51�Թ�

Slatch, slach, n. the slack of a rope: an interval of fair weather: a short breeze.

Next morning, in a slatch in the storm, surf watchers on the tip of Cape Cod saw the Portland, among the snarled and yelping seas, just off the treacherous Peaked Hill Bar.

You may ride in your quiet road-stead on the other side with all your ships, till God send us that long-wished-for westerly wind, unless you get a slatch of wind to carry one of your ships to the bab, to see if all be well there, and so return back to you.

Or the challenged ship, believing herself to be the faster craft of the two, clapped on all sail, caught an opportune "slatch of wind," and showed her pursuer a clean pair of heels, the tender's guns meanwhile barking away at her until she passed out of range.