THE DIFFERENT RIGS OF VESSELS.
"Well, Randolph, you seem to be the only one who can give the name of a
vessel with this rig," said Captain Gildrock, calling upon the
New-Yorker.
"She is a barkentine," replied Matt. "The rig is new, and the name has
not yet got into the dictionary."
"And I hope it will not get there as you pronounce it, and as the
newspapers usually spell it," added the principal. "The word
'brigantine' is spelled with an a; and there is no reason why it should
not be a bark_a_ntine, rather than a bark_e_ntine."
"But 'bark' was formerly 'barque,'" suggested Matt.
"If she were a barquentine, that would be another thing. Some people
still insist upon writing a bank 'cheque;' but there are a score of
words that might as well be spelled the same way, if the fashion had not
changed.—I suppose you have seen four-masted schooners, Matt?"
"Yes, sir, a few of them; though they are not very common," replied the
New-Yorker.
"Many of these three-masted schooners are three times as big as a
full-rigged ship used to be in old times; and I mean within my
recollection. They were first used as coalers, vessels which had to work
up Delaware Bay and River; and these schooners could be kept closer to
the wind in beating.—What is this?" asked the captain, as he changed the
picture.
"A brigantine," replied Lon Dorset when called.
"I think not," added the principal.
"I have heard of a vessel like that, rigged like a ship forward, and
like a schooner aft, called a brigantine," persisted Lon.
"So have I; but this is an hermaphrodite brig, though she is sometimes
called a brig simply, for short," added Captain Gildrock.
"What is a brigantine, then?" asked Lon.
"It is a rig you seldom, if ever, see in a sailing vessel in these days;
though it is sometimes applied to steamers."
"It is called a small brig, in the dictionary," said Lon.
"Some of the dictionaries are not correct on nautical matters. I should
say that a brigantine was a fore-and-main-topsail schooner; that is, a
vessel with two masts, fore and aft sails below, and with a topsail and
topgallant-sail on each mast. A full-rigged vessel carries a royal above
these, and may have a skysail also."
"What is a moon-raker?" asked Thad Glovering with a laugh.
"That is a fancy sail, a term applied to a sail set above the skysail.
There is another distinction between a full-rigged mast and that of a
schooner. The former is provided with a top, which is wanting in the
latter. A brig has a top on each mast, while a schooner or a brigantine
has none. A top is a kind of platform, on which several men may stand,
in large vessels, over which the futtock shrouds pass," continued the
principal, as he pointed it out on the foremast of the vessel in the
picture.—"What is this?" he asked, displaying another drawing.
"A topsail schooner," answered Bent Fillwing.
"She is sometimes called a fore-topsail schooner, but the expression is
redundant, since there is no such craft as a main-topsail schooner. She
carries a topsail and topgallant-sail on her foremast."
"She would be a brigantine if she had the same rig on her mainmast,
without any tops," added Matt Randolph.
"There is only one other craft which we shall notice," continued the
principal, changing the drawing. "What is it?"
"A sloop," replied Nat Long. "We have plenty of them on Lake Champlain."
"This is the simplest rig of all. But sloops, especially in yachts, vary
a great deal. This is the rig of the English cutter, in the main; though
some of them have a couple of yards on the mast, as you never see it in
an ordinary sloop. As I have said before, there are many variations in
all these rigs. Some vessels are provided with sails which others of the
same rig do not have. The fashions change also. A ship now is quite a
different thing from what it was forty years ago. The study is to work a
vessel with the fewest men that can handle her; for, the less the
number, the smaller the expense, and the more profitable the vessel is
to her owners.
"For example, mercantile ships, as distinguished from naval vessels,
have a different rig from what they had twenty-five years ago. Instead
of one large topsail, they have two sails, called the upper and lower
topsails, with an extra yard. It saves handling the larger sail, and
avoids much of the difficult and dangerous work of reefing in heavy
weather. But you do not see this rig in the navy. Men-of-war are always
heavily manned, and they have force enough to handle any sail. Now we
will turn to the business of rigging this schooner. It is better for you
to learn the names and the uses of things as you proceed with the work,
rather than attempt to get at them in a lesson.
"Nautical terms look very formidable to shore-people; and so they are,
in fact, though not so much so as people generally imagine. There is a
certain system about naming the various spars and pieces of rigging,
which simplifies the whole subject. In a ship, the three words 'fore,'
'main,' and 'mizzen' distinguish the fore and aft position of every
thing. For the elevation we have the word simply; then with the addition
of top, topgallant, and royal, we fix the position above the deck.
