Ship rigging

“ Everything on the decks was brightly revealed, every ringbolt, the pins in the rails, deadeyes, sails, gear, aye, every rope in the rigging was boldly etched against the glowing background. With that one sweeping glance I took in the scene. High up in the main rigging, almost to the futtock shrouds, the figure of a man was revealed: he was blazing away in the direction of the poop with a revolver. On the deck, near the mainmast, the second mate was laying about him with a capstan bar, and a dozen men seemed boiling over each other in efforts to close with him. ”

“ The simplest of all forms of rigging is the dipping lug, a quadrangular sail hanging from a yard, and always hoisted on the side of the mast opposite to, that on which the wind is blowing (the lee side) . When the boat is to be tacked so as to bring the wind on the other side, the sail is lowered and rehoisted. One rope can serve as halliard to hoist the sail and as a stay when it is made fast on the weather side on which the wind is blowing. The difference between such a craft and the fully rigged ship is that between a simple organism and a very complex one ”

“ The whole is covered by the stays, which are the largest ropes of the rigging.
When a yard is to be rigged, a grommet is also driven first on each of its extremities: next to this are fitted-on the horses, the braces; and, lastly, the lifts, or top-sail sheet-blocks: all of which are explained in their proper places.
The principal objects to be considered in rigging a ship appear to be strength, convenience, and simplicity ”

“ Clinging to the rigging with death-like tenacity, they could only murmur their prayers of despair to that mighty unseen Being who holds the waters in the hollow of his hand.
At length, shuddering, and groaning, and trembling in every fibre, like some living thing, the ship struggled up out of the mass of waters, and freed herself for a time. The boys could see the quarter-deck. They could see the barrels lashed to the mizzen-mast still secure. They breathed more freely. ”

“ When a reward is on a skipper's head every inch of canvas must catch wind and pull, every line, brace and clew hold, the running rigging render, and the standing rigging stand.
Williams had them break out a hundred-fathom hawser; and, bending an end to the kinghtheads, tumbled a dozen men—including the three watchmen, loosened from their bonds to assist their charge in running away from them—into the Chinese punt, and, getting in himself, revolver in hand, they rowed out to warp the ship on her way. ”

“ As has often been said, a ship is like a lady's watch, always out of repair. When first leaving port, studding-sail gear is to be rove, all the running rigging to be examined, that which is unfit for use to be got down, and new rigging rove in its place: then the standing rigging is to be overhauled, replaced, and repaired, in a thousand different ways; and wherever any of the numberless ropes or the yards are chafing or wearing upon it, there "chafing gear," as it is called, must be put on. ”

“ The next instant, with a shock that shot me off the grating on to the poop, the ship was brought up all standing—not stopped dead as though she had run into a cliff, but rather as a horse stops when pulled up and thrown on his haunches—and then, as I lay on my back, half stunned by the shock of my fall, and still gazing skyward, I saw the three masts bow forward, bending like fishing-rods, when, with a dreadful rending crash, the entire complicated mechanism of sails, spars, and rigging went by the board, and lay fore and aft along the deck. ”

“ When Jack Easy had gained the deck he found the sun shining gayly, a soft air blowing from the shore, and the whole of the rigging and every part of the ship loaded with the shirts, trousers, and jackets of the seamen, which had been wetted during the heavy gale, and were now hanging up to dry; all the wet sails were also spread on the booms or triced up in the rigging, and the ship was slowly forging through the blue water. ”

“ That mad elephant smashed them all, as we learned when the whole bunch, according to their acceptance of the situation, appeared on deck, growling or whining, looking for something to do or to kill. All hands were up, and we all took to the rigging, even the skipper and mates and the man at the wheel. ”

“ And ere that full-rigged ship alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean came to a dead halt, life sinking in her with the failing of the wind in a sort of dying shudder from royal to course, this was how her decks showed: a man was at the wheel, the chief mate leaned against the rail in the thickness made by the mizzen rigging, and with folded arms seemed to doze in the shadow; a 'young gentleman,' as they used to call the 'brass-bounders,' loafed sleepily near the main shrouds where the break of the poop came. ”

