Some people have e-mailed me that they couldn’t open the November Newsletter I sent recently. I have been told the file is too big for some e-mail boxes. As an alternative, you can click on the link below to view it. If you want to receive the newsletter directly, and have the e-mailing where-with-all, send me an note and I will add your name to the list.

Enjoy!

You can download the latest issue here.

Saturday June 13 was the fifty second anniversary of Mayflower II sailing into Plymouth harbor. Past posts have covered many parts of the big event in 2007. You can also learn all about the ship and its history by going to the Mayflower section of our website.

This year there were a lot of things to do and see at the Mayflower site. We had paper bag puppet making, face painting, movies from 1957 running on a loop below decks, interpreters talking about Alan Vilieres, and all the books he wrote and a whole host of other things.

I was doing a book signing for the Felix and His Mayflower II Adventure, available through our online retail store, and the Nicholas, A New England Tale series of books, also available through our retail website.

The couple to my right in the picture is Joe Meany and his wife Ann. Joe was the American cabin boy during the 1957 crossing of Mayflower II. One of his duties was to keep an eye on the young kitten, Felix, acquired just before the ship sailed from Brixham.

We hear that a lot. Most times a simple answer is forth coming. “I’m painting the ship.” “I’m replacing a plank.” “I’m tarring the rigging. Today the response to that question has me staring into the corner I’m working in inside the great cabin and wonder, “Hey, yeah,what am I doing?”

This little bit of rot in the corner of the Great Cabin is one of those suprises that can really slow you down. We have been finishing up a repair in the cabin, started by the shipyard this past winter. (Maybe the subject of another post)

Finally we, that is Jack and I, (There is only Jack and I now, also a good subject for another post), are getting the bulkhead between the great cabin and steerage back together. the port side went fine, although there are always some unexpected little issue that crop up. the Starborad side however reveled a rotten block of wood that fits between to frames right at deck level. The block has always been hidden by a bed that was removed for this work. Upon close inspection the rot was discovered.

The best way to deal with this parrticular kind of blocking is to remove the planks on the outside of the ship, fashion a new block, with it’s dovetails and all, slide it back into place refasten, or make new planks, caulk. fill, and paint the new planks. Were talking maybe two weeks work, with staging, other jobs to do and the weather.

So I find myself staring into the corner, trying to figure out how to fit this new piece of wood, that is covered with bedding, only fits once it is in place, knowing all the time that this really isn’t the way to be doing this job. “Yeah, Mister, What are you doing?”

I am going to start posting again soon. Right now I am trying to remember how to insert pictures etc.

The picture is from last Friday’s launching at the Jones River landing. I taught a boat building class there last winter. The 13 students built this boat over the course of 10 weeks, meeting Saturday mornings and Tuesday nights.

My latest blog entry is a departure from discussing sails and rigging. This time around is presented another “Blast from the Past” Mayflower II image, one of a few that have been posted here from time to time over the past year. The previous vintage image, you may recall from a couple of months ago, was a unique night-time photo of the ship taken in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Capitol Building in the background.

Well, over the years I have made a personal quest to seek out unique photos of the ship taken during her history, those that haven’t necessarily been seen or published very often and, in most cases, pictures that I have never seen before.

The photograph presented in this blog posting may require a bit of background for any blog readers not familiar with the ship’s first year in the United States. Mayflower II, of course, arrived in Plymouth amid great fanfare on June 13, 1957. But she was not destined to stay in Plymouth for very long after her initial arrival. Plans were made for the ship to be exhibited in New York City following a brief 2-week stay in Plymouth. She was towed to Manhattan, arriving there in early July, 1957. She was warmly received there and was even let loose by her tugboat and under her own sail power for a short time in New York Harbor.

