Main and Fore Preventor Stay

[Admiral Beez]

Newbie question here.

 

On my model build (see here) of Heller's 1/150 Le Superbe (but built to a British fashion), the front of the main and foremast top platforms have a line of small holes.   The image below says lines from these holes should connect with the fore and main preventor stays, but I do not see this feature on other models.  Maybe it was a French feature I can ignore in my captured HMS vessel?

 

Edited August 1, 2024 by Admiral Beez

[Blue Ensign]

They are called Crows feet and were common on British ships also thro’ the 18th c.

The purpose was to stop the foot of the topsail getting fouled with the mast top.

[TBlack]

Just as BE has indicated plus the lines go through the euphroe block that you can see in the drawing. Hollowneck in his log on Camilla shows this in some detail. It's on page 6 entry #164. Take a look.

Tom

[Admiral Beez]

5 hours ago, Blue Ensign said:

They are called Crows feet and were common on British ships also thro’ the 18th c.

The purpose was to stop the foot of the topsail getting fouled with the mast top.

Thanks.  I don’t see the crows feet on most Napoleonic era models.  Did HMS Victory ever have them?

[Blue Ensign]

They had fallen out of use towards the end of the the 18th c.

Victory may well have had them  in her earlier years, but  perhaps not after her great re-fit of 1800.

 

I note that the Vanguard kit of Indefatigable (1794)  has them  as part of the rigging.

 

B.E.

[Morgan]

8 hours ago, Admiral Beez said:

Thanks.  I don’t see the crows feet on most Napoleonic era models.  Did HMS Victory ever have them?

There is circumstantial evidence that Victory carried crows feet at Trafalgar.

 

The painter Clarkson Stanfield when preparing his ‘Trafalgar’ painting produced a first draft for comment.  The commentators in question were Trafalgar veterans including Victory’s captain Hardy.  This initial draught showed no crows feet, but the final version included them. This obvious change suggests that this was a correction made on input from those veterans and points to a strong possibility of Victory having them fitted at Trafalgar.

 

Gary