Endurance sails

[Barcomad]

I am on my second build and have started on the sails of the Endurance (Occre kit) the instructions show the standard Occre method of attaching the sail to the yards but looking at the photo of the main sail on the fore mast it appears that there is some sort of roller furling system, the others have the usual roband attachment.

The roller system (if that is what it is) is better seen on the picture of the wreck just before sinking.

I as far as I can tell from a quick search roller furling started to be used around the time that the Endurance (Polaris) was built.
Am I mis-reading the pictures? Has anyone else modified the Occre kit to include this feature? How do those intermediate supports work?
I have found a reference to "square sail furling like on the Endurance" but am stuck on going further with the research.. I will try to replicate how it looks but would like to understand how it is supported.
Any help or observations welcome...

 

[Uwek]

Interesting information.
I checked some available photos in the web
Seems, that not all sails had this device - only the fore top sail

Newly Restored Photos of Shackleton's Fateful Antarctic Voyage Offer Unprecedented Details of Survival — Colossal

In what may be one of history’s most famous successful failures, explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and 27 other men set out on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914 to make what they hoped would be the first land crossing of Antarctica. The crew had hardly reached the continent when their...

www.thisiscolossal.com

 

[Uwek]

Maybe it is the so called "Howe's Patent Rig" or another patent of a self reefing topsail, like the Cunningham

Howe's Patent Rig

www.bruzelius.info

Robert Kipping: "Sails and Sailmaking", 1861.

www.bruzelius.info

Clipper Rigs

Clipper Rigs General Sail Plan During the Reconstruction of the Cutty Sark in 1957, the Master Rigger for the Restoration as a Boy he had Sailed as late as 1924 in a smart little Barque, Rigged wit…

doriccolumns.wordpress.com

Reefing Sails From The Deck

While this method may be applied to topsails and top-gallant-sails, I especially apply it to courses, which, being so difficult to reef the old way, may by this method be reefed from the deck in a few...

chestofbooks.com

CUNNINGHAM'S SELF-REEFING TOPSAILS

Published in The Mariner's Mirror (Vol. 31, No. 1, 1945)

www.tandfonline.com

Interesting which different ideas were used

Equipment model; Mast and spar model; Sails set​

Scale:1:12. A working mast and spar model depicting a proposed self reefing topsail (1850) as invented by Henry D P Cunningham. The model is equipped and rigged with its sail (a modern replacement) set. The model comprises of a portion of the lower mast, the maintop, topgallant and royal masts with caps and crosstrees, lower and topsail yards, stunsail yards, together with associated standing and running rigging. The royal yard has been struck and sent down for storage purposes. The whole model is mounted on its original rectangular polished mahogany baseboard. There is a wooden plaque that is attached to the baseboard and is inscribed: "Cunninghams self reefing topsail. Plan for reefing from deck (invented by) Henry D. P Cunningham 1850."

Equipment model; Mast and spar model; Sails set | Royal Museums Greenwich

www.rmg.co.uk

 

[Barcomad]

That's the photos that I also found (in Alfred Lancing's book) that first alerted me to the roller rig.
I can see how the roller would be operated by ropes around the secondary yard at the extremities are supported on some kind of bearing. But, at something like 8 metres, the secondary yard would need intermediate supports. These can be seen on the photos but I have no idea how they would work. Perhaps a expanding roller clamp system...

 

[Barcomad]

Maybe it is the so called "Howe's Patent Rig" or another patent of a self reefing topsail, like the Cunningham

Howe's Patent Rig

www.bruzelius.info

Robert Kipping: "Sails and Sailmaking", 1861.

www.bruzelius.info

Clipper Rigs

Clipper Rigs General Sail Plan During the Reconstruction of the Cutty Sark in 1957, the Master Rigger for the Restoration as a Boy he had Sailed as late as 1924 in a smart little Barque, Rigged wit…

doriccolumns.wordpress.com

Reefing Sails From The Deck

While this method may be applied to topsails and top-gallant-sails, I especially apply it to courses, which, being so difficult to reef the old way, may by this method be reefed from the deck in a few...

chestofbooks.com

CUNNINGHAM'S SELF-REEFING TOPSAILS

Published in The Mariner's Mirror (Vol. 31, No. 1, 1945)

www.tandfonline.com

Interesting which different ideas were used


View attachment 350636 View attachment 350637

Equipment model; Mast and spar model; Sails set​

Scale:1:12. A working mast and spar model depicting a proposed self reefing topsail (1850) as invented by Henry D P Cunningham. The model is equipped and rigged with its sail (a modern replacement) set. The model comprises of a portion of the lower mast, the maintop, topgallant and royal masts with caps and crosstrees, lower and topsail yards, stunsail yards, together with associated standing and running rigging. The royal yard has been struck and sent down for storage purposes. The whole model is mounted on its original rectangular polished mahogany baseboard. There is a wooden plaque that is attached to the baseboard and is inscribed: "Cunninghams self reefing topsail. Plan for reefing from deck (invented by) Henry D. P Cunningham 1850."

Equipment model; Mast and spar model; Sails set | Royal Museums Greenwich

www.rmg.co.uk

Thanks for all this info.
It doesn't look like the Howes patent but some variation of the Cunningham self reefing.
I'll try to replicate it as best I can...