Then he directed the boys to let the oars down again, gently, to their places along the thwarts, and put the crew at ease.
The boys perceived now that they were making progress.

They were gaining slowly, it is true, but surely, and Marco saw where the cause of his failure was.

He had not realized how entirely ignorant all these boys were of the whole mystery of managing an oar and of acting in concert; and besides, he had not had experience enough as a teacher, to know how short the steps must be made, in teaching any science or art which is entirely new.
In the same slow and cautious manner, Forester taught the boys to let the blades of their oars fall gently into the water, at the command, "_Let fall_." He taught one at a time, as before, each boy dropping the blades into the water and letting the middle of the oar come into the row-lock, while he held the handle in his hands ready to row.

Then, without letting them row any, he ordered them to _toss_ again; that is, to raise the oars out of the water and hold them in the air, with the end of the handle resting upon the thwart.

He drilled them in this exercise for some time, until they could go through it with ease, regularity, and dispatch.