Then another series of hollered orders, a heave on the wheel, and the brig did a circuit of the flagship's bow, perilously close to the long bowsprit. A haul at the braces and back along the larboard side of the Vincennes the Swallow ran, losing speed but still sending foam seething along the hull of the sloop of war.

[T]he Swain […] amaz'd / Beholds th' amusive Arch before him fly, / Then vanish quite away.

And don't talk like some ancient prophet around me, with thees and thous and most powerful ones.

Only by catching himself with his poles had he avoided doing a face plant in the snow.