Driver
boom, gaff and mizen lateen yard
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It is rather difficult to hold a
heading to any great degree of accuracy with square sails only, and in
the late 14th century a small mast was erected at the stern which was
fitted with a triangular lateen sail, in order to improve this
situation.
The lateen sail evolved in the Mediterranean, and was adopted in
Northern Europe generally at the beginning of the 15th century; in this
case it was termed the mizen course.
The lateen yard
The yard of a lateen sail is termed the lateen yard. In the
Mediterranean, where the lateen sail was often the only one carried
right to the end of the 19th century, the sail assumed gigantic
dimensions and the yard consisted of 2 or 3 spars lashed together with
wooldings. The upper end was called the head while the lower, thicker
end was the foot. Ships which were otherwise square-rigged often
carried very large lateen yards in the form of the mizen lateen yard up
to 1550, sometimes lashed together from two spars, but after that time,
and indeed on other ships before that time, it wa,S made in one piece
like the other yards, or was made up from square-section
timbers without wooldings.
In the 16th century lateen top and topgallant sails
were also introduced
on the mizen and bonaventure mizen masts of large ships, but they very
quickly disappeared again because they proved to be impractical.
The mizen lateen sail was retained until the early years of the
18th century when the fore part was removed and the leech lashed to the
mast. The lateen yard was replaced by a gaff in small ships in the
middle
of the 18th century .Large ships retained the lateen yard until the end
of
the 18th century , a few surviving into the early years of the 19th
century
.The lateen yard was not symmetrical around its thickest section, like
the
other yards, but was slightly thinner at the head than at the
foot
(see drawing on the left).
Gaff
and driver boom
In the second half of the 18th century the mizen yard was
cut short at the mast, and the remaining upper part was fixed to the
mast with a fork known as the jaws. A horizontal boom was then fitted
at the
bottom of the mast to enable the gaff sail to be fully deployed. This
also
ended in jaws, which rested on a saddle on the mast. The gaff and the
driver
boom jaws were held to the mast with a simple parral with trucks. In
the
19th century the jaws were superseded by goosenecks.
The driver boom sometimes carried foot ropes, and various means of
fitting a studding sailor ringtail were also tried. Like the lateen
yard, the gaff and driver boom were not symmetrical around their
thickest point, which is a point worth noting if you are aiming at an
outstandingly accurate model.
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