endurance rigging

[tsurfing]

I posted this in the kit build section and wanted to put it in the right forum area.

The attached image shows the shrouds attached to the mizzen mast but there is not enough detail to see how they are fitted. Are they lashed or mechanically attached to the mast?

Any help would be great

[Everest]

 In all probability the shrouds are held aloft by what is called a thumb cleat. The only  way I can discribe one is to say , it would look like one half of a boom jaw, only much, much smaller mounted verticaly on the mast. The shroud has a eye spliced in the upper end which is slipped over the top of the mast and rests in the space created by the thumb cleat and the mast, thus keeping the shroud from slipping down.

[tsurfing]

Everest,

Great explanation.

So the shroud has a big enough eye to slip over the mast. I never would have known that.

I have looked all over the internet to try to figure it out. Thanks!

I am building the Endurance in 3D with sketchup so I will add the eye to the rope.

[The Goods]

Hi tsurfing

Have you finished building the Endurance in 3D?

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I do not know Endurance intimately but certainly she was a very well photographed ship! I know she was of wood construction and her masts were wood too. She had steel wire rope rigging.  Endurance used a lot of patent equipment. For instance her Topsail yards were roller reefing, so even though made of wood she was fully embracing modern equipment. In this photo you can see many iron or steel bands on spars  with eyes on them to shackle the rigging onto. Its possible some Ferrules were used on the wood masts to support the eye spliced standing rigging, but I can't see examples in this picture of the wreakage.

[Jim Lad]

Another very common method was to have a small step in the mast at the position of the shrouds, so that the shrouds rested on the xtep.

 

John

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Yah the step Jim is talking about is the Ferrule mentioned above, sometimes anglicized to "Funnel"- its a point on the mast where the diameter shrinks suddenly, leaving a radially symmetrical shoulder, or step, that a properly sized eye splice slips down onto but can not slip past to the wider diameter. Maybe that is a Ferrule under the bundle of rigging at the top of that white tapered spar ( the mizzen truck masthead?) in a horizontal position in the center of the right hand side of the photo? Or it could be an iron band ON a Ferrule, which is often done for obvious reasons.

Edited February 7, 2016 by JerseyCity Frankie