant Suamarez to join us, firing guns and making false fires every half-hour to prevent their passing us unobserved; but they were so far astern that they neither heard nor saw any of our signals and were not able to come up with us till broad daylight. When they had joined us we proceeded together to the northward, being now ...
— Anson's Voyage Round the World - The Text Reduced • Richard Walter
... was disheartening enough. The river had narrowed to less than a hundred yards in width and wound and twisted amongst the waste of marsh that stretched desolately ahead and astern as far as the eye could see. To the east and west the marsh extended back at least a mile before it met solid timbered land, here and there, and an occasional long point jutted out until it met the stream. Although ...
— The Boy Chums in the Forest - or Hunting for Plume Birds in the Florida Everglades • Wilmer M. Ely
... we were feeling our way through the mist. Astern died the clangor of dock and wharf into a remote discord. Ahead hung the foggy curtain veiling the traffic of the great waterway; but through it broke the calling of sirens, ...
— The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu • Sax Rohmer
... baize door a fine hospitality and a finer flow of spirits were the order of the night. There was a sound representative assortment of quite young Old Boys, to whom ours was a prehistoric time, and in the trough of their modern chaff and chat we old stagers might well have been left far astern of the fun. Yet it was Raffles who was the life and soul of the party, and that not by meretricious virtue of his cricket. There happened not to be another cricketer among us, and it was on their own subjects ...
— A Thief in the Night • E. W. Hornung
... Corner is to be located the members of the committee have not as yet decided, although Confucius is strongly in favor of having it placed in a dingy situated a quarter of a mile astern of the house-boat, and connected therewith by a slight cord, which can be easily cut in case the squeaking of the poets' slate-pencils becomes too much for the nervous system of the members who have ...
— A House-Boat on the Styx • John Kendrick Bangs
... was no budging him, for he has a snug business amongst the merchants. But hark!" He raised his ring-covered band in the air. From far astern there came the low, deep thunder ...
— The Green Flag • Arthur Conan Doyle
... Chorasmian stream;—thereon, With snort and strain, Two horses, strongly swimming, tow The ferry-boat, with woven ropes To either bow Firm-harness'd by the mane; a chief, With shout and shaken spear, Stands at the prow, and guides them; but astern The cowering merchants, in long robes, Sit pale ...
— Adventures in Criticism • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... Captain Scott to explain the situation; for since he had gone into the cabin the relative positions of the three steamers had decidedly changed. His idea was that the Maud should follow the ship as usual; but she had dropped at least a couple of miles astern of her, and the Fatime was headed to the southward. He could not understand the matter at all, and he continued to study ...
— Asiatic Breezes - Students on The Wing • Oliver Optic
... I waked about seven found that we had the town of Oran twelve or fourteen miles off astern. It is a large place on the sea-beach, near the bottom of a bay, built close and packed together as Moorish [towns], from Fez to Timbuctoo, usually are. A considerable hill runs behind the town, which seems capable of holding 10,000 inhabitants. The hill ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott
... Cod, our dearest native land, We leave astern, and lose Its sinking cliffs and less'ning sands, While Zephyr ...
— Stories of American Life and Adventure • Edward Eggleston
... found the captain walking up and down rapidly, with an anxious expression of face. After taking a turn or two he stopped short, and gazed out astern. ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne
... how quickly we came on board! One minute we are creeping along slowly over the water in a little boat, and the next, as if by some sort of magic, we find ourselves on the deck of the steamer, with the boat drifting away astern." ...
— Rollo on the Rhine • Jacob Abbott
... the water, the paddle glittered, dipped, swept astern, and flashed again. Flavilla was very, very happy for no particular reason, which is the best sort ...
— The Green Mouse • Robert W. Chambers
... Baker relates being roused one clear moonlight night by a hoarse wild snorting, which he at once recognized as the voice of a furious hippopotamus. He rushed on deck, and discovered a large specimen of this beast charging on the boat with indescribable rage. The small boats towed astern were crunched to pieces in a moment, and so rapid were the movements of this animal, as it roared and plunged in a cloud of foam and wave, that it was next to impossible to take aim at the small vulnerable spot on its head. At length, ...
— Harper's Young People, March 16, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various
... vegetables; one coat pocket bulged with letters, the other with morning papers. In response to his hail, the Japanese on the yacht stood up with the part-plucked chicken. The man said something to him, put aside the book, got into the white skiff lying astern, and rowed to the landing. As he came alongside the stage, he pulled in his oars, caught hold, and said ...
