This sail was also laced to the boom, an innovation to British designers, and was said to be soaped or greased also. Lacing would only be applicable on ships to a spanker with lowering gaff, and not until the 1860s did it appear on a British ship. It was reserved more for schooners and seldom seen on clipper types.

  The illustrations show the method of working in the attachments of rigging etc. to the boltropes. Early in the century the cringles were formed of rope only, but later they had metal cringles inserted. With rope cringles for the buntlines along the foot, the sail had a tabling only, but when the buntlines were fastened in holes in the edge of the sail itself, a lining was added to the tabling.

  The position of the reef points is of interest to the artist. From the previous century the holes through which the reef points were threaded were pierced in the cloth between the seams, sometimes in pairs and sometimes alternating two and one per cloth, as also were the holes for lacing to the jackstay. Often a middle line of stitches was sewn down a seam, especially on naval craft, and the reef band cloth being doubled over was probably considered strong enough to take the reef points clear of the seams. Contemporary paintings and some photographs over the latter half of the century show the reef points as being on the line of the seam more often than not, and some windjammer photographs late in the century plainly show reef points spaced seam and cloth alternately.
 
  Spankers seem to be consistent throughout the century in having their reef points on the seam lines, possibly because these seams were wider and the stitched holes helped to keep them tighter. It was a complaint that wide seams held water and caused rot.

  The spacing of the holes for the hanks in sta ysails was 36 in. for the lighter ones such as flying jibs, the larger ones being 27 in., which mayor may not have coincided with the seams, depending on the angle of the seams relative to the luff.

  The curved roach on a square sail was dependent on the angle or height of the stay immediately below it, which it had to clear. Braces from the yards on a mast in front sometimes led downward under the sail, attaching either to the mast or the head of the stay, and these also had to be cleared.
The roach of the upper of the double topsails was the least, and in some cases it was straight and laced to the lower topsail yard. British clippers tended to keep the leeches of the courses almost vertical and the leeches of the sails above in a good taper to a small skysail or royal, while some of the best American ships ran all the leeches in a straight tapering line from the clew of the courses up to the skysails, trulya 'pyramid of sail'.

  The clews of square sails and fore and aft sails for merchant ships early in the century were made as separate rope cringles sewn to the corners of the boltrope (naval sail makers made the clew by working a loop in the  boltrope itself.

These clews' frequently broke and metal thimbles were fitted in them for extra strength, and by about mid-century solid metal iron clews were used, either in ring form or as a fashioned spectacle iron, either of which would outlive the sail. The bowline cringles, which once were fitted on all ships' square sails, survived on a few clippers to the end of the era. They had a useful function in holding the windward leech of the sail well forward and in a slight curve to catch the wind in the body, as without them the tack, on the courses, or sheet on upper sails, pulled the leech into a straight line. Bowlines went out of fashion mainly because they were extra tackle to maintain and operate.

The shape of the lower studdingsails (stunsails) depended largely on the width of the lower course itself, which if very wide in spread would need a narrower stunsail. A boom extended this stuns ail outboard and was fitted to a gooseneck from the ship's side abreast the mast which would be on the rim of the channels if there were any. This boom could be about 55 ft long and 12 in. in diameter, but shorter ones were more practicable.
 
It could be eliminated by making the stunsail triangular to meet the ship's side as was done in the case of the Cutty Sark, although many modern paintings of her wrongly show a boom with a rectangular stunsail.

  Stunsails were fitted each side of the mast on the fore and main, and on rare occasions on the mizzen topsail. With the wind from aft both sides would be set abaft their adjacent sails, but with the yards braced a small amount the stunsails on the lee side would be set on the fore side of their adjacent sails, until the yards were braced sharply when the lee ones would be taken in.
They were stowed vertically with lashings to the insides of the topmast shrouds, when frequently required; otherwise on the boat skids or deckhouse roof. The lower stunsail booms were housed along the side of the fore channel on each side, resting in a crutch about a third of its length from the end.

  Another form of boom resembling the lower stuns ail boom and mentioned at times for some tea clippers was called the passaree boom. This was a shorter boom fitted each side of the foremast from a gooseneck at a height to clear the bulwark. Each boom was set athwartships, their lengths extending slightly beyond the foreyard. With a following wind and the sail set square athwartships, each clew would be extended from these booms thus making the sail lie nearly flat. Without them the clews would be held in close to the bulwarks with the sail forming a rounded belly as was the case with the main course. The booms could be stowed from their goosenecks to crutches on the forecastle deck or removed entirely.

  The workmanship and design of sails was of the greatest importance and if badly done could largely nullify the performance of an otherwise well designed ship. Wrinkles around the boltropes, seams or linings were usually a sign of poor workmanship v:.rith uneven tensions between the cloth of the sail and its various stitchings and ropings.