"The bobstay," replied Ash, who had sailed a boat a little at Westport before he entered the school.
"Correct. Haul the bobstay as taut as you can, and it will keep the bowsprit from hoisting. The stem of the craft is the upright timber, placed farthest forward, and forming a continuation of the keel. The iron eye to which the lower end of the bobstay is made fast, is bolted into the stem in the strongest manner. Now you can see how both the mast and the bowsprit are held in their place, and how each is made to support the other. The topmast is, or may be, supported in precisely the same way. One or more ropes leading down to the side of the boat from the topmast would be called the backstays, as in a ship. There are none in the picture. When they are needed, with a balloon-jib, they are sometimes carried to the quarter; but these are temporary. In a small boat, backstays are not needed, for the topmast is stiff enough without them. Look at k; and what is it?"
"The main-topmast-stay," said Ash.
"That is it in full, though I should not have objected if you had called it simply the topmast-stay in a sloop. Archie would. If there are no backstays, it will not do to haul this stay too taut, or it will bend the topmast forward, which is not pleasant to the eye. The jib-boom is held by the rope under it, which is called a stay. In large vessels, the bowsprit and jib-boom are also held in place by ropes at the sides, called guys. As a whole, what do you call the rigging we have talked about?"
"Give it up," replied Hop, after a silence of a minute.
"The standing-rigging; and the principal told you so when he described the ship. Now that we have the spars where they will stay, we will pass on to the sails and running-rigging. Begin at the main boom. What is the rope marked a a?"
"The topping-lift," said Ash.
"When the sail is not set, this rope holds up the boom. The lower end of it, you can see for yourselves,--as you have the real thing before you as well as the picture,--is provided with a purchase, so that the after-end of the boom can be raised or lowered."
"What is this thing?" asked Archie, pointing to a pair of wooden joists, with a bolt through them, like the cross-legs of a table or cot-bedstead.
"That is the crutch. Top up the boom with the purchase, and then place the crutch under it after you anchor."