A little over 4 months later, after her New York exhibition closed, she was prepared to be towed back to Plymouth in time for Thanksgiving Day, 1957 when ownership of the vessel would be officially handed over to Plimoth Plantation. This is about the time-frame that this photo was taken… mid-November, 1957. The ship can be seen in a rare picture of her in a Brooklyn dry-dock, the water slowly being drained away out from under her. It is curious to see that the fore topsail and fore course are hanging loosely in their gear, not furled tightly to their yards in a neat “harbor furl” such as you can see with the spritsail.

I hope you enjoy seeing this photo, and from time to time I will have more to share.Below is slightly re-worded caption that accompanied this photograph when I received it:

Mayflower II eases into Dock 1 at the Bethlehem Steel Company Corp. shipyard’s dry dock at 27^th Street in Brooklyn, N.Y. on November 18, 1957 in preparation for her Thanksgiving return to Plymouth, Mass. (Photo from Cayton-Klempner Public Relations, 230 West 41^st Street, New York 36, N.Y.)

Here we are, almost at the end of discussing the rigging of Mayflower II sails. Hopefully I haven’t put too many blog followers to sleep as I’ve gone along. I hope that you’ve found it informative and remember, don’t be shy – if you have any questions or comments about one of Peter or my postings don’t hesitate to utilize the “Comments” feature attached to each blog entry.

This edition of sail rigging will discuss the fore and main courses, the ship’s primary sources of forward thrust, her driving sails. These sails are rigged much like all the others with mostly all of the same running gear we have discussed already. To set the courses, we have “sheets” and “tacks” which control the lower corners (or “clews”) of these square sails. The rigging plan drawn by Mr. Baker displays the courses and the spritsail all with sheets rigged with purchases.

This is one of a few notable discrepancies between what was planned and what actually came into reality. Captain Villiers felt that with an experienced crew the sheets’ purchases weren’t necessary so they were dispensed with and so far in the last 51 years sheets with purchases have never been fitted, although we discussed it back in early 1990. However the time and expense of having rather large lead blocks manufactured by block-maker Arthur Dauphinee in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia put an end to any of our perhaps overly-ambitious plan, although Mr. Dauphinee would at different times supply us with deadeyes for our new topmast shrouds and blocks and bullseyes for topsail and course bowlines.

To douse the courses, there are the usual lines that we’ve mentioned before – “clewlines,” “buntlines,” and “martinets,” the latter talked about when the mizzen sail was explained. To better help smother these large sails in 1957 there were 5 buntlines on the main course and 4 buntlines on the fore course. There were also metal-ring “buntline thimbles” sewn into the forward side of each sail through which the buntlines were led, thus drawing the sail up tighter to the yard, rather than just somewhat “halving” the sail. The new sails now on the Mayflower follow the rigging plan quite closely and there are only the requisite (and “historically accurate”) 3 buntlines on each of the courses and buntline thimbles are not present. And let us not forget the “martinets” which on the main and fore sails are a bit more complicated than those on the mizzen. There basic purpose is the same on the courses – to form a web-like net around the leeches of the sail to draw it up to the yard so that it can be securely lashed there with gaskets. As I said the martinets on the courses are a bit more complex than those on the mizzen…the upper ends of the martinets have a pendant slung over the topmast heads and below that a block-and-tackle purchase arrangement is formed with the hauling parts led down to the deck. Even though it sounds like a strange set-up in place of just a single leechline or two on each sail, the martinets when rigged properly do work well to spill the wind from the courses and help to draw them up snugly to the yards. Also worth mentioning here are a couple of interesting things about the main yard and fore yard. When the ship was built in England these yards were fitted with large wooden saddles at their centerlines. These served the purpose of helping to prevent the heavy lower yards of crashing back into (and gouging) the lower masts. When correctly aligned these saddles also allowed the main and fore yards to sit out away forward of the masts. This was significant because it allowed the yards to be braced around even more sharply when the ship was sailing close-hauled; with the saddles the yards could swing further around before they actually started to chafe against the lower masts’ forward shrouds. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for those concerned with historical accuracy) the saddles were removed in the mid-1960’s so the lower yards can no longer be braced around quite as far as in Mayflower’s earlier days. And, also, I’ll mention the other deciding factor on how much the yards can be braced – the brace pendants which lead aft from the yardarms. We discovered in 1990 that these pendants, too, had stretched out and were longer than what they should have been. This would have the net effect of the brace pendants becoming “two-blocked,” that is to say the pendant blocks would meet the lead blocks and no amount of hauling on the running parts of the braces from the deck would allow the yards to brace around any further. So we had to go to work and shorten ALL the brace pendants on ALL of the yards. After this, we had no further troubles.

