Unusual Fitting on 'Herzogin Cecilie'

[Jim Lad]

I've had a reply from my contact at the Mariehamn Maritime Museum. They tell me that it was a common fitting used when it was necessary to use a capstan on a different deck for a heavy job such as hoisting yards 0 remember that the yards on the 'Duchess' were all steel and thus very heavy to hoist.

 

John

[B-Ram]

The device is a open chock. It is used typically to guide mooring ropes. Usually in conjunction with a mooring cleat.

 

 

 

 

[Veszett Roka]

On 9/25/2024 at 10:48 PM, Jim Lad said:

I think perhaps we're going around in circles a bit with the mooring line thought, but I've had another idea - She had to change sails several times each voyage; could the fairlead have been used to help in hauling sails aft from the sail locker under the forecastle?

 

John

 

Don't think so. The below picture from Preussen shows that the sails were moved by pure manpower.

 

[dafi]

As the mooring lines of Victory were passed through the stern ports and also the poop deck was quite high above the water, I would expect Victorys fairleads on the poop to quarter deck to be associated with the normal running rigging.

Any heavier load like gaff claw and peak, also the mizen topyard etc. are all heavy weights and the poop deck is quite small. On the Vic they are still in the days of manpower and not the winchesm so the crew could pull from somewhere more spacious. 🙂

 

XXXDAn

Edited October 2, 2024 by dafi