Patrick O’Brian - Men-of-War

Masts, yards and rigging on a 28-gun frigate.

Now for the sails and the rigging. A square-rigged ship had three masts, of course, and these masts were held up by shrouds on each side, by stays to keep them from pitching backwards, and by back-stays to keep them from pitching forward: the shrouds had ratlines across them, to make ladders up which the seamen could climb to reach the upper rigging and the sails; and the first set of shrouds led to the platform called the top, or fighting-top, which stood at the junction of the lower-mast and topmast and which served to spread the shrouds for the next section of mast – these masts, by the way, were made to slide up and down through the top, so that in an emergency the topgallantmasts and even topmasts could be struck down on deck. The masts had yards slung across them horizontally, and it was to these yards that the most important sails were attached. The mainmast had a mainyard for the mainsail, a maintopmast yard for its topsail, a maintopgallant yard, and above that, in fine weather, a royal yard: the foremast had the same four yards with fore tacked on to their names: the lowest yard on the mizen, however, was called the crossjack, which hardly ever had a sail spread on it, because the chief sail on the mizen was a fore-and-aft sail spread by a gaff or lateen over the poop; the rest of its yards were the same. The bowsprit too had its yards and sails – the spritsail and the spritsail-topsail. There were other sails spread on the stays and various booms, but these were the important ones.

Sails on a frigate.

A two-decker with her bowspirit and masts out and her deck-planking removed to show the construction.

When the wind was from behind and the sails were spread, obviously the ship was pushed forward – not that this was the best point of sailing, because if the breeze were right astern, the after sails would becalm the rest, whereas if it came from her quarter, or 45° abaft the beam, it would fill them all. But when the wind came from the beam, that is to say sideways, or at right-angles to the ship’s length, then the square sails would have been useless unless they could swing round to catch its force. And of course that is what happened: the yards were pulled round with braces and the lower corners of the sails were hauled round too – the sheet on the lower leeward corner was hauled aft and the tack, the rope on the windward lower corner, was hauled forward, so that the sail continued to draw; and seeing that the ship could not be forced sideways through the water it went on going forward, though a little sideways too – this sideways motion was called its leeway. Indeed, even when the wind was more from in front than sideways, the ship could still go on: a square-rigged ship, close-hauled, that is, with her yards braced up sharp to an angle of 20° with the keel, could sail within six points of the wind, or 63° 45' from it – or in other words, if the wind were coming from the north, she could still sail east-north-east.

So much for the ships: now for the guns.

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