The halyards are the ropes by which any sail is hoisted. ❋ Oliver Optic (1859)
The taut-stretched halyards beat a tattoo against the masts, and all the rigging, as if smote by some mighty hand, set up a wild thrumming. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Jacobsen, at the throat-halyards, was performing the like office. ❋ Unknown (2010)
I had scarcely opened my mouth to issue the necessary commands, when eager men were springing to halyards and downhauls, and others were racing aloft. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Billy could hear them throwing down the halyards, casting off gaskets, and heaving the anchor short on the tiny winch. ❋ Unknown (2010)
You remember when you were going up the lantern-halyards hand over hand? ❋ Unknown (2010)
Griffiths yelled, springing to the peak-halyards, thrusting away the black who held on, and casting off the turn. ❋ Unknown (2010)
He felt the halyards with his hands and discovered that I had not made them fast. ❋ Unknown (2010)
We bent all our spare lines; we unrove sheets and halyards; we used our two-inch hawser; we fastened lines part way up the mast, half way up, and everywhere else. ❋ Unknown (2010)
A gentle wind tapped the halyards against the flagpole before the closed doors of the Caledonia Dance Hall. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Jacobsen, superintending the operation, ordered them to throw the halyards down on deck and stand by, then went for'ard on the lee-bow and joined Griffiths. ❋ Unknown (2010)
The Japanese coiled the halyards and went below for their own dinner. ❋ Unknown (2010)
His crew sullenly tailed on to the halyards, and the strange, outlandish sail, lateen in rig and dyed a warm brown, rose in the air. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Better throw the halyards down on deck and make the watch stand by. ❋ Unknown (2010)
He had armed himself with a draw-knife from the tool-locker, and with this he prepared to cut across the throat-halyards I had again rigged to the shears. ❋ Unknown (2010)
They control absolutely -- sheets, halyards, clewlines, buntlines, braces, and down-hauls -- every sail on the fore and main. ❋ Unknown (2010)
The throat-halyards which I had rigged were cut across through every part. ❋ Unknown (2010)
And with pride, he went down a four-hundred foot cliff, on a pair of top-gallant studding - sail halyards bent together, to dislodge several dollars worth of stranded bullock hides, though all the acclaim he got from his mates was: "What a d-d fool you were to risk your life for half a dozen hides!" ❋ Unknown (2010)
In last night's darkness we helplessly listened to the men loosing headsail-halyards and letting yards go down on the run. ❋ Unknown (2010)
Two flags were stiffly undulating from the halyards like squares of flexible sheet-iron. ❋ Unknown (2010)