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They may be a single track or double track and usually have a non-slip surface . The wind was now due south-west , and blowing a gale to which a vessel close hauled could have shown no more than a single close-reefed sail ; but as we were going before it , we could carry on . To make a walk , which is absolutely necessary to pass away the time , one of us hit upon the expedient of sanding the deck ; and afterwards , whenever the rain was not so violent as to wash it off , the weatherside of the quarterdeck and a part of the waist and forecastle were sprinkled with the sand which we had on board for holystoning ; and thus we made a good promenade , where we walked fore and aft , two and two , hour after hour , in our long , dull , and comfortless watches . He was a Fin , but spoke English very well , and gave me long accounts of his country ; - the customs , the trade , the towns , what little he knew of the government , ( I found he was no friend of Russia ) , his voyages , his first arrival in America , his marriage and courtship ; - he had married a countrywoman of his , a dress-maker , whom he met with in Boston . We sprang aloft into the top ; lowered a girt-line down , by which we hauled up the rigging ; rove the tacks and halyards ; ran out the boom and lashed it fast , and sent down the lower halyards , as a preventer . She had men in her tops , and black mast-heads ; heavily sparred , with sails cut to a t , and other marks of a man-of war .