The Seaman's Friend / Containing a treatise on practical seamanship, with plates, a dictionary of sea terms, customs and usages of the merchant service

by Richard Henry Dana

For the length of the fore, main, and mizzen stays and spring-stays, take the distance from the after part of the mast-head to their hearts, or to the place where they are set up, adding once the length of the mast-head for the collar.

The standing stays should be once and half the circumference of the shrouds.

Fitting lower Rigging.—Get it on a stretch, and divide each pair of shrouds into thirds, and mark the centre of the middle third. Tar, worm, parcel and serve the middle third. Parcel with the lay of the rope, working toward the centre; and serve against the lay, beginning where you left off parcelling. Serve as taut as possible. In some vessels the outer thirds of the swifters are served; but matting and battens are neater and more generally used.

Formerly the middle third was parcelled over the service, below the wake of the futtock staff. Mark an eye at the centre of the middle third, by seizing the parts together with a round seizing. The eye of the pair of shrouds that goes on first should be once and a quarter the circumference of the mast-head; and make each of the others in succession the breadth of a seizing larger than the one below it. Parcel the score of the dead-eye, and heave the shroud taut round it, turning in with the sun, if right-hand-laid rope, and against the sun, if hawser-laid; then pass the throat seizing with nine or ten turns, the outer turns being slacker than the middle ones. Pass the quarter seizings half way to the end, and then the end seizings, and cap the shroud, well tarred under the cap. Make a Matthew Walker knot in one end of the lanyard, reeve the other end out through the dead-eye of the shroud, beginning at the side of the dead-eye upon which the end of the shroud comes, and in through the dead-eye in the channels, so that the hauling part of the lanyard may come in-board and on the same side with the standing part of the shroud. If the shroud is right-hand-laid rope, the standing part of the shroud will be aft on the starboard, and forward on the larboard side; and the reverse, if hawser-laid.

The neatest way of setting up the lower fore-and-aft stays, is by reeving them down through a bull's eye, with tarred parcelling upon the thimble, and setting them up on their ends, with three or four seizings. The collar of the stay is the length of the mast-head, and is leathered over the service. The service should go beyond the wake of the foot of the topsail, and the main-stay should be served in the wake of the foremast. The main and spring stays usually pass on different sides of the foremast, and set up at the hawse-pieces.

The bolsters under the eyes of the rigging should always be covered with tarred parcelling, marled on.

The starboard forward shroud goes on first; then the larboard; and so on. The fore stay and spring stay go over the shrouds; and the head stays always go over the backstays.

Cutting and fitting Topmast Rigging.—For the forward shroud, measure from the hounds of the topmast down to the after part of the lower trestle-trees, and add to that length half the circumference of the mast-head at the hounds. The eye is once and a quarter the circumference of the mast-head. The topmast rigging in size should be three fifths of the lower rigging. For the topmast backstays, measure the distance from the hounds of the mast down to the centre of the deck, abreast of their dead-eyes in the channels, and add to this length one half the circumference of the mast-head. Add to the length of the larboard pair, which goes on last, twice the diameter of the rope. The size of the fore and main topmast backstays is generally one quarter less than that of the lower rigging; and that of the mizzen topmast backstays the same as that of the main topmast rigging. The size of the topmast stays should be once and a quarter that of the rigging. The topmast rigging is fitted in the same manner as the lower. The backstays should be leathered in the wake of the tops and lower yards. The breast-backstays are turned in upon blocks instead of dead-eyes, and set up with a luff purchase. The fore topmast stay sets up on the starboard, and the spring stay on the larboard side of the bowsprit.

All the fore-and-aft stays are now set up on their ends, and should be leathered in their nips, as well as in their eyes.

The main topmast stay goes through a heart or thimble at the foremast-head, or through a hole in the cap, and sets up on deck or in the top; and the mizzen topmast stay sets up at the mainmast-head, above the rigging.