trying (a.) Adapted to try, or put to severe trial; severe; afflictive;
as, a trying occasion or position.
Marine DictionaryUniversal Dictionary of the Marine⚓️
trying à la cape, the situation in which a ship lies nearly in the
trough or hollow of the sea in a tempest, particularly when it blows
contrary to her course.In trying, as well as in scudding, the sails are always reduced in
proportion to the increase of the storm. Thus, in the former state, a
ship may lie by the wind under a whole main-sail, a whole fore-sail, or
a whole mizen; or under any of those sails, when diminished by the
reef or balance. As the least possible quantity of sail used in
scudding are the goose-wings of the foresail; so in trying, the
smallest portion is generally the mizen-staysail or main-staysail: and
in either state, if the storm is excessive, she may lie with all the
sails furled, or, according to the sea-phrase, under bare poles.The intent of spreading a sail at this time is to keep the ship more
steddy, and, by pressing her side down in the water, to prevent her from
rolling violently; and also to turn her bow towards the direction of
the wind, so that the shock of the waves may fall more obliquely on her
flank, than when she lies along the trough of the sea. While she remains
in this situation, the helm is fastened close to the lee-side, or, in
the sea-language, hard a-lee, to prevent her as much as possible from
falling-off. But as the ship is not then kept in equilibrio by the
effort of her sails, which at other times counterbalance each other at
the head and stern, she is moved by a slow but continual vibration,
which turns her head alternately to windward and to leeward, forming an
angle of three or four points in the interval. That part where she
stops, in approaching the direction of the wind, is called her
coming-to, and the contrary excess of the angle to leeward is termed
her falling-off.Thus, suppose the wind northerly, and a ship trying with her starboard
side to windward: if, in turning her head towards the source of the
wind, she arrives at N. W. ½ N. or N. 39° W. and then declines to the
leeward as far W. ½ S. or S. 84° W, the former will be called her
coming-to, and the latter her falling-off. In this position she advances
very little according to the line of her length, but is driven
considerably to leeward, as described in the articles DRIFT and LEE-WAY.
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