Topsail yard

“ If you have a pretty stiff breeze, brace the topsail yard in about half a point more than the lower yard, and the topgallant yard half a point more than the topsail yard, and so on. If you have a strong breeze and a topping sea, and especially if reduced to short sail, brace in your lower yards a little, and the others proportionally. This will prevent the vessel going off bodily to leeward; and if she labors heavily, the play of the mast would otherwise carry away the braces and sheets, or spring the yards. ”

“ I had got down on the weather side of the main-topsail yard to assist the hands on it, when the straining canvas broke loose from our grasp, and at the same instant the topgallant rigging, striking the two men on the lee yardarm, hurled them off into the foaming ocean.
To lower a boat was impossible; we had not strength sufficient as it was to clear away the topgallant masts, and to hand the topsails. A grating and some spars were hove to them by the mate, who then, axe in hand, sprang aloft to assist us. ”

“ More men were wounded, and our fore-topsail yard was badly damaged, in addition to our main-topsail yard, while we had to cut away the stern galleries the better to train our guns, run through the after ports. ”

“ The moment I shoved my head out of the booby-hatch, I saw it was like to turn out a regular gale from nor'-east. Both courses brailed close-up, and blowing out like rows of big-bladders; the three topsail-yards down on the caps to reef, their canvass swelling and thundering on the stays like so many mad elephants breaking loose; the wild sky ahead of us staring right through in triumph, as it were, and the wind roaring from aft in her bare rigging; while a crowd of men in each top were laying out along the foot-ropes to both yard-arms. ”

“ That afternoon I sent down the topsail-yard and topmast, unbent the mainsail, main-topsail, and gaff—sent down the topmast and running-rigging on deck—cast loose the lanyards of the lower rigging, and quite dismantled the mainmast, so as to make it appear as if we were about to haul to the wharf and take it out. The men all remained on board, expecting that we should shift our berth the next day. ”

“ The reef-cleats on the topsail-yards are beyond the lifts and braces.
YARD-ARM PIECE. An octagonal piece of timber supplied to replace a yard-arm if shot away. It is one-third the length of the main-yard.
YARD-ROPE. Is only used for temporary purposes; the most usual application of the term is that by which a yard is hoisted for crossing, or sent down. Also, rove for execution. The yard-rope of the lighter yards is the halliards, which, when the yard is crossed, is made into tie and halliards by a peculiar mode of toggling on the halliard purchase, as in the order, "Toggle the halliards!" ”

“ The after yards are then braced up and belayed, the main sheet hauled aft, the spanker eased over to leeward, and the men from the braces stand by the head yards. ``Let go and haul!'' says the captain; the second mate lets go the weather fore braces, and the men haul in to leeward. The mate, on the forecastle, looks out for the head yards. ``Well the fore topsail yard!'' ``Top-gallant yard's well!'' ``Royal yard too much! Haul in to windward! ”

“ In reefing or furling the courses and topsails, an ordinary seaman would not take the bunt or an earing, if there were able seamen on the yard; and perhaps, in the largest sized vessels, it would not be expected of him to pass an earing, or make up the bunt of a fore or main topsail or course in bad weather, yet he should know how to do both, and should be able to take a bunt or earing on the mizzen topsail yard, and on any topsail or lower yard of a small vessel.
It is commonly understood that an ordinary seaman need not be a workman upon rigging. ”

“ Little snarled himself up in the gasket on the fore-topsail yard, and dropped off, as though he had fallen, though he clung to the rope, and was brought up with a jerk ten or twelve feet below the spar. Some of his gang, believing he had really fallen, screamed, and the attention of the whole crew was drawn off from their duty. When the fore-topmast staysail and jib were to be set, somebody had fouled the down-hauls, so that they could not be hoisted. There was a kink in the halyards of the main-top gallant-sail, so that it would not run through the block. ”

