Fixing shrouds to masts

[Julian]

Got to the rigging stage on the Occre Victory and realised I needed a more realistic method of attaching shrouds/stays to the masts. Used simple clove hitches on the Caldercraft Victory but is there another way?. In places there are several shrouds and stays to be fixed at the same place - ie at the top of masts in some places on the Caldercraft afraid to say it looks a bit of a mess!! , Sometimes the Caldercraft instructions called for shrouds to be attached into eyelets with a turn of thread above and below - this looks pretty good where it is needed

Looked at the Mc Govan book and with my skills I could not even begin to start to do some the complex ways stays are fixed..... Any ideas welcome

 

[Y.T.]

Well if you want them look realistic this is an example.

 

[Loracs]

One comment: I just setup the shrouds on my Revenge. Few tricks I found useful:

a. Serving the portion of the rope that will be attached to the mast. Served ropes are very hard and does not compress. So, when you start laying then on top of each other they stack very nicely. Non-served rope compress irregularly and does not look as nice.

b: You can see that the shrouds are attached is a very specific order. NOTE (after editing): The first pair on one side (starport), the next on the opposite side (port) of the ship, and so on. The first shroud is the one toward the bow. You keep alternating until you are done. You will end up with 4-5 pairs of shrouds per side (or whatever you need).

c: Yes, attach a pair of shrouds together. Fold the rope in two and cut to length (in fact cut 2-3 inches longer at each end), you now have 2-shrouds. At the fold, tie the rope while testing on the masts - to form the loop. As you can see above, tie the loop very closely. Once you have tested one, you can do all the others on the table and then stack them together on the mast (if you have not setup the upper mast) -- otherwise, you will need to tie on the ship (a little harder).

 

[AllanKP69]

The first pair on one side (port),

I am not sure if this was universal, I would not be surprised if there were exceptions. Longridge shows the starboard pair of shrouds going on first as seen in his drawing below in The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships and James Lees, in The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War, states on page 41 that the shrouds were put on the masthead, the first pair being the forward starboard one. What I have seen for the general order of dressing is that for the lower masts the pendants of the tackles went on first, followed by the shrouds, swifters if there is an odd number of shrouds, stay, and finally preventer stay if there is one. On English ships after 1810 the preventer stay went on before the stay.

 

[Loracs]

@AllanKP69, let me edit my post, to avoid confusion later: Indeed, first shroud at the Starport side. Thanks for double checking this

 

[Uwek]

And the same at the topmast

 

[Julian]

Thanks for this, am OK with shrouds at middle mast its the stays on the top of the masts that is the problem

The diagram posted by Uwek shows how skilled the sailors were being able to rig these masts - awesome complexity in the masts, and all done by hand!.

 

[Short John Bronze]

...and presumably fixing the shrouds at the top of the mast before installation of the ratlines to get up there.

 

[AllanKP69]

let me edit my post, to avoid confusion later: Indeed, first shroud at the Starport side. Thanks for double checking this

Thanks Loracs. I bet we all have done editing on more than one post. I know I sure have.
Allan

 

[Chelseafan]

Got to the rigging stage on the Occre Victory and realised I needed a more realistic method of attaching shrouds/stays to the masts. Used simple clove hitches on the Caldercraft Victory but is there another way?. In places there are several shrouds and stays to be fixed at the same place - ie at the top of masts in some places on the Caldercraft afraid to say it looks a bit of a mess!! , Sometimes the Caldercraft instructions called for shrouds to be attached into eyelets with a turn of thread above and below - this looks pretty good where it is needed

Looked at the Mc Govan book and with my skills I could not even begin to start to do some the complex ways stays are fixed..... Any ideas welcome

I made a loop and sized and served each group then hooked them over the mast tree in the correct order after labeling them....it all gets a bit dark and crowded when you get to tying them to the hull!

 

[Buffalo Jack]

Got to the rigging stage on the Occre Victory and realised I needed a more realistic method of attaching shrouds/stays to the masts. Used simple clove hitches on the Caldercraft Victory but is there another way?. In places there are several shrouds and stays to be fixed at the same place - ie at the top of masts in some places on the Caldercraft afraid to say it looks a bit of a mess!! , Sometimes the Caldercraft instructions called for shrouds to be attached into eyelets with a turn of thread above and below - this looks pretty good where it is needed

Looked at the Mc Govan book and with my skills I could not even begin to start to do some the complex ways stays are fixed..... Any ideas welcome

One comment: I just setup the shrouds on my Revenge. Few tricks I found useful:

a. Serving the portion of the rope that will be attached to the mast. Served ropes are very hard and does not compress. So, when you start laying then on top of each other they stack very nicely. Non-served rope compress irregularly and does not look as nice.

b: You can see that the shrouds are attached is a very specific order. NOTE (after editing): The first pair on one side (starport), the next on the opposite side (port) of the ship, and so on. The first shroud is the one toward the bow. You keep alternating until you are done. You will end up with 4-5 pairs of shrouds per side (or whatever you need).

c: Yes, attach a pair of shrouds together. Fold the rope in two and cut to length (in fact cut 2-3 inches longer at each end), you now have 2-shrouds. At the fold, tie the rope while testing on the masts - to form the loop. As you can see above, tie the loop very closely. Once you have tested one, you can do all the others on the table and then stack them together on the mast (if you have not setup the upper mast) -- otherwise, you will need to tie on the ship (a little harder).

 

[Buffalo Jack]

In my exuberance I built the entire mast before I looped the shrouds.
I’m contemplating cutting the mast so I can serve the shrouds off the model then loop them. I’m worried about rejoining the sections .i think that if I drill a hole in each end and insert support pin to reglue the masts together should work and create a solid bond. Any thoughts?

 

[Don Case]

Break out the alcohol and undo all the parts on the mast that are in the way. Redos are a big part of this hobby. Rigging off the boat is the way to go if you possibly can.