"To indicate the side to which a part belongs, we say weather and lee if
the vessel is under way, or starboard and port if she is at rest. The
weather-maintop-gallantbrace covers the whole matter. If you know what a
brace is, you can describe any similar piece of rigging in the ship.
To-morrow afternoon, when some drawings I am having made are done, I
shall explain the rigging of a ship.
"I might talk all the afternoon about the rigging of even a fore-and-aft
schooner, but I am afraid it would only perplex you. There are at least
thirty different kinds of blocks, each with its proper name, indicating
its position or use."
"What is a block?" asked Sax Coburg.
"It is a kind of pulley," replied the principal, picking one up from the
pile on the wharf. "It consists of a shell, which is the wooden frame,
the sheave or wheel, the pin, or axis on which the wheel turns, and the
strap, which is the rope or iron by which it is secured to some other
body. The sides of a shell, which usually round outward, are called the
cheeks. That's all we need say about blocks till we come to use them in
setting up the rigging."
"The two round sticks, squared at the top, are the masts. Are they of
the same length?"
"These seem to be," replied Luke Bennington, "but the mainmast is
generally longer than the foremast."
"These are of the same length. This afternoon we will put them in their
places. The first thing to do is to rig the shears. Do you know what
they are?"
"Something to cut with—a pair of scissors," replied a shore-boy.
"Not exactly, though it is rigged something like a pair of shears. It is
a kind of derrick, used for hoisting heavy weights."
Bates had been at work for some time on a couple of the long round
sticks on the wharf, and had lashed them together at a point about three
feet from the smaller ends. The students were required to carry this
machine to the deck of the Lily; and, after guy-lines had been attached
to it, it was raised in the forward part of the deck. A purchase-block
had been attached to the lashing, and a single block to one of the arms
of the shears above.
A noose was then slipped on the mast just above the centre of gravity,
to which the purchase-block was hooked. A couple of lines were fastened
to the top of the spar, so that it could be swayed in any direction
desired.
"Now we need a snatch-block," said the principal; and Bates immediately
brought one from the pile on the wharf. "What is a block for?"
"To increase the effect of the power applied," answered Leo Pownall, who
had been called upon as one who would be likely to know.
"Is that so?" asked the principal, looking around among the students.
"No, sir," replied one indicated. "The power is gained only with movable
blocks."
"It takes ten pounds to balance the same weight by a line passed over a
single fixed pulley, or through a block," continued the principal. "You
gain nothing except at the expense of time. If you pull one rope down a
foot, the other is raised only a foot. With a movable pulley, you have
to pull down two feet to raise the weight one foot. With one pound of
power, you raise two pounds of weight. Now, if there are two pounds of
weight, and you exert only one pound of power, what becomes of the other
pound?"
"It is supported by the fixed end of the line."
"In the purchase-block attached to the mast, we must exert a power equal
to one-half of the weight of the mast, the other half being supported by
the shears. Bates has made fast the snatch-block in the deck, but we
gain nothing in power by its use. What is it for then?"
A dozen hands were raised, but most of the boys were studying the
problem. The principal waited until one of these appeared to have made
up his mind.
"Without the snatch-block we could only pull on the up-and-down rope,
and not more than three or four of us could get hold of it for the want
of room to stand near it," replied the student indicated.
"That's the idea exactly," replied the principal.
"Forty of us could get hold of the rope while it is run out from the
snatch-block, parallel with the deck," added the thoughtful boy.
"Precisely so; well answered. Then the snatch-block only enables us to
change the direction in which the power may be applied. In unloading
vessels, they often use a horse to hoist the cargo. The animal could not
pull straight down on the rope, but the snatch-block enables him to draw
the rope parallel with the top of the wharf. I think you will remember
what a snatch-block is, and what it is for. Now man the line."
The students took hold of the line, and walked away with it. The mast
rose in the air, and hands were then placed at the guy-lines to keep it
in place. When the lower end of the mast was above the deck, Bates took
the girt-line attached to the shear-head, and drew the mast into
position. Two of the students were sent into the hold to direct the
tenon into its step, which is the mortice above the keelson.
The mast was lowered slowly into its place, the square tenon adjusting
itself in its place as it belonged, so that there was nothing more to be
done, except to wedge it in at the mast-hold in the deck.