“ Folding it in inch by inch, they at length mastered the seeming resistless monster, and passing the gaskets round it, secured it to the yard. Those who for the first time see a topsail furled in a heavy gale may well deem it a terrific operation, and perilous in the extreme to those employed in it. I know that I breathed more freely when all the men came down safely from the yard, Barney Bogle among the number; and the helm being lashed a-lee, the brig rode like a duck over the seas. ”

“ On each mast the lower yard, lower topsail-yard, and lower topgallantsail-yard do not hoist up and down; the others do. The "lifts" by which the yard is hung and "topped" run from the yardarms—the ends of the yards—to the head of the mast which the yard crosses.
From the yardarms also come the "braces," by means of which the yards are swung so as to set the sails at the proper angle. These braces come down to the ship's sides, or to the heads of the masts fore and aft of those on which the yard is swung; all the mizzen-braces working on the mainmast ”

“ The clewlines are ropes fastened to the corners of the topsail, passing through blocks on the topsail yard, and leading down to the deck through the lubber's hole. They are used in hauling the corners of the sail up when they are to be reefed or furled. ”

“ Take the end of your tack out on the topsail yard, under the brace, reeve it up through the block at the end of the topgallant studdingsail boom, bring it in over the brace, overhauling a plenty of it so as to let the boom go out, and hitch it to the topmast rigging while you rig your boom out. ”

“ If you are to lie in port for a long time, cast off the pennant, stow the clew on the boom, snugly under the cloth, which will be stopped as before with rope-yarns.
To reef a Topsail.—Round in on the weather brace, ease off the halyards, and clew the yard down by the clewlines and reef-tackles. Brace the yard in nearly to the wind, and haul taut both braces. Haul out the reef-tackles, make fast, and haul taut the buntlines. Before going upon the yard, see that it is well down by the lifts. Let the best men go to the yard-arms, and the light hands remain in the slings. ”

“ LATEEN SAIL AND YARD. A long triangular sail, bent by its foremost leech to a lateen yard, which hoists obliquely to the mast; it is mostly used by xebecs, feluccas, &c., in the Mediterranean. A gaff-topsail, if triangular and set on a yard, is lateen. The term lateen-rigged, where sails have short tacks, is wrong. These latter are nothing more or less than clumsy lugs or quadrilaterals. The lateen tack is the yard-arm bowsed amidships. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are no yards across but the lower and topsail-yards, which are very long and heavy, precisely squared, and to which the sails are furled in an exceeding neat and seaman-like manner. The rigging is universally taut and trim; and it is easy to perceive that the officers of the Gentile understand their business. The swinging-boom is rigged out, and fastened thereto, by their painters, a pair of boats, a yawl and gig, float lovingly side by side ”

“ Some of the "pans" were acres in size; others were not big enough to bear the weight of a man; all were floating free, rising and falling with the ground swell.
The wind was light, the sea quiet, the sky thinly overcast. Had it not been for the threat of heavy weather in the northeast, it would have been an ideal day for the hunt. The punt and the rodney, the latter far in the lead, ran quietly out from the harbour, with their little sails all spread. From the punt Billy Topsail could soon see the small, scattered pack of seals—black dots against the white of the ice. ”

“ The Lily is to be provided with gaff-topsails, not so much to increase the amount of canvas, as because, among the hills that surround the lake in places, there is often a breeze aloft, when there is none, or next to none, below. These sails are triangular in form, and are usually bent on a pole to which the halyards are attached. Sometimes the sail is shaped like the mainsail, and then the pole becomes a sort of yard. Besides the halyard by which the pole is hoisted, there are two other ropes by which the sail is worked from the deck. ”

“ The flying jib-boom should be rigged fully out before the fore topgallant mast is swayed on end.
To cross a Topgallant Yard.—Seize on the parral and quarter-blocks; reeve the yard-rope through the sheave-hole of the topgallant mast, make it fast to the slings of the yard, and stop it out to the upper end. Sway away, and when the upper yard-arm has reached the topmast-head, put on the upper lift and brace; sway away again, put on the lower lift and brace, cast off all the stops, settle the yard down square by lifts and braces, and pass the parral lashing. ”

