Our last illustration before we say good-bye to the large sailing ship is the Queen Margaret in Fig. 79. This is a steel, four-masted barque. She was built in 1893 by Messrs. A. McMillan & Son, Ltd., at Dumbarton. Her registered tonnage is 2144, her length 275 feet, her beam 42·2 feet, and her depth 24 feet. The photograph was taken only the other day from a passing vessel off Cape Horn. Most modern sailing ships of any size are now four masters; but, omitting entirely the large seven-masted schooners of America, there are a few square-rigged ships with five masts. When that is so they are named thus, reading from forward to aft: foremast, mainmast, middle, mizzen, and jigger. It is a circumstance all too true that, owing to the enormous advance of steam, both seamen and seamanship are nowadays hard to find in our country. The best deep-sea sailing-men are the Germans, who own the biggest five-masted sailing ships afloat. The Potosi, for instance, with five masts and belonging to Hamburg, is one of the very largest sailing ships ever launched. It is an undeniable fact that this ship has made eleven consecutive voyages between Hamburg and Peru in the average time of five months and twenty days, including stay in harbour, making an average rate of travel while at sea of eleven knots per hour, and it is not surprising to hear that this now stands as the world’s record for the deep-sea sailing ship. The largest sailing ship afloat is also a German five-master, the Preussen. Built of steel in 1902 by Messrs. J. C. Tecklenborg at Geestemünde, she is 407·8 feet long, 53·6 feet broad, and 27·1 feet deep, and is ship-rigged. Between this ultra-modern craft and that quaint prehistoric specimen we saw from the Egyptian jar in Fig. 3 what little connection is there, save for the one solitary fact that both depend on water for their buoyancy and on wind for their propulsion! For not only has wood disappeared as the material for ribs and skin, but chain is now used for topsail sheets and slings. (Slings are used to suspend the lower yards, the upper yards being sent down when necessary). Spars and masts are made of steel, wire has taken the place of much of the rope that was used. Shrouds and stays are of wire, rigging screws are used instead of lanyards and of dead-eyes. All the brace-pendants except the lower ones are of wire, even to the royal and skysail braces, so that the greater part of the rigging of a ship is now done in harbour ashore by skilled mechanics. The result is that “marlin-spike seamanship” is fast disappearing and getting under way to join the spritsail, oak and hemp of other days. Only among the somewhat diverse class of fishermen, yachtsmen, and the seafaring men from Scandinavia and up the Baltic, does it survive with any outward signs of life at all.

We have seen the beginning of the bowsprit with its enormous rake to carry the artemon; we have watched it continue through the Tudors and Stuarts as practically an additional mast steeved at a considerable angle. Gradually the angle has got smaller and smaller until now in the twentieth century in the latest ships, it is much more nearly horizontal. We saw this spar become divided into two, and later into three parts—flying jib-boom, jib-boom, and bowsprit. To-day, though it is made of iron or steel, it has gone back to be of one piece. We witnessed the introduction of bonnets; they also have gone except in Norway, Norfolk, and the Thames barge. The studding sails which Raleigh spoke of are scarcely ever seen, although in the ’sixties they were prominent features of the clippers when getting every ounce of power out of the ship. No doubt their awkwardness, and the necessity of having a first-class helmsman to prevent the ship swerving suddenly off her course, had most to do with their departure. Convenience, too, in handling so much canvas up the mast led to the introduction of the topsails and topgallants, being cut in half and used double, though on the mizzen a single topsail is frequent. The gradual introduction of skysails during the last hundred years has continued till they are found often on fore, main, and mizzen, while the staysails, which were such characteristic features of the eighteenth century Dutchmen, are now used freely on most of the stays. Nor has the change been confined to the spars, sails, and rigging. Some of the Gallic vessels of Cæsar’s time—so he records—were fitted with iron cables. Then, as the reader knows, rope came in, and hemp remained for centuries until, roughly, 1800. The introduction of the chain, then, has been merely a revival. Lead sheathing was used by the ancients, forgotten for many centuries until the Spanish restored its use in the fifteenth century, and the English in the sixteenth. It was forgotten again until the seventeenth century, when it was introduced afresh. That was another revival. The Romans used bronze nails, and we have revived those again. The Greeks invented the schooner bow, as we saw in Fig. 13. It was forgotten for centuries again and re-introduced, as we saw in the seal of Dam in Fig. 40. Still another revival. In yachts, the last few years have seen the introduction of a reefing gear for furling both mainsail and headsails. The Chinese have had the former for centuries. Quite lately the fashion has come in to build yachts with double-ended “canoe” sterns. That, too, is but a revival of the old Viking shape—roughly. The reader will remember that in the years following the coming of William the Conqueror the tendency was for the ship to have terrific sheer, so that instead of being long and straight she was almost semi-circular. Gradually, century by century, this absurd sheer has disappeared, though reluctantly, until to-day the most modern deep-sea sailing ships have practically no sheer considering their length, as the reader will see from the photographs of the modern ships in this chapter.

