Fife Rail (or Fiferail) Research Questions

[CDR_Ret]

This is a research question on the structure and arrangement of fife rails constructed in smaller American merchant ships of the late 19th century. This question specifically pertains to the 1891 American West Coast brigantine packet ship Galilee, which is the subject of my topic found here in the Model Ship World forum.

 

I specifically wish to understand the basic structure of a "partial" fife rail. Galilee’s original forecastle was constructed just aft of the foremast and so close to it that the sides of the mast’s fife rail evidently were attached to the forward bulkhead and were spanned by a transverse rail forward of the mast. Two corner posts evidently supported the forward section of the rail. No details as to the number of belaying pins or other features of this structure were provided. The following image was taken from the plans of Galilee produced by G.C. Berger of the former Pacific Marine Research Society* in San Francisco sometime during the mid-1930s or later.

The foremast fife rail in the brigantine Galilee from the plans of the ship produced by G.C. Berger some time after  the mid-1930s. I obtained this plan through the National Park Service in San Francisco

 

One feature often seen in online photos and illustrations of fife rails is the presence of sheaves in the corner pedestals. Were these sheaves associated with specific types of running rigging that would be applicable to the square-rigged foremast in a brigantine? Would they have even been required for a relatively small packet ship?

Cropped photo of the mainmast fiferail sheaves in USS Constellation, Baltimore Harbor, April, 2012. (Photo by Joel Abroad via flickr. Some rights reserved.)

 

The following is the best photo I have of Galilee showing the various halyards, etc., that were evidently secured at the unseen fife rail. Since I am not really conversant about the kinds of running rigging such a ship would have, I can’t tell what each of these lines would go to. Would any of these have required sheaves in fiferail pedestals?

Lower foremast of the brigantine Galilee showing the few lines of running rigging leading to the fife rail at its base. Most of the upper running rigging lines ran down to the main pin rails through thimbles(?) attached to the shrouds. (Courtesy of the Carnegie Science Library, c. 1906)

 

Any assistance finding illustrative examples of such a fife rail would be appreciated. I have already done due diligence in trying to find examples on the Web and within the MSW site using keyword and image searches, but there is very little information on this topic and virtually nothing showing the kind of fife rail I am looking for.

 

Thanks.

 

Terry

 

*The "Pacific Marine Research Society" was formerly called the "Pacific Model Society," whose founding was "to encourage the preservation of Pacific Coast maritime lore." ( From the Senate committee record Maritime museum; Stones River National Battlefield; Western Historic Trails Center; and Pinelands National Reserve Visitors Center: hearing before the Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks, and Forests of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress...Vol 4; GPO, 1988.) This is the only reference I could find to the organization itself on the Internet. Some records from the Society remain.—RTE

Edited March 8, 2022 by CDR_Ret

[AON]

Have you Harold Underhill's "Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier" ?

Fold out Plate 51 (pages 281 through 290) show all 135 belaying points for all lines.

But I have not noticed any details on fife rail sheaves.

 

Edward Hobbs' " How to make Clipper Ship Models" has very informative fold out standing and running rigging plates (III & IV)

But once again nothing noticed regarding fife rail sheaves.

 

Wolfram zu Mondfeld's "Historic Ship Models" pg 310 has a figure showing the lowest heaviest yard halyard running down to a ramshead block where it and the sheave in the fife rail act as a block and tackle system to provide additional mechanical advantage to raise/lower the yard.

 

Are an of these of interest to you?

[AON]

The Fully Framed Model by David Antscherl  (Swan class Sloop) has these sheaves.

Modelling the Brig-of-war "Irene" by E W Petrejus does not show any.

The Brig Niagara (on Lake Erie) does not have these.

[Jim Lad]

Terry, i can't give you an answer for your specific ship, but by the late 19th century halliards typically led to blocks shackled to deck rings at the foot of the masts.  This interesting photo clearly shows sheaves in the pedestals of a merchant ship of the early 1840's, but by your period there had been massive changes to rigging practice.

 

John

 

[CDR_Ret]

@AON and @Jim Lad, thank you for your responses.

 

Alan, the references you cited are both several decades prior to the Galilee's construction and for ship types that probably don't apply to the smaller hyper-efficient/economic vessels late in the age of sailing merchants. (And I do not have any of the books in my library in any case.) Galilee herself was replaced by steam merchants on the San Francisco to Tahiti run before she was converted to a fishing vessel, so we are talking about the very last gasp of the age of sailing merchants.

 

John, you bring up very good points regarding potential line handling options. Sadly, I have no photos and no plans showing how the halyards for the lower spars were rigged. If there are any diagrams available of latter 19th-century rigging practices, those would be particularly valuable. The ship had only 10 crew, 8 of which were ABS, so she would have been rigged for maximum efficiency.

 

However, you have forced me to look more closely to the lines in the photo in my last post, and there is, indeed, a block attached to a port (right-side of photo) line that obviously is connected to another block/sheave below it. So perhaps we are making some headway here!

