They must be very competent men, for the tests of their skill and readiness were really greater than those demanded of the deepwater skipper.

They drove these great schooners alongshore winter and summer; across Nantucket Shoals and around Cape Cod, and their salvation depended on shortening sail ahead of the gale.
Let the wind once blow and the sea get up, and it was almost impossible to strip the canvas off an unwieldy six-master.

The captain's chief fear was of being blown offshore, of having his vessel run away with him! Unlike the deep-water man, he preferred running in toward the beach and letting go his anchors.

There he would ride out the storm and hoist sail when the weather moderated.
These were American shipmasters of the old breed, raised in schooners as a rule, and adapting themselves to modern conditions.

They sailed for nominal wages and primage, or five per cent of the gross freight paid the vessel.