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nautical glossary

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On large sailing ships, the largest yards were supported by lifts. In some cases, one or two tackles were added on each side to increase the yard's strength, especially when lifting heavy loads. What were these tackles called?

yard.png
 
Ciao Elmaship,

Can you say what ship/nation/era this rig is for? Also is this a lower yard or topsail yard? The rigging varied a lot depending on the era, but I cannot find any information based on contemporary sources showing rigging like in your sketch.

The main supports were jeers and slings. Lifts contributed, but the primary purpose of the lifts was to keep the yardarms level or at a specific angle when the sail was being set or furled as the yards lowered. I marked the sling, but there is no jeer on your drawing. The jeers were often removed once the yard was in place, so that may be why it is missing.

What are the lines with the question mark below? They look like lifts for a topsail yard but there is already the lift that would be for the lower yard. Also, there are two which is unusual.

As there are chain slings I am assuming the ship is after about 1760 so would have had truss pendants, but they appear to be missing on the drawing.

Sorry not to be more helpful.

Allan

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A similar drawing is found in Plate 72 from Text-Book of Seamanship, 1891, where the two tackles can be seen on a lower yard. These are loading tackles (burtons). They are certainly not sail rigging devices, as they are mounted on pendants. The reason for my request stems from a text I am preparing for a group of Italian modelers on the correspondence of Italian terms with English ones (when possible). In Italian nautical terminology, when a single tackle was added, in addition to the lift (amantiglio), this was called a falso amantiglio, false not effective
 
I am preparing for a group of Italian modelers on the correspondence of Italian terms with English ones (when possible).
Thank you elmaship. Your project is admirable, congratulations. Thank you also for mentioning the Text Book of Seamanship 1891. I downloaded it and find it has a wealth of information. I just began to study it and hope to learn a lot.

Thanks again. For anyone interested..... https://maritime.org/doc/luce/index.php
 
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