Verse 17
17. Helps Props placed under loosened timbers to prevent their falling. Or, more properly, the helps may refer to the materials used for undergirding, as follows.
Undergirding Powerful ropes were wound around the loosening ship, as a person draws a girdle around the waist, in order to bind its loosening timbers fast and prevent its going to pieces. This was an ancient practice, and cables were anciently carried on board as the helps prepared for emergencies. It is sometimes practised in modern times on small craft, and is called “frapping the ship.”
Quicksands The immense sandbanks on the northern coast of Africa, called on the map Syrtes. These were fatal to ships, and a persistence in its southwest course would have carried the present ship directly thither.
Strake sail Strake, old English for struck. Ancient ships had from one to three masts. On the principal mast was the large square mainsail, which with the others was now lowered, and they drifted with naked masts.
Driven By the northeaster.
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