I was bo'sun on the Swallow, a spanker she was, chartered by the Company, London to Calcutta.
"In Clive's Command" by Herbert Strang
I was the last to go below, doing so just as the watch on deck was furling the spanker.
"Stories of Ships and the Sea" by Jack London
A large brig was riding up the river under the afternoon breeze, carrying the English flag at her spanker.
"The Entailed Hat" by George Alfred Townsend
They got here last night, and they're a pair of spankers, too, if I do say it that shouldn't, as the phrase is.
"Cape Cod Folks" by Sarah P. McLean Greene
With the aid of the winch the two men succeeded in getting the main- topmast staysail set, after which they hauled out the spanker.
"The Missing Merchantman" by Harry Collingwood
Brail in the spanker, and shiver the mizen topsail!
"Overdue" by Harry Collingwood
Couple of you come aft here and brail up the spanker!
"The Atlantic Monthly , Volume 2, No. 14, December 1858" by Various
My wife artfully introduced it, by observing, that one of the Miss Flamboroughs was like to have a very good match of it in Mr. Spanker.
"The Ontario High School Reader" by A.E. Marty
Slack off that spanker!
""Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea" by Morgan Robertson
Other officers were directed to drill the seamen stationed at the head sails and the spanker.
"Down the Rhine" by Oliver Optic
***
"Oh, fly aloft to the garboard strake!
And reef the spanker boom;
Bend a studding sail on the martingale,
To give her weather room."
"A Sailor's Yarn" by James Jeffrey Roche
Then the merciless snow came down, hiding everything from view,
And as the night closed in the wind tempestuous blew;
Still the brave crew reefed the spanker and all the sails,
While not one amongst them with fear bewails.
"Wreck of the Schooner 'Samuel Crawford'" by William Topaz McGonagall