Now comes the fitting of the rigging. With the two single shrouds you must make a cut-splice, making the splice sufficiently large to fit nicely over the staff. Then double the two pairs and seize them together separately, A, [Fig. 2], leaving sufficient room to pass over the staff without chafing.
The stay you must fit with an eye-splice; and make the eye large enough, or it will look lubberly. ([Fig. 2])
The eye and collars should be wormed, parcelled, and served, but this is not absolutely necessary, and might look clumsy if done by an amateur. Now screw on the knees; they are triangular pieces of wood to support the rigging and prevent it slipping down the staff. Two bolters, or rounded pieces of wood, will answer the purpose equally well, but they must be firmly attached to the staff. Now put on the rigging—first of all one pair of shrouds, next the other pair, then the single shrouds with the cut splice, and lastly the stay.
The truck must now be placed on the top of the staff. If one is purchased a sheave will be found in it for the signal halliards to reeve through, and these had better be rove at once.
Fig 3
A, Iron spike. B, Cleats, a, wooden. b, iron.
If the reader’s taste runs in such a direction, a vane to show the direction of the wind can be placed on the truck—such as an arrow, a cock, or any of the numerous articles that are sold for the purpose. A cleat ([Fig. 3]) should be screwed to the side of the staff just within easy reach of the arm, say between 3 and 4 feet from the ground, in order to belay or make fast the halliards.
Now fix the staff in the ground, and see that the earth, etc., is well beaten in round it. The next proceeding is to set up the rigging. This may be done with deadeyes or with thimbles; the latter is certainly the neater way of doing it. Setting up with deadeyes need not be described here. The following is the method of doing it with thimbles.
Splice the end of each rope round a thimble, which is done as follows. Open out the rope to the length of twice and a half the round of the rope. Then measure the round of the thimble and the round of the rope, and put the marlin spike in there and commence splicing as though for an eyepiece. Now you will require for each rope an iron spike about 3 feet in length with an eye in it. These must be driven into the ground at regular intervals in a straight line, three on each side of the staff, 10 feet distant, and one for the stay in front. Then obtain some stout seizing stuff, such as cod-line, and splice it into the eye of the spike; then pass it through the thimble and then through the eye again, and so on, pulling it as tight as you can every time. At sea the necessary strength for getting the rigging as tight as possible is obtained with a tackle.