Continuing on with the series on Mayflower II sails and their rigging, this time out it’s the lateen mizzen, one of the smallest sails on the ship but one that is very useful as a balancing sail. The mizzen is a triangular fore-and-aft sail set on the ship’s aftermost mast, high on the stern-castle. The sail is controlled by lines very much the same in function as those for all the other sails, although a couple of the lines are known by different names. To set the sail there is really only one item of gear - the “sheet” – which pulls the clew of the sail out from the mizzen yard. The mizzen sheet is actually rigged as a 2-block purchase…the standing part begins in a strop along with a block shackled to a small outrigger boom which protrudes aft from the poop deck thru the upper stern planking. The sheet then goes through a lead block at the clew of the sail, is led back aft through the block on the boomkin, then is led forward again over the after poop rail where it is made fast to a cleat secured to a stanchion. (It should be noted here that when the ship was much younger, in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, the sheet came through the block on the boomkin then through a fairlead hole cut through one of the stern planks at the poop deck level; apparently after one of the stern’s replanking projects the fairlead hole has never been re-cut). To take in the sail, or to “haul it up in its gear” as the saying goes, there are the lines that do the usual jobs. The “clewline” draws the lower aft corner up to the yard. Then there is a line that draws the lower edge of the sail up to the mizzen mast. On all the ship’s other sails this line would be called a buntline, but for some reason on the mizzen this piece of gear is known as a “brail.” There is also a confusing arrangement of gear that draws the after vertical edge of the sail up to the yard and smothers it. On the topsails & spritsail there are leechlines which draw the sides of the sail up; but here on the mizzen (as well as on the fore and main courses, which will discussed later) there is this convoluted gear known as the “martinets.”

A picture perhaps can better describe how the martinets work so therefore I have included a photo which shows how they form a web-like net to draw the sail up and secure it to the yard. Basically described there are two deadeyes through which are rove the legs, or “martlets.” They are also rove from one side of the sail to the other through bullseyes worked into cringles along the bolt-rope of the sail’s leech. As I said, difficult to understand from a description, but much easier with a photo or two to help one visualize how they work. Another interesting facet of the mizzen rigging is how the yard must be swung around to the opposite side of the mast each time the ship is tacked.

Normally when set the yard is suspended at approximately a 45-degree angle. When it must be swung around the mizzen mast, the sail needs to be hauled up in its gear and the yard is then stood up vertically, parallel to the mizzen mast. Once the yard is stood up, the “bowline tackles” at the foot of the yard are disconnected, the yard is shifted to the opposite side of the mizzen mast, the bowlines are rehooked and the “peak” end of the yard is lowered back down, the yard resumes its 45-degree angle and the sail is set once again on the new tack. This procedure somewhat baffled Captain Villiers and his 1957 crew until they got used to doing it, and it baffled us a bit in 1990, too, regardless of our having read Villiers’ accounts of the transatlantic crossing. But our difficulties arose from another piece of rigging which had stretched out to such an extent that it didn’t work correctly. The mizzen peak halyard consists, in part, of a pendant leading aft from the main-topmast head which has a lead block in its lower end. Well we could not stand the mizzen yard up to a vertical position the first time we tried because the mizzen peak halyard pendant was well over 31 feet long when, according to the rigging plan and specifications, it should only have been 20 feet, 6 inches. Somehow over the years of sailing inactivity this gear had stretched over 10 feet and was useless to do what it was meant to. We had limited time before the ship’s September 5, 1990 sail so we didn’t shorten the pendant right away. But we did so during the next off-season down-rig period and the mizzen peak halyard was working properly in time to sail the ship to Provincetown during the summer of 1991.

