holding-ground

All rushed to holding-ground, and held, while the whale broke more timbers and the Mary Turner rolled sluggishly down and back again.

CHAPTER XV 2010

The anchors are of grapnel shape, and the larger junks have from six to eight arranged on the fore-end, giving one an idea of bad holding-ground along the coast.

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan Isabella Lucy 2004

At half past twelve the anchor was weighed, having been loosed from its holding-ground with some difficulty.

In Search of the Castaways 2003

But to little purpose; for a coral bottom is but a poor holding-ground in a Norther.

Mexico and its Religion With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places Visited Robert A. Wilson

Nickol's Bay; it is open only to the North-East, and affords safe shelter, with good holding-ground.

Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 1 Phillip Parker King

Now and then a vessel held a little by some new obstacle that the anchor had caught hold of, but soon the resistance gave way, and then it moved on again, approaching the shore, whither all now were tending, except a few that occupied a good holding-ground in the lee of the castle and island.

Mexico and its Religion With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected With Places Visited Robert A. Wilson

The tender was anchored in good holding-ground at a safe distance from the reef, and the men then rowed slowly in the boat around it, carefully examining the depths below for signs of the wrecked galleon.

St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 4, February 1878 Various

The holding-ground for the tent-pegs was not all that could be desired, and visions of our tents spreading their wings in the gale and vanishing into space haunted us.

A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil T. R. Swinburne

Year by year and age by age did these humble plants extract their nourishment from the murky vapors that shrouded the earth, and, after fashioning those gases into a living tissue of stems and leaves, year after year did they die and lay their remains upon the rocks, accumulating by slow steps a soil which would in time be capable of giving holding-ground to mightier plants.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 04, No. 21, July, 1859 Various

All rushed to holding-ground, and held, while the whale broke more timbers and the Mary Turner rolled sluggishly down and back again.

Chapter 15 1917