Runner Pendants

[GLakie]

Hi Gentlemen and Ladies of course.

  I'm currently studying the rigging plans for MS's Constitution and am wondering if there is any other use for the Runner Pendants (mast tackle) and Burton Pendants, other than being used for various lifting jobs and fishing anchors and the like. Were they ever used for any other kind of structural rigging? Been looking around and can't seem to find much info on the subject.

 

Cheers

 

[popeye2sea]

In addition to hoisting gear they were used to heave taut the lanyards for the shrouds.

[GLakie]

Thanks Henry. I'll be adding that info to my memory banks as well.

 

Cheers

[JerseyCity Frankie]

They strike me as odd ropes to have around too. If you need to have a purchase aloft, why not just put a line around the masthead over the Trestle Trees? I guess you would need twenty more feet of rope to do it that way, if you didn't have the tackles hanging there. And I suppose the fact that they are there on every ship speaks to the fact they must have tried getting along without them and came to the conclusion they were better to have than not.

[GLakie]

Hi Frank or do you prefer Frankie?  

  

   After a little more research into it, I can see where they would be useful for a number of lifting tasks, on deck, and aloft, for hoisting yards, tackle, and the like. But when I first looked at them, I thought it was one of those parts that served no real function like a figurehead or something, but after researching, I found out different. Actually very useful. 

 

Cheers

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Another useful line but one not always indicated on rigging plans is the Gantline. Its a medium sized line running almost like a flag halyard to a block near the masthead. Its only use is for lifting objects aloft, or a person in a boatswains chair. The Runner Pendants cant lift anything even into the tops, and there is a constant need for equipment on the masts. Anything the men can't carry themselves into the rig goes up on the gantline.

[Stockholm tar]

I thought it was one of those parts that served no real function like a figurehead or something...

 

What?!! I think if you'd said that back in the eighteenth century (and the 16th, 17th and probably 19th as well) to a ship's company, you would very likely been thrown overboard!

 

The figurehead represented the 'soul' of the ship and was treated with great reverence. There is at least one occasion one record where, in the middle of a battle, the figurehead's hat was shot away and the ship's company refused to fight on until it was replaced. I believe the captain replaced it with his own and the fight was then resumed. Off the top of my head, I think the ship was the Brunswick and that it was during the Seven Years War – but I stand to be corrected.

 

Sorry, as you were...

Edited October 26, 2014 by Stockholm tar

[GLakie]

Frankie:

   I did find Gantlines during my research, but those are something that's added later to accomplish lighter jobs and not permanently attached to the ship. At least not the Constitution. I Actually found that in an old Deck Seamanship Handbook. Chapter 5 I believe. It's also called a "Girtline".

Kester:

   LOL! Yup, I probably should have re-worded that to read " one of those parts that serve no real "mechanical" function."

 

Cheers

[Force9]

The Burton pendants had another important function... They were set up first and used in conjunction with the Burton tackle to sway the lower masts in preparation for rigging the shrouds and stays.  They would steady the mast and hold the proper position/rake as the shrouds were set up... Afterwards, the pendants were utilized to tighten the shrouds.  I think I've seen a few models with the Burton Tackle still rigged to the pendants on deck.

 

Evan

Edited November 7, 2014 by Force9

[cardely]

Hi, Force 9, I'm a littile confused... Do you mean "burton",

 

then following your description, it seems before lower shrouds are set taut, the topmast must already be in position.

 

Is this the standard sequence of  assemblying the mast... (I really haven't come across any authority explaining plaintly this point)? 

 

Or perhas it is just the fore or main tackles you are talking about...

[cardely]

Anyone know the exact way to rig the mast tackle in tightening up the deadeye lanyards?

 

It seems most sources leave this detail to the readers' guesswork...

 

Would the lanyard be round-seized with the fall of the tackle?

[GLakie]

On a real ship they might use the mast tackle for that, but for our purposes, just tugging a little on the end of the lanyard to bring it taught is how I think it's done. Unless, of course, you want to depict something like that in your build, to show how it's really done.

 

Cheers

[johnh]

On a real ship they might use the mast tackle for that, but for our purposes, just tugging a little on the end of the lanyard to bring it taught is how I think it's done. Unless, of course, you want to depict something like that in your build, to show how it's really done.

 

Cheers

How the end of the lanyard was secured to the pendant is of no interest to the modeler. Methods are shon in Fig 23, p. 178 of an article on Deadeyes in NRJ Autumn issue 2014.

 

Two methods showing how the end of the lanyard was secured once it had been hauled taut, are illustrated in the attached files. Either turns taken around the standng part of the shoud above the uper deadeye,  or a single turn  taken and then the end of lanyard seized to one art of lany.ard on the inboard side.

 

John

[GLakie]

That's how it's done on a real ship sure enough. I'm probably wrong then but I thought cardley was trying to find out how to do it on his model if I'm not mistaken.

 

Cheers

[cardely]

Johnh and GLakie,

 

Many thanks,

 

I'm concerning the real ship only.

 

The last illustration posed by Johnh has shown clearly what I need.

 

Actually, I am looking for necessary details for my planned technical fiction (in Chinese) on seamanship, construction and fighting tactics of sailing men-o-war

.

In China, there's scarsely any serious work on Western fighting sails, despite a recent heating-up of this topic, by virtue of foreign games and series.

 

The games and series seem to care nothing about the historical reality, while errors are frequently made in the seemingly professional ship-

modeling in China. 

 

So it is necessary to let more lovers of sailing warships to tuch the hisrotical truth.

 

But to avoid composing a boring technical note, I choose to write a series of short fictions around real or fancied figures

[JerseyCity Frankie]

Most modern tall ship standing rigging is nearly always steel wire rope and thus its stable and can't stretch. But in the old days all rigging was natural fiber and it would stretch. Not only stretching as a result of strain placed upon it during use but also do to changing atmospheric conditions. Also it could shrink. So standing rigging had to be adjusted fairly regularly. 

Edited November 19, 2014 by JerseyCity Frankie