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Re: Massachusetts schooners, 1750s
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2008 Dec 23, 18:22 -0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2008 Dec 23, 18:22 -0000
It's always gratifying when a new topic tempts old-lurkers from their dens and brings them out, blinking, into public view. I hope for further postings. So thanks to William Sellar, John Rae, and Frank Reed too, for helpful and perceptive comments about the New England schooners of colonial days. Clearly, I need to consult Chappelle when the University awakens after its break (not until Jan 5). Both William and John mention a stay that joins the heads of the two masts, the "triadic" stay, as John calls it, though I'm more familiar with "triatic". That was indeed a common way of supporting, from forward, a schooner's mainmast (and also the further-aft masts on multi-mast jobs). It had serious snags, though. Because the masts were no longer supported independently, if one failed, it could bring down the others too. In their book on the 4-mast Schooner, "Bertha L Downs", Greenhill and Manning describe an event on the 5-mast "Gov. Ames", which must have been around 1900- "The stretch which developed in her new rigging gave concern, so she was anchored and her sails furled. The violent pitching that ensued caused a splice to fail in one of her headstays. Almost immediately the foremast and mainmast snapped close to the deck and crashed overboard to starboard, followed in short order by the three after masts, which fell fore and aft along the deck". But my curiosity about the smaller and earlier schooners wa aroused by the attached picture of "Baltick", a thumbnail of a well-known picture by an unknown artist held at the Peabody Essex Museum. The text (rather fuzzy in this low-resolution image) reads "This shews the Schooner BALTICK Coming out of St Eustatia, ye 16th Novr 1765". That's a schooner of the right period, presumably of New England build. It's a pretty picture, but does it represent reality? You will see that the mainmast is held up by a mainstay, which judging from its angle won't reach deck-level until some way along the bowsprit, and what's more, carries its own, large, staysail. And that stay, and staysail, occupy just the swinging-room, aft of the foremast, which the boomed gaff-foresail needs to occupy when changing tack. The arrangement Frank described, having two such forestays, going down to deck-level port and starboard, presents similar problems. So how would you contrive to put such a vessel about? It would be somewhat easier if the foresail was loose-footed, without a boom, and the sail could then be brailed up and over the mainstay when going about, perhaps given a pair of sheets, one each side: the leeward one held taut, the other passing loosely over the mainstay. It would be even harder to manage, if the foresail was boomed, as the Baltick picture clearly shows it was. Many pictures of schooners I've seen show that it was common for two masted vessels to have a loose-footed foresail and a boomed mainsail. Does that rig of Baltick give others the same difficulties that worry me? Not all ship-artists knew about the practical working of such vessels, commonplace though they would have been in their era. Did this one get it right? George. contact George Huxtable, at george@hux.me.uk or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---