 

Terry

Edited March 8, 2022 by CDR_Ret

[AON]

Sorry, I assumed most vessels from the late 1700's through the 1800's would be rigged somewhat similarly so all sailors would be familiar with it regardless what ship they transferred to.  I am probably wrong.

 

I did not expect you to have the books I mentioned in your library, hence I asked if any information I had mentioned was of any interest to you.  I understand it is not.

 

I hope someone knowledgeable steps up and  you find what you are looking for!

Good luck Commander.

[CDR_Ret]

Alan, I really do appreciate your input. In fact, if those sources show an association between a particular line of running rigging and the fiferail sheaves, that could be useful information.

 

My concern, which was also echoed by John, is that rigging evolved so quickly during the latter 1800s, that trying to make a comparison between ship rigs separated by even two or three decades would likely be a problem.

 

What I need to know is, if fiferail sheaves were used, what parts of the rigging were involved, how did the lines run, and were these common on particular kinds/and or sizes of ships?

 

Terry

[Jim Lad]

Sorry, terry, my bad - maybe I wasn't thinking!   Sheets come down to the mast; halliards are out at the rail - tackle on one side of the deck and secured to a pin on the other side.

 

John

[CDR_Ret]

Actually, I think you were correct in the first place. Halyards lift spars and sails, while sheets are attached to the sails and booms to control the angle of the sails. I haven't rigged a ship model since I was a teenager when I built Revell's USF Constitution back in the 1960s. And I was briefly certified to sail boats loaned out by the Navy Rec Facilities over 30 years ago. And submarines don't have running or standing rigging! I have forgotten more sailing terminology than I remember these days. I've been so involved over the past six or seven years trying to simply sort out the structure of the Galilee that I haven't been too concerned about the ship's rig..

 

Terry

[Jim Lad]

Terry, at the period you're interested in, a tye was shackled to the centre of the yard and led up through a sheave in the fore side of the mast at finished in an eye on the after side.  The halliard ran through the eye and ran down to the deck on each side.

 

John

[Dr PR]

Harold Underhill's "Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier" (Brown, Son and Fergusin, Ltd., Galsgow, Scotland, 1946 to 1972) was mentioned above. It is the absolute best reference I have found for sailing ship rigging. The 11 page index has about 1500 entries - every term he uses is indexed. It is heavily illustrated and he shows how everything was rigged! Perhaps the only shortcoming is that is is for vessels of the late 1800s, making it less useful for people modelling earlier periods. But it sounds perfect for what you are looking for.

 

He talks about British sailing vessels of all sorts, not just clippers. By the late 1800s most ships were rigged in about the same way - the most efficient way.

 

I have been studying rigging for some time now, and when you do not have an authentic rigging plan for a ship you are left with guesswork. But there are a few general "rules" that were followed, because they worked.

 

First, most lines that led in to blocks on the mast or mast heads ran down to the deck at the foot of the mast. This was especially true of lines coming from lower points on the mast. Sometimes lines from the higher points were led down to the bulwarks.

 

Second, lines from lower points were belayed forward of lines from higher points.

 

Keeping these "rules" in mind, rigging was also positioned for the least chafing between lines and sails. Usually it is apparent how the lines lead down to the deck so they don't cross or foul each other. And when ships were rigged they started with the lower masts, spars and sails and worked upwards. So the upper rigging was worked around the already positioned lower lines.

 

Where they were belayed is another story! Fife rails, knightheads, pin rails, cleats and several other things were used. Just about anything you can tie a rope around. And sometimes lines were led through eyes on other lines, and even belayed to cleats tied to shrouds! If there were any "rules" for belaying points I haven't found them! I think individual Captains or mates just had their ways of doing things.

 

When a line led down to the deck it might have been belayed directly, or it might lead to a tackle of some sort. Lines that had to pull a load. like haliards that hauled up spars, or sheets that pulled against the force of the wind, often had tackles. But others likes like clews and brails that only lifted parts of sails that were being reefed just belayed directly to a pin or cleat. Often clews and brails for a sail were belayed to the same pin.

[AON]

I will post the one image showing the sheave in use later this morning when the noise of the scanner will not wake up Her Majesty.

Also, I just sent you a PM regarding the other information.

Alan

[AON]

HM is awake.

Here is the image from Wofram zu Mondfelds "Historic Ship Models page 310

[CDR_Ret]

Thanks for these inputs, everyone. And thank you Alan for the files you sent today.

 

I wasn't planning on getting into rigging at this point in the plans reconstruction process, but figuring out the fife rails sort of dragged me in. Even with this information, I'm afraid, as the good doctor said, it will be a coin toss as to what was actually the case.

 

The DTM photos show a lot of lines belayed to the bulwark pin rails; fewer lines leading to the foremast fife rail. So I will try to do my best and find a logical place for every line of running rigging when the time comes.

 

To make things even more difficult, this ship was originally rigged with wire standing rigging, and chains for a lot of the sheet and halyard pendants. All that was removed for the magnetic expeditions to reduce the magnetic constants of the ship. The crew even cobbled together some additional foremast back stays because the channels weren't positioned properly for rope stays.

