FIFE RAILS were at the foot of each mast, to belay certain
lines most practically served from these points. Fig. 43A is a fife
rail combined with bitts which have sheaves to take heavy running gear.
The knees are optional. 43B is the final type of conventional fife rail
on windjammers and clippers. The posts could be ornamental or plain and
with timber heads above the flat rail sometimes. They were 3'sided as
shown or horseshoe shaped, or as two separate rails, each side of the
-mast. It was the common practice to lengthen the fife rails around the
main mast and utilise them as supports for the pumps' driving crank and
flywheel. The pumps were placed inside the rails. Sheaves in the
stanchions are optional.
Similar leads for heavy gear can be arranged
by fitting pulley blocks to a mast hoop at the base of the mast.
The GALLEY STACK is unfailingly found up toward the
forecastle. The cook fire rested in a bed of stones and sand and heated
a large oven with boiler or stock pots. If placed well under a
forecastle deck a steam grating was fitted over the galley. Fig. 44A.
Big ships like the VICTORY
had the galley two decks down with a longer chimney stack. More than
one ship was lost in the quiet of the night by the stack setting afire
the surrounding deckwork.
The STEERING
WHEEL, Fig. 44B, usually a casting, can be a good exercise in metal
craftsmanship for those having a small lathe. Or try hard plastic
sheet,
drilled and filed to shape. Small watch wheels can be filed down as a
basic
shape to build up on with hard-setting modelling plaster or such. It
can be
painted on in consecutive layers until built up to size.
