Excellent How to Book for masting and rigging

[Bill Morrison]

I was given a great reference for masting and rigging for my birthday last month that I recommend highly.  It is a book called "The Masting and Rigging for English Ships of War, 1625-1860".  The book was written by James Lees and was published by The Naval Institute Press in 1979.  It s full of diagrams and photos that really make the intricacies of rigging very clear.

 

Bill

[allanyed]

Bill, congrats on having had this book given to you.   It has been my go-to book for rigging for years as it covers all types of English ships and a very wide range of time.  The ratios in the back of the book allow anyone to properly size masts, yards, standing and running rigging based on the size of the vessel and the time she would have been in service.  

Allan

[Bill Morrison]

It is an interesting book.  I especially like the diagrams throughout.  I wonder if there is a similar one covering French rigging and masting.

 

Bill

[mtaylor]

13 minutes ago, Bill Morrison said:

It is an interesting book.  I especially like the diagrams throughout.  I wonder if there is a similar one covering French rigging and masting.

 

Bill

 There might be one.  check ANCRE.   I think one of the volumes of the 74 Gun Ship set has some for 74's.  Many of their monographs also have detailed rigging.   So , for say a frigate, you'd look at one of their monographs of the type and period required.  

[Bill Morrison]

Thanks! I will do so.

 

Bill

[Dr PR]

Lees is a great reference for square rig English (and early American) ships, but he says little (nothing?) about fore-and-aft rigs.

 

The rules for fore-and-aft rigs are different from those for square rigs. Primarily, the mast are smaller diameter, so the dimensions for rigging (based upon mast diameter) are also smaller.

 

An excellent reference for for-and-aft rigs is Karl Heintz Merquardt's "The Global Schooner" (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, USA, 2003). Like Lees, Marquardt has lots of illustrations and tables giving dimensions of actual vessels. Schooners, but much of the details can be used with other small fore-and-aft vessels.

[Bill Morrison]

Phil,

 

Thank you for that reference!   I'm at the rigging stage for my detailing and upgrading of the Revell CSS Alabama.  Marquardt would be most helpful.

 

Bill

[Roger Pellett]

As a bibliophile of long standing, I have Lee’s rigging book, Marquardt’s Schooner book and two Ancre books; both about longboats.  My modeling interests tend towards smaller, less well known vessels.

 

Lee’s book is well done, and authoritative with sources well documented.  Unfortunately, it is limited to large, square rigged British ships.  If it includes information about small Schooners, ketches, cutters, sloops, I have yet to find it.

 

I have to admit that I “don’t like” Marquardt’s book.  Perhaps because a European Author is trying to describe an American Sailing ship type.  I know that this is chauvinistic but...   I’ll have to give it another look.

 

The Ancre books do provide rigging options for French rigged longboats.  Unfortunately, the rigging often appears overly complicated and heavy for such small craft and there is little or no explanation about where the author got his details.

 

Roger

[Bill Morrison]

Roger,

 

Well said!

 

Bill

[BobG]

51 minutes ago, Roger Pellett said:

information about small Schooners, ketches, cutters, sloops

 

Do you, or anyone else, know of a good, illustrated book or internet resource for the standing and running rigging for smaller vessels that would include illustrations for various rigging configurations for gaff sails and different types of topsails?

[Roger Pellett]

Steele provides detailed written information about some smaller British types.  For example for single masted vessels he provides detailed information for cutters. For sloops, he says something like:  Rigged as cutters except much lighter.  For longboats:  What little rigging they have is Iike sloops. He does provide detailed scaled drawings of individual sails for several small vessel types.

 

In rigging my Longboat, I used two rules of thumb.  First the rig had to work; Newtonian physics hasn’t changed since the 1700’s.  Second, technology, the way physics was applied, had to be that Available when the boat was built.  I also found Tom Cunliff’s Hand, Reef, and Steer to be very helpful as well as entertaining.  Cunliff is a practical sailor who has made long distance passages on traditional fore and aft rigged rigged sailing craft.  He analyzes each sail discussing rigging necessary as well as handling.

 

Another well regarded book is John Leather’s “The Gaff Rig.”  Of the two, I prefer Cunliff’s book.

 

Roger

[Dr PR]

Roger,

 

I had a similar reaction to Marquardt's book. Not only is he European (German) but he lives in Australia! This does lead to some difficulty understanding his terminology for rigging. He is primarily concerned with a replica of the first schooner to sail to/around Australia but has many excellent drawings and illustrations of other vessels. And he has the audacity to claim Americans didn't invent the schooner (although he does include very convincing evidence that it probably evolved in Holland and other parts of northern Europe)!

 

Wefalck clarified some of it elsewhere on the forum, noting that Marqurdt sometimes used northern European/Baltic terminology which is different from English and American jargon for the same parts of rigging.

 

My biggest complaint is that the book is very poorly proof read and edited. I have found dozens of typos and places where paragraphs were transposed and out of order.

 

But if you get past that (and I did) the book contains a wealth of information about schooner construction, masts, sails and rigging. And he does provide tables of schooner dimensions from many authors and for many vessels. So far it is the best reference I have found for schooners.

 

Lennarth Petersson's "Rigging Period Fore-and Aft Craft" illustrates the rigging of three vessels, a British naval cutter, a French lugger, and an American topsail schooner. The illustrations are based upon period models, so they represent only one variation of rigging for each type vessel. It is very useful, but has limited information on the variations within each type. There is very little text description and lots of illustrations, showing every line of rigging.

 

I found John Leather's "The Gaff Rig Handbook" to be an interesting read about the history of development of the fore-and-aft rig. But it is almost useless as a reference! Information about rigging types and details is scattered throughout the book, and heavily favors modern yachts. The index lists only people and vessel names and has nothing about the details of rigging. You practically have to reread the entire book every time you want to find specific details, so it is nearly useless as a reference.

 

Harold Hahn's "The Colonial Schooner 1763-1775" is a good read for the history of early American schooners. He has about 150 pages for the development of these schooners, with details about hull construction and plans for the hulls of two vessels. But he has only 5 1/2 paged for rigging, and they basically say "schooners had masts and sails."

 

David MacGregor's "The Schooner" is concerned mainly with the history of the development of this type vessel. It has many small line drawings for hulls, deck layout and sail plans, but not much detail about construction.

Edited March 22, 2022 by Dr PR

[NoelSmith]

Howard Chappelle I believe wrote a comprehensive book about the development of schooners and their rigging that may be worth seeking out.

[Dr PR]

Howard Chapelle's "The Baltimore Clipper" is the best reference for the topsail schooners from the American east coast. It has a lot of information about the construction of these vessels and many hull lines and sail plan drawings. His "The American Fishing Schooners 1825-1935" is the reference for the American fishing schooners, including a 369 page reference section with hundreds of very detailed drawings of just about every part of these ships.

[NoelSmith]

Phil has pre empted  me as I searched out the Chappelle book about the American Fishing Schooners that I bought in Boston a number of years back when visiting the US. The reference section Phil refers to in the book I have to agree is a veritable treasure trove of diagrams and information.

 

[allanyed]

For many techniques applicable to ships of the 18th century, volume 4 of The Fully Framed Model by David Antscherl.   

 

Allan