— The Valley of the Moon • Jack London
... the ebb lasts, and this breeze stands, we shall have plain sailing; the difficulty will come on the flood, or with a shift of wind. The ships that come out last must be careful to keep their seconds, ahead and astern, in plain sight, and regulate their movements, as much as they can, by the leading vessels. The object is to spread as wide a clew as possible, while we hold the ships within signal-distance of each other. Towards sunset I shall shorten sail, and the line will ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper
... to look back to where in the distance a white speck showed far astern, and his eyes narrowed and clouded. But there was no cloud in them when he turned again to his companion, a girl sitting on a box just outside the radius of the tiller. She was an odd-looking figure to be sitting in the cockpit of a fishing boat, amid recent traces of business with ...
— Poor Man's Rock • Bertrand W. Sinclair
... downs is calculated to try the mettle of anything; and, long before the leading hounds reached Cockthropple Dean, the field was choked by the pace. Sir Harry had long been tailed off; both the brothers Spangles had dropped astern; the horse of one had dropped too; Sawbones, the doctor's, had got a stiff neck; Willing, the road surveyor, and Mr. Lavender, the grocer, pulled up together. Muddyman, the farmer's four-year-old, ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees
... in the grey dawn one day last week, my relief sang in my ear as he wiped his hands after "feeling round," "Deutschland's astern, goin' like fury." "Sure?" I asked. "Only boat with four funnels in the line," he said. Four funnels! I raced up and aft, and saw her. Some three miles astern going westward, going grandly. From each of her enormous funnels belched vast clouds of black ...
— An Ocean Tramp • William McFee
... Gibney groaned. "They're on both bows an' we're headed straight for the beach. Here's where we all go to hell together," and he yanked wildly at the signal wire that led to the engine room, with the intention of giving McGuffey four bells—the signal aboard the Maggie for full speed astern. At the second jerk the wire broke, but not until two bells had sounded in the engine room—the signal for full speed ahead. The efficient McGuffey promptly kicked her wide open, and the Fates decreed that, having done so, Mr. McGuffey should forthwith ...
— Captain Scraggs - or, The Green-Pea Pirates • Peter B. Kyne
... leeward of the line, and was consequently obliged to make sail, tack, and regain her station in support of the Dolphin, which had then two ships on her, and was also thrown to leeward. The admiral, having now slackened the Dutch admiral's fire, passed ahead of the Buffalo, on which the ships astern closed up to the Buffalo; and the Berwick took the station ahead of the admiral. At thirty-five minutes past eleven, the ships became unmanageable; and, the Dutch dropping ...
— Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I • Sir John Ross
... to-day we had only run seventy-five miles. The air is still occasionally hot and oppressive. About 3 P.M. a large steamer was seen coming up astern, and with a glass we made her out, by the white band round her funnel, to be one of the British India Line. For some time we seemed to hold our own with her, even after the breeze fell light, almost to a calm; and it was 9 P.M. before she actually ...
— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey
... hair sticking up all over his head, and his breath coming and going very hard and short, the busy Pancks fell back a step (in Tug metaphor, took half a turn astern) as if to show his dingy hull complete, then forged a-head again, and directed his quick glance by turns into his hat where his note-book was, and ...
— Little Dorrit • Charles Dickens
... suddenly likely to end then and there. The war between Spain and England was still going on, and privateers known as Dunkirkers, were lying in wait before every English harbor. Thus there was reason enough for apprehension, when, "In the morning we descried from the top, eight sail astern of us.... We supposing they might be Dunkirkers, our captain caused the gun room and gun deck to be cleared; all the hammocks were taken down, our ordnance loaded, and our powder chests and fireworks made ready, and our landmen quartered among the seamen, and twenty-five of them appointed ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell
... are all going to the bottom, but they soon learn that there is a long way between rolling and foundering, and get to watch the highest waves towering above the bows in full confidence that these also will slip quietly beneath the keel as the others have done, and be left harmless astern. ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) • Alexander Maclaren
... the torpedo, double emergency full speed ahead having been signalled from the engine room and the rudder put hard left as soon as the torpedo was sighted. It looked for the moment as though the torpedo would pass astern. When about fifteen or twenty feet away the torpedo porpoised, completely leaving the water and sheering to the left. Before again taking the water the torpedo hit the ship well aft on the port side about frame ...
— Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights • Kelly Miller
... the Loch side, till by came a Highlandman at the gallop, on a tolerably good horse, but which had never known the ornaments of iron or leather. We scorned to be out-galloped by a Highlandman, so off we started, whip and spur. My companions, though seemingly gaily mounted, fell sadly astern; but my old mare, Jenny Geddes, one of the Rosinante family, she strained past the Highlandman in spite of all his efforts with the hair halter; just as I was passing him, Donald wheeled his horse, as if to cross before ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham
... roll either way. Soon, what with the wind and the sea, she made nothing but leeway. They put her head to the wind, and we soon found that even to hold her own was more than she could do, while our port lay ten miles away dead on the beam, and the cliffs dead astern. ...
— The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume II • William James Stillman
... object in procuring this delay. During the night, the united rafts made way under a fresh breeze; and while all was wrapped in darkness, he cut the ropes which fastened the lesser one to the greater, allowing the former to fall astern. As it was occupied only by him and his protege, they were thus separated from their dangerous associates; and when far enough off to run no risk of being heard, they used their oars to ...
— The Ocean Waifs - A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea • Mayne Reid
... before any one learned to do more than scud before the wind. It took long experience of the sea to discover that one could fix one's sail at an oblique angle with the mid-line of the ship, and play off rudder against sail to lay a course with the wind on the quarter or even abeam and not dead astern. ...
— Famous Sea Fights - From Salamis to Tsu-Shima • John Richard Hale
... had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly had us expect the coup-de-grace. In a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from the boat, as from one another, gave us not time hardly ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe
... not obtained a good hold, and he lost it, so that the boat began to drift astern. Captain Carboneer shouted his orders, and the man got a new hold, and this time it was at the painter of the boat in which Sampson had brought off Mr. Watts and the ladies. It had been forgotten in the excitement of the moment, but the rope afforded a good hold to several ...
— Within The Enemy's Lines - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic
... bridge, and against the tender sky Robert saw a man dash forward. Next instant the engine-room bell rang fiercely. He knew the signal—it was "Stop," followed at once by other ringings that meant "Full speed astern." ...
— Benita, An African Romance • H. Rider Haggard
... faces of the men must have been grey. Their eyes must have glinted in strange ways as they gazed steadily astern. Viewed from a balcony, the whole thing would doubtless have been weirdly picturesque. But the men in the boat had no time to see it, and if they had had leisure there were other things to occupy their minds. The sun swung steadily up the sky, and they knew it was broad day because ...
— Men, Women, and Boats • Stephen Crane
... came from the two other crafts that had just left Philadelphia astern, and were heading down the old Delaware River, ...
— Motor Boat Boys Down the Coast - or Through Storm and Stress to Florida • Louis Arundel
... 1806] Friday 13th August 1806 the last night was very Cold with a Stiff breeze from the N. W. all hands were on board and we Set out at Sunrize and proceeded on very well with a Stiff breeze astern the greater part of the day. passed the enterance of the Little Missouri river at 8 A.M. and arived at the Enterance of Myry river at Sun Set and encamped on the N E Side haveing came by the assistance of the wind, the Current and our oars 86 miles. below the little ...
— The Journals of Lewis and Clark • Meriwether Lewis et al
... pyramid of luggage piled around the smoke-pipe. There was a party of four Englishmen on board, and, on making their acquaintance, I found one of them to be a friend to some of my friends—Sir John Potter, the progressive ex-Mayor of Manchester. The wind being astern, we ran rapidly along the coast, and in two hours entered the mouth of the Guadalquivir. [This name comes from the Arabic wadi el-kebeer—literally, the Great Valley.] The shores are a dead flat. The right bank is a dreary forest ...
— The Lands of the Saracen - Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain • Bayard Taylor
... the boys had noticed which had given them much food for thought. In the prow was mounted a small but heavy gun, and a second one of the same size loomed up formidably astern. Plainly they were there for a purpose, and Frank and Jack both realized that there was serious ...
— The Boy Allies Under the Sea • Robert L. Drake
... themselves by trying to pick off the Englishmen; but though two of the latter were slightly wounded, no one was disabled, and the schooner held her course unimpeded down the stream. Our friends found, however, before long, in one of the reaches, the wind heading them; and, looking astern, they saw that several large canoes and other boats had put out from the shore, and were in pursuit of them. The slavers probably calculated on their getting on shore, to enable them to come up with them. The current, however, was strong, ...