“ The rigging was severed; the mast, already shattered, needed but a few blows to loosen its last fibres.
But suddenly, and furiously, and irresistibly it seemed as though the whole tempest which they had so long expected was at last let loose upon them. There was a low moan, and, while they were yet trying to get rid of the mast, a tremendous squall struck the ship. It yielded and turned far over to that awful blow. The men started back from their work. The next instant a flash of lightning came, and toward the west, close over them, rose a long, white wall of foam. ”

“ One by one the crew shared the same fate, except the two men in question, who escaped unnoticed in the beginning of the scuffle, and hid themselves below among some casks. Here they heard the struggling and screaming, and the splash of the bodies thrown overboard, till there were no more victims left. Then in a kind of frenzy the pirates yelled, fired shots through the rigging, cut away the masts, and attempted to scuttle the ship; but being stoutly built, and of very hard wood, it defied their efforts, especially in their drunken condition. ”

“ The heavy bows of the smack beat into the seas with a thud and a hiss—the thud of a steam-hammer, the hiss of molten iron plunged into water; the waves raced exultingly up to the bows from windward, and roared angrily away in a spume of foam from the ship's keel to lee; and the thrumming and screaming of the storm in the rigging exceeded all that Duncan had ever imagined. ”

“ There was a great weight of sea running, and the rolling of the ship was very violent. This end of the vessel was so tall that it rose buoyant from the head of every billow that leapt at her afterpart; but the thunder of the seas smiting her in the waist would roar like a tempest through the ship; you could hear the waters washing about the deck there; then the groaning and complaining below was continuous, and the sounds which penetrated the cabin from the gale in the rigging made you think of the affrighted bellowing of bulls chased by wolves in full cry. ”

“ A chilly blast hums in the taut rigging, causing the ship to tremble to her very keel, and the soaked men on her decks to shiver in their wet clothes to the very marrow of their bones. Before one squall has flown over to sink in the eastern board, the edge of another peeps up already above the western horizon, racing up swift, shapeless, like a black bag full of frozen water ready to burst over your devoted head. The temper of the ruler of the ocean has changed. ”

“ While this coquetry or shyness is exhibited by John Shark, the whole after-part of the ship is so clustered with heads that not an inch of spare room is to be had for love or money. The rigging, the mizen-top, and even the gaff, out to the very peak, the hammock-nettings and the quarters, almost down to the counter, are stuck over with breathless spectators, speaking in whispers, if they venture to speak at all, or can find leisure for anything but fixing their gaze on the monster, who as yet is free to roam the ocean, but who, they trust, will soon be in their power. ”

“ The standing rigging is knotted, and the running rigging spliced wherever necessary. Proper sails are bent in the room of those which have been displaced as useless. The carpenter and his crew are employed in repairing the breaches made in the ship’s hull, by shot-plugs, pieces of plank, and sheet-lead. The gunner and his assistants are busied in replenishing the allotted number of charged cartridges, to supply the place of those which have been expended, and in refitting whatever furniture of the cannon may have been damaged by the late action. ”

“ Double gaskets were passed round the yards, rolling tackles and other gear bowsed taught, and everything made as secure as could be. Coming down, we found the rest of the crew just coming down the fore rigging, having furled the tattered topsail, or, rather, swathed it round the yard, which looked like a broken limb, bandaged. There was no sail now on the ship but the spanker and the close-reefed main topsail, which still held good. ”

“ When this happened the mate sprang to the companion-hatch to get an axe, intending to cut the weather-shrouds so that the masts might go overboard and allow the ship to right herself, for, as she then lay, the water was pouring into her. Tom Riggles was, when she heeled over, thrown violently against the mate, and both men rolled to leeward. This accident was the means of saving them for the time, for just then the mizzen rigging gave way, the mast snapped across, and the captain and some of the men who had been hastening aft were swept with the wreck into the sea. ”

