I know that most "why" questions are fruitless but here goes. Doing the ratlines and Lees says the early ships had every sixth ratline go to the aftmost shroud. Then in 1773 they changed to the bottom and top six ratlines only went to the second and second to last shrouds. There was another change in between those dates. Anyone have even a wild guess as to why they would change this? Since the ratlines were just for climbing on you'd think they would go front to back on every shroud. Not an important question but every time I have to skip a shroud I wonder, "Why would they do that?"
I, too would like to know the answer to this question and perhaps someone will come back with the answer and we will all be more knowledgeable for it. Sometimes answers are elusive and this one may even challenge the well versed members of SoS.
