With the anchor broken out Hotspur gathered momentary sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hornblower And The Hotspur]

In order to enable the vessel to turn speedily, she is fitted with the sternway rudder of.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 620, November 19,1887] Reference

Now the Baliol shell had made sternway sufficient for the man in the skiff to seize the rudder.    From Wordnik.com.  [O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920] Reference

Unconcernedly he made his way along the sternway and into the now deserted quarters of the fighters.    From Wordnik.com.  [Galactic Patrol]

The mass of iron fell half in – board upon the now stayed boat, and gave her sternway, with a splintered plank.    From Wordnik.com.  [For the term of his natural life] Reference

But before sternway could be got on the boat, the infuriated monster made a sudden turn, dashed upon and stove it into fragments.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Von Toodleburgs Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family] Reference

Then the ship would become unmanageable and drift away, with the possibility of getting excessive sternway on her and so damaging rudder or propeller, the.    From Wordnik.com.  [South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917] Reference

Squaring her head-yards, the brig dropped her mainsail, braced her cross jack-yard sharp aback, put her helm a-weather and got sternway, while her after sails and helm kept her to the wind.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Mutineers] Reference

Belay all that -- down with the helm, now don't you see she has sternway yet?.    From Wordnik.com.  [Tom Cringle's Log] Reference

The moment the boat-hook tore out of the bottom, the schooner began to make sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  [All Adrift or The Goldwing Club] Reference

It saved him; for a bell clanged in the engine-room, and the tug began to make sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dan Merrithew] Reference

Ha! It was drifting forward, warning me just in time that the ship had gathered sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  ['Twixt Land and Sea] Reference

Sharp knew better than to drop the boat into the water while the vessel was making sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  [Across India Or, Live Boys in the Far East] Reference

Suddenly, glancing up at the dim cloud of sails above, I saw that we were aback and making sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  [Richard Carvel — Complete] Reference

He stopped his ship, and then backed water, making sternway to the Hartford, so as to stop her also.    From Wordnik.com.  [Hero Tales from American History] Reference

Lucy ported the helm, and thus they escaped the impending and terrible danger of her making sternway.    From Wordnik.com.  [Love Me Little, Love Me Long] Reference

The clean-lined brig had sternway equal to the best speed of the boats, and now head-sails were run up, and she paid off from the shore.    From Wordnik.com.  ["Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea] Reference

After pausing a moment for the steamer to lose her sternway, I rang the other bell, intending to have her go ahead; but the engineer did not heed my summons.    From Wordnik.com.  [Breaking Away or The Fortunes of a Student] Reference

Elsinore was up in the eye of the wind, and making sternway, I found that by putting the wheel sharply over, one way or the other, I could swing her bow off.    From Wordnik.com.  [Chapter 47] Reference

Though his vessel had been headed steadily northeast for more than thirty hours, the observation showed that she had made twenty-eight miles sternway to the southwest.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Best Short Stories of 1917 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story] Reference

West Derby off Egremont was painted by Thomas Dove (1811 - 1886) and shows the sailing ship making sternway - drifting slowly backwards so that the anchor takes hold in the riverbed.    From Wordnik.com.  [National Museums Liverpool Blog] Reference

Every sail was flat aback, the brig was moving jerkily, gathering sternway for a space before her untended rudder threw her round to spill the wind and bring her up again like a jibbing horse.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mr. Midshipman Easy]

Then, swinging round and gathering sternway, the boat drifted clear, losing her mast also in the process, after which, somebody on board having recovered his presence of mind, her anchor was let go again, and she swung to the wind.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Cruise of the Thetis A Tale of the Cuban Insurrection] Reference

He had read about leeway, and headway, and sternway; and now that he had an opportunity of examining the practical working of these theories, he hoped to master the subject thoroughly, so as never to forget it, and to be able, when called on, to make it of use.    From Wordnik.com.  [Ernest Bracebridge School Days] Reference

The weather was quite fine enough to admit of our running alongside in the schooner, there being very little swell on; so as soon as we were ready the men stationed themselves at the sheets and braces, and by a little judicious manipulation of these and the helm we contrived to get sternway upon the schooner just as the ship came booming down upon our weather quarter.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Log of a Privateersman] Reference

By carrying a heavy press of canvass, however, we succeeded in forcing through the ice, but the Fury was twice turned completely round by eddies, and her sails brought aback against the helm; in consequence of which she gathered such fresh sternway against several heavy floe-pieces, that I apprehended some serious injury to the stern-post and rudder, if not to the whole frame of the ship.    From Wordnik.com.  [Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and Narrative of an Attempt to Reach the North Pole, Volume 1] Reference

"Do you feel strong enough to prevent the rudder taking charge if she gets sternway on her?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Shadow Line; a confession] Reference

Meanwhile her canvas was all loose and ready for setting; therefore the moment I felt her to be water borne I dashed aft to the tiller, at the same time shouting to the others to man the foresail and fore staysail halyards and hoist away: and by the time the foresail was hoisted the vessel was beginning to lose sternway, whereupon I jammed her tiller hard-over to port, and thus canted her with her head to the northward.    From Wordnik.com.  [Turned Adrift] Reference