steerage-way

All three were standing to the north-north-west, under easy sail, and on the starboard tack, but scarcely holding steerage-way, and taking little heed of it.

Springhaven Richard Doddridge 2004

She had no steerage-way; the quarter­master had deserted the wheel; the engineers had given up the struggle; and despair had settled upon the ship.

THE PLAGUE SHIP 1993

Now intermittent squalls from the southwest swept upon us with lightning and thunder, driving before them rain in solid sheets; now the ship danced in choppy waves, with barely enough wind to give her steerage-way and with a warm, gentle drizzle that wet us to the skin and penetrated into the forecastle, where blankets and clothing soon became soggy and uncomfortable.

The Mutineers Charles Boardman Hawes

It took an hour for the _Marie_ even to retreat and find steerage-way easterly off across a shallow lake, mirroring the marsh shores in the sunset.

O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 Various

She appeared to have lost headway, for she was moving very slowly, having barely steerage-way on.

The Motor Girls on Waters Blue Or the Strange Cruise of the Tartar Margaret Penrose

The schooner was barely making steerage-way, with a light head-wind, over a small patch of water, not much larger apparently than the schooner herself.

Acadia or, A Month with the Blue Noses Frederic S. Cozzens

"It's a hard night for a craft without steerage-way," said Jim.

Jim Spurling, Fisherman or Making Good Albert Walter Tolman

But when heavy gusts swooped down and the propeller raced on the crest of a mountainous wave, Davis found it impossible to keep steerage-way.

The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 Douglas Mawson 1920

He explained that he had attempted to drive a fast Kentucky colt; one of the reins had broken and he had lost his “steerage-way,” as he expressed it.

Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie Carnegie, Andrew, 1835-1919 1920

It was impossible for her to keep at a uniform depth unless she maintained steerage-way; that meant a great demand upon her storage batteries.

The Submarine Hunters A Story of the Naval Patrol Work in the Great War Edward S. [Illustrator] Hodgson 1917