 

Terry

[wefalck]

On the sheaves vs. blocks question: I have the feeling that the sheaves went out of fashion in the later 19th and were replaced by blocks bolted to the deck. The idea is turn the run of the rope by 90°, so that more men could work on it. If you pull straight down on a rope you can use your whole weight, but you could have only two men working the rope.

 

Blocks were commercial items by then that would be mass-produced, while a bitt with sheaves would have to be made by the shipyard and would have been more expensive. Also, the sheave-holes weaken the bitts.

[popeye2sea]

On 3/9/2022 at 7:55 PM, CDR_Ret said:

 

To make things even more difficult, this ship was originally rigged with wire standing rigging, and chains for a lot of the sheet and halyard pendants. All that was removed for the magnetic expeditions to reduce the magnetic constants of the ship. The crew even cobbled together some additional foremast back stays because the channels weren't positioned properly for rope stays.

 

Terry

Not to make things more confusing, but chain was not used for the entire length of most lines. A topsail sheet, for example, would be chain for the portion that would see the heaviest wear from the clew of the sail through the sheave at the yardarm and then to a point below where it turned through the cloverleaf block at the center of the yard. From there it was shackled to wire rope to lead down to near the deck where a rope tackle was shackled in for purchase.

 

Regards,

[CDR_Ret]

Thanks @wefalck and @popeye2sea.

 

I had already begun leaning toward blocks shackled to eyebolts on the deck under and inside of the fife rails. One belaying plan even showed the eyebolts. in that location.

 

Most of the iron/steel rigging elements aloft were all but eliminated by the second survey cruise (1907) to reduce the vessel's magnetic constants to the smallest magnitude possible. However, some items simply couldn't be removed because they were irreplaceable.

 

Terry

[Windships]

Re Pacific Marine Research Society 

you mentioned records of the group are still preserved. Can you share where they are please 

 

this is a significant topic of interest for me

looking for a Roster of the members 

 

thanks

 

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Windships
deleted personal email address

[BANYAN]

Hi Terry, to add to this conversation, the following is from the research I have conducted for HMCSS Victoria of 1855.  The 'corner posts' you refer to were called 'sheet-bitts' in the Contract (specification) for Victoria.

The Specification required “Topsail sheet bitts to each mast properly sheaved and fitted.  Gallows, bitts, and cross pieces, …”.  The Specification also required the builder: “To work stout copper on all the bitt heads,...”.

 

The following may also assist?

 

Burney, page 74, informs that to rig a chain topsail sheet:  (The Boy's Manual of Seamanship and Gunnery 2nd Edition_C Burney 1871)

To reeve a chain topsail-sheet, bend a hauling-line to the inner end of the chain, reeve it down through the cheek at the lower yard-arm, in through the rollers underneath the lower yard, through the gin in the sling of the yard, and secure it to the lags of the whip-block by a bolt; the standing part of the whip is made fast to an eyebolt in the deck, and the hauling part is rove through a sheave-hole in the bitts, or a leading block; the other end of the sheet is secured to the clew of the topsail with clasp hooks or shackled. 

 

Nares, pages 62 and 63, informs:  (Seamanship_ GS Nares 1868)

By reeving the hauling part of the lift through the after sheave of the lift block, the standing part may be secured on the fore side of the lower yard out of the way of the topsail sheet.

If chain, single, with a whip―the chain is led through a gin under the quarter of the lower yard, through rollers under the yard, up through the cheek which has a metal sheave on the after side of the lower yard-arm, and shackled or hooked with clasp hooks to the clew of the topsail; the end of the chain has an iron-bound block shackled to it.

The whip is rove through the block on the end of the chain sheet and secured to the bitts.

 

In Victoria, I believe the standing end of the topsail sheet fall was set-up to an eyebolt just outboard of the sheet bitts, rove through the upper block (as described by Nares) and led down to the deck.  The running part of the fall was then rove through (aft to forward to allow sufficient working room forward of the bitts) the outer sheave in the sheet bitts, the slack removed and belayed to the outer ‘ears’ on the top of the respective sheet bitt. 

 

The topgallant sheets utilised the inner sheave and were also secured to the ears of the bitt, but the lower block shackled just inboard of the bitt.  However, please note Victoria was not fitted with fife rails, only a crosspiece between the sheet bitts for the Fore and Main masts only.  Sheet bitts only (no cross piece) were provided to the mizen.

 

Hope this helps a little?

 

cheers

 

Pat

 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by BANYAN

[CDR_Ret]

Thanks @BANYAN. I've spent so much time immersed in developing the structure of the ship over the past seven years that I'm only now beginning to look at the rigging and related securements in any detail. And I'm not well versed in the jargon associated with masting and rigging, so what you quoted is mostly gibberish to me. A lot of catch-up will be required before drafting up the plans!

 

Appreciate your efforts.

 

Terry