What and where the next revival will be—who knows? Perhaps some day, when all the coal has been burnt and all the oil extracted from the ground, both engines and motors will be banished, and a revival of sailing power will be made. One cannot tell. But as to the immediate future of the big sailing ship two considerations arise on two widely different points, each of which demands attention. The first is the Panama Canal, to be opened in 1915, though this actual date may be delayed. Will it deal the last and most cruel blow of all by driving away those fine white-hulled sailing ships one sees sometimes bound from South America? Like the opening of the Suez Canal, will the piercing of the Panama Isthmus mean that, by enabling steamships to shorten their voyage and its cost to South America, Cape Horn will no longer be rounded by the sailing ship? That is one subject for consideration. The other is the effect that the installation of the motor will have. Coasters with auxiliary power are now becoming common. In the opinion of experts, ocean-going vessels of 700 tons can be fitted with motors of sufficient power. A three-masted fore-and-aft schooner was recently built in North Wales for the coasting trade fitted with an auxiliary motor. The vessel has a dead-weight carrying capacity of 200 tons, and the experiment has been found eminently successful. In towing charges and independence of weather she will be found to be cheaper even than a small steamer. A company was formed last autumn in London for the purpose of building barges propelled by paraffin oil motors with auxiliary sails, and such barges having a capacity of carrying 300 tons of cargo have been used on the Continent for some years. Time alone, therefore, can tell whether we have seen the last and final stage of the sailing ship, or whether we are about to see the dawn of a new development of her usefulness.

Details of Spars and Rigging as shown in Fig. 80.
1.Bowsprit.38.Halyards.
2.Gammoning.39.Lifts.
3.Bumkin.40.Braces.
4.Horse.41.Horses.
5.Bob-stay.42.Staysail halyards.
6.Martingal.43.Bowlines and bridles.
7.Martingal-stays.44.Sheets.
8.Bowsprit-shrouds.45.Crosstrees.
9.Jib-boom.46.Cap.
10.Jib stay, and sail.47.Fore topgallant mast.
11.Jib-halyards.48.Shrouds.
12.Horses.49.Yard and Sail.
13.Spritsail-yard and course.50.Back stays.
14.Bowsprit-cap.51.Stay.
15.Jackstaff and flag.52.Lifts.
16.Braces.53.Braces.
17.Foremast.54.Bowlines and bridles.
18.Shrouds.55.Royal stay.
19.Stay and lanyard.56.Back stay.
20.Preventer-stay and lanyard.57.Royal yard and sail.
21.Yard and course with studding-sail booms.58.Royal braces.
22.Horse.59.Royal lifts.
23.Top.60.Flag of the Lord High Admiral.
24.Yard tackles.61.Mainmast.
25.Lifts.62.Shrouds and ratlines.
26.Braces.63.Stay.
27.Sheets.64.Preventer-stay.
28.Tack.65.Stay-tackles.
29.Bowlines and bridles.66.Yard-tackles.
30.Futtock-shrouds.67.Lifts.
31.Cap.68.Braces.
32.Fore topmast.69.Horse.
33.Shrouds and lanyards.70.Sheets.
34.Yard and sail with studding-sail booms.71.Tack.
35.Stay and sail.72.Bowlines and bridles.
36.Preventer stay.73.Top.
37.Backstays.74.Cap.
75.Yard and course with studding-sail booms.112.Horse.
76.Futtock-shrouds.113.Top.
77.Maintop mast.114.Cap.
78.Shrouds and lanyards.115.Mizzen topmast.
79.Yard and sail with studding-sail booms.116.Shrouds.
80.Back stay.117.Stay.
81.Preventer stay.118.Backstay.
82.Stay and sail.119.Yard and sail.
83.Halyards.120.Lifts.
84.Lifts.121.Braces.
85.Braces.122.Bowlines and bridles.
86.Horse.123.Crosstrees.
87.Sheets.124.Cap.
88.Bowlines and bridles.125.Mizzen topgallant mast.
89.Crosstrees.126.Shrouds.
90.Cap.127.Stay.
91.Main topgallant mast.128.Backstay.
92.Shrouds.129.Yard and sail.
93.Yard and sail.130.Bowlines and bridles.
94.Backstay.131.Lifts.
95.Stay, halyard, and sail.132.Braces.
96.Lifts.133.Royal yard and sail.
97.Braces.134.Royal lifts.
98.Bowline and bridle.135.Royal braces.
99.Royal stay.136.Royal stay.
100.Back stay.137.Royal backstays.
101.Royal yard and sail.138.Union Jack.
102.Royal braces.139.Driver boom.
103.Royal lifts.140.Boom topping-lift.
104.Royal standard.141.Boom guy-falls.
105.Mizzen mast.142.Gaff and driver.
106.Shrouds and ratlines.143.Derrick-fall.
107.Cross-jack yard.144.Peak-brails.
108.Stay.145.Peak-halyards.
109.Preventer-stay.146.Ensign staff.
110.Cross-jack lifts.147.Ensign.
111.” ” braces.148.Bower cable.

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Fig. 80. A First-rater of 1815, showing Details of Spars and Rigging.