“ At length, arrived at the fore rigging, I came upon a small group of men who had somehow contrived to climb up to windward and out upon the ship’s upturned side, where they were now desperately hacking away with their knives at the lanyards of the weather fore rigging.
“That’s right, lads!” I exclaimed, whipping out my own knife and lending a hand; “we must cut away the masts and get the ship upright again, or she will go down under us. Where is the carpenter? Let him bring along his axe. He will do more good in one minute than we can in ten.” ”

“ On the 13th the crew were employed in setting up the rigging, and occasionally pumping, the ship having made much water during the night. The gale increasing as the day advanced, occasioned the vessel to make heavy rolls, by which an accident happened, which was near doing much injury to the captain’s cabin. A puncheon of rum, which was lashed [Pg 59] on the larboard side of the cabin, broke loose, a sudden jerk having drawn assunder the cleats to which it was fastened. By its velocity it stove in the state-rooms, and broke several utensils of the cabin furniture. ”

“ As the leading idea is to strike terror into the beholders, the greatest number of lashes is inflicted on board the culprit’s own ship, in order to render him the more shocking spectacle to the crews of the other vessels.
The first infliction being concluded, the culprit’s shirt is thrown over him; he is put into a boat—the Rogue’s March being played meanwhile—and rowed to the next ship of the squadron. All hands of that ship are then called to man the rigging, and another portion of the punishment is inflicted by the boatswain’s mates of that ship. ”

“ But that darkness was licked up by the fierce flames, which at intervals forked forth from the sooty flues, and illuminated every lofty rope in the rigging, as with the famed Greek fire. The burning ship drove on, as if remorselessly commissioned to some vengeful deed. ”

“ But so far from that, unless a ship meets with some accident, or comes upon the coast in the dead of winter, when work cannot be done upon the rigging, she is in her finest order at the end of the voyage. When she sails from port, her rigging is generally slack; the masts need staying; the decks and sides are black and dirty from taking in cargo ”

“ Those of the passengers who attempt to remain below, or who from any cause cannot get up the stairways, are speedily drowned; while those who reach the deck are almost all soon washed off into the sea. Some lash themselves to the bulwarks or to the masts, and some climb into the rigging to get out of the way of the seas, if, indeed, any of the rigging remains standing; and then, at length, when the sea subsides a little, people put off in surf boats from the shore, to rescue them. ”

“ Now there is nothing more clumsy and dangerous than a badly rigged small boat. By badly rigged is not meant only the boat whose spars are imperfect, or other things connected with her rig radically wrong, but also the boat that carries a rig that may be perfectly suitable for another class, but is entirely out of place in one of this size. A thing to be avoided in all small boats is unnecessary rigging; too many halyards and sheet ropes are in the way, and, where the rigging is on a very small scale, are very apt to get tangled or out of order when most wanted. ”

“ A loose boom is a constant menace. Provision also should be made for the trysail sheets, and for body lashings for the crew, and lashings for the boat, even if you have davits. The principal weak spot in the rigging of a boat that is to be driven in heavy water is the bobstay. That piece of rigging is often carried away in a sea than any other, and usually it is the bolt that goes. Look to it, and look to [75] it well; for if it parts, most likely you will lose your mast. The only safeguard lies in rigging a preventer stay that will set up with a tackle, the fall leading inboard. ”

“ A vessel looks much neater for having the ends of the rigging, where eyes are spliced, or where they are set up on their ends aloft or on deck, covered with canvass, and painted white or black, according to the place where they are. The lanyards and dead-eyes of the smaller rigging which sets up in the top may also be covered with canvass. The lanyards, dead-eyes, and turnings-in of the rigging in the channels, should always be protected by scotchmen when at sea, and the forward shroud should be matted or battened all the way up to the futtock staves. ”