“ If it is too high, it gives the wind a very dangerous degree of leverage. If it is too low, it violently strains the whole vessel by being completely blanketed when in the trough of the sea and then suddenly struck full when on the crest. The main lower topsail is at just the proper height. But only the fore and mizzen ones are wanted to balance the pressure aloft. So in it has to come. And a dangerous bit of work it gives; for it has to be hauled up from right amidships, where the deck is wetter than a {125} half-tide rock. The yellow-oilskinned crew tail on and heave. ”

“ When the wind is on the quarter, the fore-tack is brought to the cat-head, and, the main-tack being cast off, the weather-clue of the main-sail is hoisted up to the yard, and the yards are so disposed as to make an angle of twenty-two degrees with the keel. ”

“ Archie shouted, when the anchor was down and all sail stowed. “Let’s put these dodgers where they’ll do most good.”
The handbills were faithfully distributed before the punts of Coachman’s came in from the fishing grounds; and that night, to an audience that floated in punts in the quiet water, just beyond the schooner’s stern, and by the light of four torches, Topsail, Armstrong, Grimm & Company presented their first entertainment in pursuit of business, the performers operating upon a small square stage which Bill o’ Burnt Bay had rigged on the house of the cabin. ”

“ Captain Stowel tells us, sir, that the yards ought not to be braced in exactly alike; but that we ought to check the weather-braces, a little, as we go aloft, so that the top-sail yard should point a little less forward than the lower yard, and the topgallant than the top-sail. ”

“ Always pass a gasket over the yard and down abaft, which will help to bring the sail upon the yard.
A Topgallant Sail is furled in the same manner, except that it usually requires two men, in a large vessel; in which case, each man takes a yard-arm, and they make the bunt up together. If there are buntlines and a jigger, the bunt may be triced well up, by bending the jigger to the bight of a buntline, and having it hauled taut on deck. ”

“ To send down a royal yard—a topgallant yard—a topgallant mast. To house a topgallant mast. To send down a topmast. To rig in a jib boom.
To send down a Royal Yard.—If the sail is bent to the yard, furl it, making the gaskets fast to the tye. Cast off the sheets and clewlines, and make them fast to the jack. Be careful to unreeve the clewlines through the quarter-blocks. Cast off the parral-lashing. Overhaul the tye a little, and stop it to the yard, just outside of the quarter-block. If stopped too far out, the yard will not hoist high enough to get the lower lift off. ”

“ Heavy green seas broke over her as she lay with her starboard yardarms dipping. She had been running under a heavy press of canvas when she broached to, and went over on her beam ends, for even yet the sheets of the upper main-topsail were out to the lower yardarm, and though the starboard half of the sail had blown out of the bolt ropes, the upper or port yardarm still was sound and as tight as a drum with the wind.
"If she hasn't sunk yet she'll swim a while longer," said the skipper of the Ullswater as the day grew lighter and lighter still. ”

“ And up went the sail––and out fluttered the little jib––and the punt heeled to the harbour breeze––and Tom Topsail and Archie Armstrong darted away from the lights of Ruddy Cove towards the open sea.
The mixed accommodation, somewhere far back in the Newfoundland wilderness, came to the foot of a long grade. She puffed and valiantly choo-chooed. It was desperately hard work to climb that hill. A man might have walked beside her while she tried it. ”

“ If you come into anchoring ground close-hauled, haul in the weather fore and main braces, and clew up. If the wind is light, you may square the fore and main yards before clewing up. This will deaden her way. If the wind is fresh, it would make it difficult to clew up the sails. Haul down the jib, and come to by the spanker, or mizzen topsail and spanker. If the wind is light, she may need the mizzen topsail; if not, it may be taken in, and she may be brought to by the spanker. If she has too much headway or there is a tide setting her in, throw all aback. ”