Both the fore and main topsails are pretty much identical in the way that they are rigged, so similar that we can discuss them both together. First off, since I delved into a description of how sails are bent (attached to their yards) in my previous blog entry about the spritsail, I will forego repeating much of that process in this and subsequent postings. And, further, bear in mind that a lot of the lines used to handle the sails are the same – so you will be seeing terms like “clewlines,” “buntlines” and “sheets” again and again as we go forth.

The lines of rigging such as these are appropriately prefaced by whichever sail is being discussed or handled, e.g. “spritsail clewlines” as opposed to “fore-topsail clewlines” or “main-topsail clewlines.” Clewlines all serve the same purpose regardless of which sail they are attached to; only the nomenclature changes. As with the spritsail, there are two basic functions of the topsails’ gear – lines used to douse the sail, spilling the wind so that it can be drawn back up to its yard for furling and lines that are used to set the sail so that it can catch the wind. Each of the two topsails has clewlines to draw the corners up to the yard and each one has two buntlines and two leechlines which draw up the bottom and sides, respectively.

In order to set the sail, the restraining clews, bunts and leeches are slackened and the sheets are lines attached to the clews and these pull the corners of the topsails out to large leadblocks at the ends of the next lower yards – in Mayflower’s case the fore and main yards. Once the sail is loose and the clews have been “sheeted-home” out to the ends of the lower yards, now is the time that the topsail yard must be hoisted aloft up the topmast.

The hoisting of these yards is done by crewmembers on deck, and it’s usually necessary for only one person to remain aloft in the working top while the topsail yard is going up; his or her duties would include making sure that nothing goes afoul as the yard goes up and to overhaul the buntlines, leechlines and the topsail yard lifts once the yard is raised up in place.

And speaking of the yard being hoisted, one interesting story goes back to the day in May, 1990 when we set the ship’s two new topsails for the first time. We fully expected to be able to raise the topsail yards up almost all the way to the topmast cross-trees. No such luck. Imagine our chagrin when the yards only went a little more than half-way the topmasts and then would go no further. What was the problem? It was a mystery to us so we decided to mull over the situation during coffee break across the street at Pebbles. As we sat there swilling java (and while Paul DiSalvatore enjoyed his customary ice cream cone for breakfast!) we reasoned out what was wrong.

There are two issues which affect the height to which the topsail yards can be raised and, luckily, both were things which could be fixed. First, the lower yards were not as high as they should’ve been and needed to be raised several feet each. Second, the tyes and runners (parts of the topsail yard halyards) were too long and needed to be shortened and adjusted. The ship’s natural hempen cordage does expand, contract and stretch and such was the case with these items of gear. It’s only conjecture but over several years the lines had stretched and when time came to replace them the new pieces of rigging were made the same length as the stretched-out old pieces, rather than being cut back to their proper length as specified in the rigging plans.

So the next day we went to work raising the fore and main yards up to their correct positions right at the point where the futtock shrouds are seized onto the lower shrouds. We didn’t bother using the truck to raise them; we used the capstan – the old-fashioned seagoing way – and it worked out quite well. After the lower yards were raised up we shortened up and adjusted the topsail yard tyes and runners.

All in all, this work took about a half a day. The next time we set the topsails, we were able to easily raise the yards almost all the way up the topmast cross-trees right where they were supposed to be – and right where they were shown on both the rigging plan and on the 1/2-inch to the foot scale model of Mayflower II which was built in the mid-1970’s by Erik A. R. Ronnberg, Jr. and which is on display in the Plantation Visitor’s Center.

