Hanks for attaching staysails to stays

[Dr PR]

NOTE: Hanks are devices to attach the luff or head of staysails to stays. Some people call the rope coils created when belaying ropes to belaying pins "hanks" but this is a misuse of the term.

 

I am building a topsail schooner model for the period around 1815. I have worked up to rigging the staysails. I have seen a lot of posts on the Forum showing how different modelers have built their models, but nothing that actually considers the different methods for attaching staysails that have appeared with time. I researched the literature I have available and, as usual, found a lot of different opinions. So what should I use for an American topsail schooner (Baltimore Clipper) in the early 1800s?

 

 

 

 

Here is a diagram from Bengt Kihlberg's The Lore of Ships. It shows several methods for attaching staysails to stays.

 

At the top is lacing that is wound in the opposite direction from the lay of the stay.

 

Below that are wooden hanks, showing how they are made, fitted over the stay and tied to the sail.

 

At the bottom are metal hanks showing how they were tied to the sails.

 

Not shown are grommets made of rope to attach the sail to the stay. They were three loops of rope around the stay. I am not sure how they were attached to the sail, but I have seen one instance where the grommet was wrapped around the stay, and then was seized to the sail around the bolt rope similar to what is shown for the wooden hanks.

 

The top two methods are shown using rope stays, and the bottom method is shown with wire stays.

 

But the book doesn't say when each method came into use or for how long it continued to be used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first place I looked was Howard Chapelle's The Baltimore Clipper and found no mention of how the sails were made or rigged.

 

R. C. Anderson's Seventeenth Century Rigging says "Staysails were laced to their stays with thin lines passed the opposite way to the lay of the rope." Apparently in the 1600s hanks and grommets had not yet come into use and the sails were simply laced to the stays.

 

Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1769) describes the following ways to attach staysails to the stays: "GROMMET, ... a sort of small wreath, formed of a strand of rope, and used to fasten the upper edge of a stay-sail to its respective stay, ..." "HANKS, ... certain wooden rings fixed upon the stays of a ship, whereby to confine the stay-sails thereto ..." "They are used in place of grommets, being a later invention ..." " ... framed by the bending of a tough piece of wood into the form of a wreath, and fastened at the two ends by means of notches ..." So grommets were in use in place of the earlier lacing. But by the mid 1700s hanks had come into use to replace the grommets.

 

Steel's The Art of Rigging (1796) says: "GROMMETS. Rings made of worn rope, which are used to confine the nock of spiritsails to the mast ..."

"HANKS. Rings made of iron, or hoopsticks bent in a circular form, fixed on the stays to confine the staysails." So grommets were still in use in the late 1700s, but wooden hanks and iron ring hanks were also in use.

 

James Lees' The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625 – 1860 is a popular reference, but he doesn't mention any vessel smaller that large square rigged ships (even though the English had schooners and such). He says "Hanks ... were usually made of iron, bent round to a bow shackle shape, with an eye in each end ..." "Steel ... describes some made of wood ... but I have seen no model with wooden hanks and recommend the modeler to use the metal type." I question his implication that steel hanks were in use in the 1600s.

 

Darcy Lever's The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor (1808) is my normal go-to for early 1800s American rigging. He says "The FORE STAYSAIL ... is bent to Hanks ... made of ash or iron, and sometimes of Rope." He says about the same thing for other stay sails. He actually doesn't give any details for grommets, wooden hanks or iron hanks.

 

Wolfram zu Mondfeld's Historic Ship Models says "The staysails were bent with lacing or grommets until about 1820, after which time metal hanks seized to the sail were used." No mention of wooden hanks! But he implies metal hanks were used from 1820 on.

 

George Biddlecombe's The Art of Rigging (1848) revised Steel's earlier work for the US Naval Academy. It says: "GROMMET. - A kind of ring, or small wreath, formed of a strand of rope, laid thrice round, and used to fasten the upper edge of a sail to its respective stay ..." "HANKS are wooden or iron rings ... They are used in lieu of grommets." He claims grommets were still used in some instances in the mid 1800s, along with wooden and iron hanks.

 

Harold Underhill says in Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier "Stay-sails are bent to their respective stays by means of hanks, or metal rings, which enable the sail to slide freely up and down the stay." But he is mostly concerned with vessels of the late 1800s that used wire ropes extensively for standing rigging and some running rigging.

 

Howard Chapelle gives more specific information in his The American Fishing Schooners 1825-1935. "Wooden jib hank for hemp stays ..." "Horseshoe wrought iron hanks for wire rope …" "Wrought iron jib hanks came into use in fishing schooners when wire rope rigging was adapted, sometime before 1885." "Rings were first employed on all head stays..." "Horseshoe hanks came into use about 1887-9." His dates for the introduction of iron hanks are much later than other references, but he is talking specifically about American east coast fishing schooners. Apparently they adopted the "new technology" later than some navies.

 

****

 

Do I know any more than when I started researching hanks? Well, yes and no. It would seem that new ideas spread slowly, and old ways of doing things hung on for long times. But that isn't new!

 

To summarize, it would seem that staysails were introduced sometime in the early 1600s, and they were originally laced to the stays. By the mid 1700s staysails were attached to the stays with either rope grommets or wooden hanks. But lacing continued to be used into the early 1800s, and maybe later on very small vessels. By the mid 1800s grommets, wooden hanks and iron hanks were used. When iron hanks were introduced isn't clear, nor is the use of iron hanks and rope stays. But it seems they were used with rope stays on larger vessels before wire rope stays were introduced in the mid 1800s. By the late 1800s wire ropes were replacing hemp and other natural fiber ropes, and the hanks used with metal stays were made of metal.

 

What type of attachments were used seems to depend upon the size and period of the vessel, and consequently the size of the stays and sails. Smaller vessels continued to use lacing and rope grommets into the 1800s and maybe 1900s. Wooden hanks were from the mid 1700s up until wire stays were introduced in the mid 1800s. Metal hanks or rings were used on the largest ships perhaps from the early 1700s on through the end of sailing ships, and probably on all vessels when wire rope stays were introduced.

 

For my American topsail schooner I may use rope hanks or possibly wooden hanks. I think metal hanks would be inappropriate, and the ship is probably too large for simple lacing.

 

References

 

Anderson, R. C. 1955. Seventeenth Century Rigging, Model & Allied Publications Ltd, England. page 133.

 

Biddlecombe, George. 1848. The Art of Rigging. Brattleboro, Vermont, USA: Echo Point Books & Media, LLC. Reprinted 2016. Page 15.

 

Chapelle, Howard. 1968. The Baltimore Clipper, Edward W. Sweetman Company, New York.

 

Chapelle, Howard. 1973. The American Fishing Schooners 1825-1935. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company. Page 507-8.

 

Falconer, William. 1769. Universal Dictionary of the Marine. London: T. Cadell.

 

Kihlberg, Bengt et al. 1975. The Lore of Ships, Crescent Books, New York. Page 118.

 

Lees, James. 1990 The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625 – 1860. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. Page 37.

 

Lever, Darcy. 1808. The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor. Ottawa, Canada: Algrove Publishing Ltd. Reprinted 2000. page 59.

 

Mondfeld, Wolfram zu. 1989. Historic Ship Models. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. Page 266.

 

Steel, David. 1796. The Art of Rigging, His Navigation Warehouse, London. page 10.

 

Underhill, Harold A. 1946, Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier.  Brown, Son and Ferguson, Ltd., Glasgow. Page 13.

Edited yesterday at 05:08 AM by Dr PR