— The Three Midshipmen • W.H.G. Kingston
... the clean skins of them, and the clear eyes, the straight backs and full chests of them! Brave men they was, and bold men surely! We'd be sailing out, bound down round the Horn maybe. We'd be making sail in the dawn, with a fair breeze, singing a chanty song wid no care to it. And astern the land would be sinking low and dying out, but we'd give it no heed but a laugh, and never a look behind. For the day that was, was enough, for we was free men—and I'm thinking 'tis only slaves do be giving heed ...
— The Hairy Ape • Eugene O'Neill
... and the two carpenters, M'Intosh and Norman, were also kept contrary to their inclination; and they begged of me, after I was astern in the boat, to remember that they declared they had no hand in the transaction. Michael Byrne, I am told, likewise wanted to ...
— A Narrative Of The Mutiny, On Board His Majesty's Ship Bounty; And The Subsequent Voyage Of Part Of The Crew, In The Ship's Boat • William Bligh
... off these greedy cutthroats is told in a newspaper account of the engagement of Captain Richard Wheatland, who was homeward bound to Salem in the ship Perseverance in 1799. He was in the Old Straits of Bahama when a fast schooner came up astern, showing Spanish colors and carrying a tremendous press of canvas. Unable to run away from her, Captain ...
— The Old Merchant Marine - A Chronicle of American Ships and Sailors, Volume 36 in - the Chronicles Of America Series • Ralph D. Paine
... you, dearest?" he whispered, his strong arm stealing about her. "We are on the bounding main, ticketed for a port thousands of miles away. London is back there," pointing astern. ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon
... another large iceberg was driving grandly down. We could also see our late consort a mile astern,—see and hear it too. Higher and higher rose the fog. The sky brightened through transient rifts in the clouds. Glad enough were we to see it ...
— Left on Labrador - or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.' • Charles Asbury Stephens
... whirl astern, The prow, a seedsman, sows the spray; With bellying sails and buckling spars The black hull leaves a Milky Way; Her timbers thrill, her batteries roll, She revelling speeds exulting with ...
— John Marr and Other Poems • Herman Melville
... 'Tis the last command, And the head-sails fill to the blast once more; Astern and to leeward lies the land, With its breakers white ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various
... ship, which having lain becalmed with every stitch of canvas set, bounds away before the breeze which springs up astern, so the mind of Descartes, poised in equilibrium of doubt, not only yielded to the full force of the impulse towards physical science and physical ways of thought, given by his great contemporaries, Galileo and Harvey, but shot beyond them; and anticipated, by bold speculation, ...
— Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews • Thomas Henry Huxley
... apply to hydraulic propulsion. For these reasons we shall adhere in what we are about to advance to the propositions laid down by Professor Rankine, as the exponent of the hitherto received theory of the whole subject. When a screw or paddle wheel is put in motion, a body of water is driven astern and the ship is driven ahead. Water, from its excessive mobility, is incapable of giving any resistance to the screw or paddle save that due to its inertia. If, for example, we conceive of the existence of a sea without any ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 561, October 2, 1886 • Various
... For Cyprus shaped, whose altars more than all The goddess loves who from the Paphian wave Sprang, mindful of her birth, if such be truth, And gods have origin. Past the craggy isle Pompeius sailing, left at length astern Its southern cape, and struck across the main With winds transverse and tides; nor reached the mount Grateful to sailors for its nightly gleam: But to the bounds of Egypt hardly won With battling canvas, where divided Nile Pours through the shallows ...
— Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars • Lucan
... each other perfectly, even while the former was making the most serious professions of duty. The beat was hauled up, and, first whispering a few cautions about the shoals and the currents, the worthy marine guide leaped into it, and was soon seen floating astern—a cheering proof that the ship had got fairly in motion. As he fell out of hearing in the wake of the vessel, the honest fellow kept calling out ...
— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper
... rebel craft,— Our eyes not sadly turn And see the pirates huddling aft To drop their raft astern; Soon o'er the sea-worm's destined prey The lifted wave shall close,— So perish from the face of day All Freedom's ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... taught that no human condition should inspire men with absolute despair; for, as the storm had ceased for some time, the swelling of the sea began considerably to abate; and we now perceived the man of war which convoyed us, at no great distance astern. Those aboard her easily perceived our distress, and made towards us. When they came pretty near they hoisted out two boats to our assistance. These no sooner approached the ship than they were instantaneously filled, and I myself ...
— Amelia (Complete) • Henry Fielding |
