Square rigger sail connections?

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blue finger

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On a three mast 17th century merchant ship. Where are the two bottom ends of a square sail tie on to? Is there any additional rigging required. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
 
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blue finger said:
On a three mast 17th century merchant ship. Where are the two bottom ends of a square sail tie on to? Is there any additional rigging required. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.
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Hi Mate,
It depends on what sail you are referring to. The lower sail called "the Course" on each mast had 3 lines to the corner. Those lines usually terminated to the sides of the hull. The upper sails had the lower corners fed through a block on the yard below and belayed to the deck at the base of the mast.

A very good book by R. L. Anderson goes into great detail on the rigging of square rigged ships of that period and covers several different countries such as French, English, Dutch, and so forth.

Vince P. Ship-1
 
Vpirozzi said:
Hi Mate,
It depends on what sail you are referring to. The lower sail called "the Course" on each mast had 3 lines to the corner. Those lines usually terminated to the sides of the hull. The upper sails had the lower corners fed through a block on the yard below and belayed to the deck at the base of the mast.

A very good book by R. L. Anderson goes into great detail on the rigging of square rigged ships of that period and covers several different countries such as French, English, Dutch, and so forth.

Vince P. Ship-1
Click to expand...
Thanks Mate, for the constructive information. Appreciated.

Bluefinger.
 
welcome aboard As Zoltan said Member username @shipbuilder is probably the best one to answer this question. You can PM him if you need the answers right away. If you mouse over the name it will bring up his profile
 
Simply put, all the square sails had LINES (rope) attached to the lower corners of the sail (clews) and those lines are called SHEETS. In the case of sails with a YARD (horizontal pole with sail attached to it) below them, the sheets run through a hole in the end, in toward the centerline of the boat, and down to deck where they tie-off somewhere. On sails without a yard below them, the sheet typically leads to a hole in the rail where it ties-off inside the rail somewhere. These "loose-footed" sails have other lines attached to their clews, like TACKS that pull the sail forward when needed. Squares also have CLEWLINES attached to their clews that haul the corners up and in to facilitate storing the sail when not in use.
There's a lot more to it than that, that's just a simple an explanation as you'll probably get.
You should google "parts of a sail" and you'll get lots of illustrated information about sails and sailing such as....
Square-sail-86541700.jpeg

A Halyard
B brace
C lifts
D Sheet blocks
E clew lines
F bunt lines
G reefing pendant
H reef points
I bowlines
 
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