What exactly are deadeyes and how do they work? (moved by moderator)

[SpencerC]

The ship i'm working on uses deadeyes annd i have no idea how they work, i thought they just wrapped around like a pulley but theyre strung through the middle. It almost seems like there would be no point to using them if they didnt work like a pulley. Could someone shed some light on the subject for me?

[Kevin]

its a method of tightening shrouds - part of the main rigging on masts, here in this video you might gain some information

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU-h8i4LtPM

[Stockholm tar]

Hi Spencer,

 

Yes, you could look at it as a sort of pulley system for the shouds. The shouds are in pairs, the lower being fixed to the ship's side, the upper to the lower end of each shroud – and a lanyard reeves between them, connecting them together. Each deadeye has three holes, so there are effectively six lines per shroud, making for a very good support.

 

The beauty of deadeyes is that they can be taken in or slackened off, as circumstances permitted, and the shrouds set up as required. At sea natural materials, like hemp, are affected by the weather and humidity, and they behave accordingly – thus the ability to tighten up the shrouds, or conversely slacken them off, was a definite advantage. The crew, especially probably the bosun, were always alive to this movement and would watch for it. 

 

Sometimes the shrouds were eased off for other reasons, such as those on the lee side being slackened off so that the yards (especially the lower) could be braced round a little more.

 

This ability was largely lost when bottlescrews came in, but then the rigging was usually of steel wire.