DCHP-1 Online
white-ash breeze Obs. 
of canoes, boats, etc., propulsion by means of paddles or oars, as opposed to wind-filled sails.
- 1853 We must raise a white-ash-breeze (meaning that we must have recourse to our paddles) or we shall not see the Nine-Mile Creek this day, I can tell you.
- 1854 [They] bring her [a steamboat] alongside the island and transfer passengers and freight into flat bottomed boats--to the slow but certain influence of a "white ash" breeze.
- 1853 We must raise a white-ash-breeze (meaning that we must have recourse to our paddles) or we shall not see the Nine-Mile Creek this day, I can tell you.