For the purposes of NaNoWriMo, I believe it is traditonal to have zombie help, so don’t worry about how long it would take with a live crew. Furthermore, time isn’t important, only word-count, so it can happen within any time you like as long as you make sure you describe it in detail, perhaps quoting these very same predecessors word for word as your main character’s inspiration.
Oh, and make sure your main character is a french nobleperson, so you can up your wordcount with a name like Duke de la Rosa.
I think you’re conflating the two series. In one of the Aubrey/Maturin novels they step a mast in mid-voyage, and Aubrey does indeed worry that if something breaks they’ll be sunk. They don’t do it with a cliff, though.
If I remember right, sailing ships are generally designed to do this - removing the mast is useful when faced with large storms, and a wooden mast is susceptible to breaking anyway.
Fascinating posts here. Reminds me of a story back in WWII days about Officer Candidates’ School. The officer in charge of a bunch of candidates gave them a test. The question was how to raise a 20-foot flagpole.
In theory they were given a block-and-tackle, a sergeant and six men and asked how to get it done. Each man came up with a set of diagrams, math formulas and various theories.
The officer then said, "Gentlemen, you are all wrong. The correct procedure is to turn to the NCO and say, “Sergeant, get that flagpole up.”
Removing a topmast might well be useful, but you’d never remove the entire mast in a storm. A mastless sailing ship is ungovernable, and would roll unmercifully.