I’d like to start off by discussing the spritsail, one of the smallest sails on Mayflower II, one that has a bare minimal amount of necessary running gear but, oddly enough, was the sail that in 1957 seemed to perplex Captain Villiers and his experienced Cape Horn officers the most; until they got used to experiment setting this sail it seemed very awkward to them. In actuality, it likely wasn’t the sail or its gear that was most confusing, but just how to trim the spritsail yard to make the most effective use of this sail.

The yard has a lot of confusing gear which controls it – lifts led out to the end of the bowsprit and braces originating from and leading back and forth to the forestay – and all these lines need to be handled in a relatively small, confined space in the beakhead where they are led and made fast to a pin rail just aft of the inboard bowsprit gammoning. As for bending the sail itself, the first step is usually to roll the sail up from its bottom to the top, leaving the bolt rope along the head (top edge) exposed.

Once rolled up, the sail can be temporarily tied up like this in roll along its length by twine. At this time (or prior) robands have been attached to cringles along the head of the sail. The robands are short, braided lines which will tie the sail securely to the yard. It is much easier to bend (attach) the spritsail when its yard has been lowered down into the beakhead, where the ends of the yards can be more easily reached. It can be done with the yard hauled out to its usual location beneath the forestay collar, but why not more easily bend the sail in the beak instead of having to walk out the sprit and have to work over the water having the various lines fed up and down by gantline?

Once the rolled-up sail and yard are in the beak it is a fairly simple matter to tie the precise centerline of the sail to the precise centerline of the yard. This method of bending sails to yards is pretty much the same for all of Mayflower’s sails. Once the center of the sail is secured to the yard, the ends (top corners) of the sail can be pulled out as far as possible to the ends of the yards. Lines called earrings are passed through a seized loop at the top corners of the sail and passed back and forth through holes in the ends of the yards.

Before making up the earrings permanently, the head bolt rope of the sail should be pulled taut along the yard using a small handy-billy or come-along, thus insuring there’ll be no sag between the roband cringles; the head of the sail should be pulled taut, no sag, and all the robands can be tied, well securing sail to yard, and the earrings can be made fast at the yard’s ends, port and starboard. From a practical standpoint the running rigging attached to the sprits’l is fairly simple. The lines can be considered in two categories – those that draw the sail up to the yard when it is to be furled and those lines used to draw the sail out and away from the yard when it is to be set.

The rigging plan for the vessel shows the sprits’l rigged with only one (centerline) buntline which is led over the forward side of the sail and draws the bottom of the sail up to the yard. There are also clewlines which originate on the yard, are led through a fairlead block at the clews of the sail, then up to other lead blocks tied to the yard, thence to the forward pinrail on the forecastle deck; the clewlines draw the two lower corners of the sail up to the yard.

Even though not shown on the rigging plan, when we rigged the sprits’l in 1990 for Mayflower’s first sail in 26 years we also added two leechlines to draw the leeches (vertical side edges) up to the yard, working in tandem with the single buntline. In order to set the sail all the clewlines, buntlines and leechlines are slacked away and the sail pretty much un-furls itself. To draw the sail fully out, there are lines attached to the clews called “sheets” - These are led aft from the lower corners of the sprits’l thru bullseye fairleads attached near the deadeyes of the after-most fore shrouds and then the sheets are made fast on the main deck abaft the forecastle bulkhead.

Once again, as mentioned in the opening paragraph above, the sprits’l and its gear really is not too complicated but, rather, it is the sprityard’s awkward gear – braces, lifts and halyard – which made setting the sail difficult when we first tried to master it back in 1990. But, after studying photos of the ship taken in 1957 and reading a few of Captain Villiers detailed accounts of handling the ship, it wasn’t long before we were able to efficiently set the sail for any wind conditions.

Here is the mizzen partner in all its glory. During this past winters Coast Guard inspection, it was noted we should (must?) replace the mizzen mast partner. Well, we are now, and of course it is a big job.

I’m working on this project. Jack is working on replacing some stanchions at the end of the half-deck. John Reed is working on rigging.  There’s a lot to see…..