What is this for?

Don Case

Don Case

Joined
Jul 10, 2021
Messages
1,466
Points
393

Location
Vancouver Island
I see this on every bowsprit but I can't seem to find out what it does or how many holes it should have. All the pictures I've been able to find don't show seem to show any rigging going through them. Here's a picture from Dan Vada's Vulture. I don't know what it's called so I'm having a tough time looking it up :)

post-4-0-06254900-1414976528_thumb (1).jpg
 
Don Case said:
I see this on every bowsprit but I can't seem to find out what it does or how many holes it should have. All the pictures I've been able to find don't show seem to show any rigging going through them. Here's a picture from Dan Vada's Vulture. I don't know what it's called so I'm having a tough time looking it up :)

View attachment 368610
Click to expand...
Hi Don Caso, there are books that explain you each sleeper and running maneuver with respective path dimensions. Frank
 
If I don't know what it's called I can't look it up. I have 3 or 4 rigging books and I've looked through them with no luck. My books are all Kindle or PDF and they don't lend themselves to browsing.
 
Don Case said:
If I don't know what it's called I can't look it up. I have 3 or 4 rigging books and I've looked through them with no luck. My books are all Kindle or PDF and they don't lend themselves to browsing.
Click to expand...
Cleats or chestnuts
 
So looking at my model ship Le Mirage, I see that there are 2 out of 8 holes being used but my ship does not have sails hence my suspicion that most of those holes are for the sails. Anyways, the 2 holes are used for to direct the rigging lines that raise the yard that is on the little mast on the bowsprit. The lines tie off to the railings on the front of the boat. It must be easier to pull a line when it is horizontal. I tried to take a picture, but my phone does not take good pictures and the details are so small that it is hard to see, but I hope this makes sense.
 
Thanks Jack. That sounds kind of reasonable. I looked I looked in Petersson's "Rigging Period Ships" at anything that had to do with the spritsail and struck out. None of the drawings showed anything that looks like this saddle with the holes thing. It does look like if it was there it would be handy for looming lines though.
Frank, I couldn't find anything like chestnuts. I found chesstrees but they are completely different. Cleats just brings back to many hits to be much use.

It's gotta have a name, everything on these ships does. :) Vada calls it a saddle but I can't seem to match that up with anything.

Oh, Stuglo calls it a "saddle for running rigging"

Swan Class – ¼” Scale - Stuglo [COMPLETED BUILD]

The False Rail Shaped board-like structure fixed to the curve of the Main Rail Inboard flat, outboard paneled effect.The inner face flush with the Main Rail Lining. Thickness, 2.12 mm with groove recess 0.53 I didn’t feel able to make this recess at a constant depth, so I made a composite of 3...
shipsofscale.com

Sounds like you're right Jack.
 
Spritsail yard brace lines are some of what pass through this rack on the bowsprit on their way to belaying points farther aft, often on the forecastle front railing. Other lines for the spritsail often pass through this rack also. The example below also shows racks lashed to the gammoning. If you are not rigging sails, many of the guide holes in these racks will be empty.
1681274501523.png
 
Don Case said:
Thanks Jack. That sounds kind of reasonable. I looked I looked in Petersson's "Rigging Period Ships" at anything that had to do with the spritsail and struck out. None of the drawings showed anything that looks like this saddle with the holes thing. It does look like if it was there it would be handy for looming lines though.
Frank, I couldn't find anything like chestnuts. I found chesstrees but they are completely different. Cleats just brings back to many hits to be much use.

It's gotta have a name, everything on these ships does. :) Vada calls it a saddle but I can't seem to match that up with anything.

Oh, Stuglo calls it a "saddle for running rigging"

Swan Class – ¼” Scale - Stuglo [COMPLETED BUILD]

The False Rail Shaped board-like structure fixed to the curve of the Main Rail Inboard flat, outboard paneled effect.The inner face flush with the Main Rail Lining. Thickness, 2.12 mm with groove recess 0.53 I didn’t feel able to make this recess at a constant depth, so I made a composite of 3...
shipsofscale.com

Sounds like you're right Jack.
Click to expand...
Hello Don Caso, if you have the third volume of Boudriot's 74 guns on page 126 there is an explanation of the aforementioned detail , Frank
 
Don Case said:
Thanks Kurt, does it have a name?
Click to expand...
I don't know the proper name for it. It translates simply as "rack" from Italian, as listed in the instructions from Corel's mirage. It appears to be some kind of fairlead. This part is found on ships 100 years ahead of those I have researched and seems to have been used on ships starting after 1750 by my guess. The picture I posted was dug out of the files I had on hand.
 
Thanks Kurt.
Frank, I can't find the piece I'm talking about on the pictures you posted. It should be right by the gammoning.
Nice pictures though, a lot of stuff on there.
 
I looked at that and it just didn't look quite right but you know more than me :) . Still no name though:D. Oh well, at least I know what it's for and why so many models had no ropes running through it. Almost all is answered.
Thanks Frank, I appreciate all your help. It must be hard having to put everything through the translator.
 
That is a different part - Frank is showing the wooden stopper which are necessary to fix the location of the gammoning
Here it was used for the martingale backstays

USS Constitution's bowsprit
8bahT56 (2).jpg
#34

I found this sketch in the web - but it seems for me like an excerpt of an Anatomy series book

Often this element is also installed at the underside of the bowsprit to catch all the backstays going trough the dolphin striker(s)

ussconstitutionmuseum.org

Rebuilt, Preserved, Restored - USS Constitution Across the Centuries - USS Constitution Museum

Preservation Philosophies SHIP OF THESEUS Readers may be familiar with the thought experiment known as the “Ship of Theseus.” It is a philosophical conundrum from antiquity and. . .
ussconstitutionmuseum.org ussconstitutionmuseum.org

DfgqLmYU0AEoxJ4.jpg

Screenshot 2023-04-13 093755.png
 
Found this in "Chapter 16 Bowsprit, Jibboom and Flying Jibboom (Syren).pdf". You can get the .pdf here. LINK

Screenshot 2023-04-13 at 11.53.02 AM.png
.
Looks like there's 2 parts. The larger dark brown piece and the fairlead. Appears they both make up the Saddle (or maybe the Spritsail Yard Sling) on this ship. Think the part is called Fairlead.
Screenshot 2023-04-13 at 11.50.56 AM.png
 
The "saddle"(the little batwing thing) is what the aft end of the jib boom sits on. What they are calling the "fairlead" is the part I'm after. From what we've discovered "fairlead" is a good name for it. It's a better name than #34 ;)

Oh, wait. What I'm calling the saddle, they are calling the jib boom rest. I'll have to look up spritsail yard sling.
Bottom right hand corner. So it looks like there may be two saddles. I'm feeling a little better about this now. If I have to go through this for each piece of rigging I'll go nuts before I'm done :D Thanks for all the help everyone.

Screenshot (15).png
 
Last edited:
Don Case is right, I think.! Fairlead is a good name for it. I have a book that id's this part, but I can't find it! Will keep searching, because now I'm intrigued! Now, where is that part #34?.......... Rick1011
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top