Lower yard lift span, late 18th century
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The lifts' purpose was to hold the
yards horizontal. They consisted a pair of ropes, which ran from the
yard arms to
the mast and from the, downwards to the deck. In ancient times and in
the
early Middle Age the lift blocks were situated at the masthead; until
the
beginning of the 17th century they were on the crosstrees, and since
then
have been on the cap.
British ships employed either common or fiddle blocks for
this purpose. while Continental practice varied: in the 17th century
they
had special extended lift blocks (see drawing on the left), from the
early
18th century fiddle blocks were used for the lower yard lifts, and
sometimes
for the topsail yards, while common blocks were used for the upper
yards.
From the middle of the 16th century in Britain the
yard arm blocks were stropped to the sheet blocks, while on the
Continent the lifts reeved through the upper part of the specially
shaped sheet blocks (see SHEETS).
The lower yard lifts were almost always
doubled, and sometimes even trebled, while those of the topsail yards
were usually double, and those of the topgallant and royal yards were
single. In smaller British ships the topgallant sail sheets sometimes
doubled as topsail yard lifts. The lower yard lifts belayed on pins in
the bulwark, while the topsail lifts often belayed in the top until the
first half of the 16th century. Later
they also belayed to pins on the bulwark, while the topgallant lifts
almost
always belayed in the top. In the second half of the 19th century the
lifts
were sometimes made from steel wire rope, and in the case of
non-lowering yards standing lifts were used i.e. the lifts were fixed
to the yard arm with
a shackle, without any blocks, taken to an eyebolt on the mast, and
shackled
in place there too.
The spritsail yard lifts
The spritsail yard lifts could be either fixed or movable. Standing
lifts were connected to deadeyes stropped to the yard, and further
deadeyes attached to the bowsprit on a long strop,
the pairs of deadeyes being linked by a lanyard, like the oud deadeyes.
Running lifts consisted of two blocks on the yard and two blocks on the
bowsprit, which were linked with falls and belayed at the foot of the
bowsprit. The blocks or deadeyes of the spritsail yard lifts were not
fitted at the yard arms, but half-way between the yard arms and the
slings.
One of the commonest mistakes on model ships is incorrect
positioning of the yards. Basically it is safe to assume with earlier,
smaller
ships that the fore, main, mizen and crossjack yards were rigged just
below
the mast cheeks and were not normally lowered from this location; the
spritsail
yard and sprit topsail yard were also likely to remain in a "fixed"
position.
However, as ships grew larger the topsail, upper topsail, topgallant
and
royal yards, carried immediately below the hounds when the sails were
set,
were lowered to just above the cap below when the sails were furled or
removed.
A typical example is "La Jeanne d'Arc" . Inspection of museum models or
reliable
illustrations of ships of similar size and date to that under
construction
should resolve any doubt.
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