And we thought we had it hard

[j.sabourn]

There are 21 sails on a 3 masted ship. I think we all realize that the masts are named Foremast, Mainmast, Mizzenmast, and after Mizzenmast. On a four masted ship there would be more sails. A ship used to be a vessel with 3 or 4 masts square rigged on at least 3.
1. Flying Jib. 2. Jib. 3 Foretopmast foresail. 4. Fore Staysail 5. Foresail or Course. 6. Fore topsail 7. Fore topgallant 8. Main staysail. 9. Main topmast staysail 10. Middle staysail 11. Main topgallant staysail. 12. Mainsail or Course. 13. Main topsail 14. Main topgallant. 15. Mizzen staysail 16. Mizzen topmast staysail. 17. Mizzen topgallant staysail. 18. Mizzen sail 19. Spanker. 20. Mizzen topsail. 21. Mizzen topgallant.
All the ones with staysail plus the jibs, I believe are fore and aft sails together with the spanker and maybe others. As most seamen were illiterate at the time, shows they had to know the job. JS PS the square rigged sails would of been the Foresail or Course, Fore topsail, Fore Topgallant. Mainmast... Mainsail or Course, Main topsail, Main topgallant, Mizzen mast... Mizzen topsail, Mizzen topgallant. JS PS Anyone with a Palm and Needle ??? JS

[Doc Vernon]

Its all Mizzen to me ! LOL But interesting though!!

[j.sabourn]

The first ticket I was up for Vernon was in 1957. Even then they had the left overs from the sailing days, hows she heading was one, you still had to be able to box the compass in points and quarter points, If the examiner wanted to play hard he would say something like , the winds NE by N a quarter N, your course is WNW a quarter W, a sailing ships port side light is bearing NNW, hows she heading, it was standard practice to assume the sailing vessel could only sail 6 points into the wind, which is a fallacy as have been out on the Leeuwin as a volunteer out of Fremantle and was helmsman and could get 2 points into the wind no bother probably even closer but didn't want to go into stays. Anyhow the six points was only for examination purposes. In your head you the had to reverse the bearing go 6 points to the left for a red light or 6 points to the right for a green , then in ones befuddled brain bring the wind into it , so your answer would be she is sailing between such and such close hauled on the starboard or port tack. Had to be good on your mental arithmetic. The easy one was when she was in stays, i.e. when the wind is right ahead of her and she wasn't going anywhere, I got that one was lucky. The examiner must have liked me. Was 60 years ago and may have the number of points to right or left of the reversed bearing wrong, but was a similar quick way of doing, maybe the only way. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

Hi John
I sailed on the Leeuwin 2005, fantastic experience, they had a Scottish Shanty Man.

Photos
There is me leaping aloft on the Leeuwin, and three sailing ships I painted....................[ don't know why they come out so small??]
Cheers
Brian

[Richard Quartermaine]

I had a go Brian but no luck. Maybe if you took a photo of the painting with a digital camera and go from there.
Richard

[j.sabourn]

I got a phone call when on leave asking if I would volunteer to go out with a party of kids. The old man there was a retired Australian National line master, the only paid crew was the skipper the chief engineer, was only a small donkey engine for port moves and the Cook, all else were volunteers but for insurance purposes had to have seafarers there for watch keeping purposes, saw young kids about 12 or 13 change their demeanour in a period of hours. Had to prise their fingers off the wheel in a couple of cases and one of them was a young girl. They came they saw and were conquered. That's were youngsters of today should be, doing something constructive and not destructive. Cheers JS

[Bill Morrison]

John, I am an addict when it comes to real ships I have never sailed on one and it must be a rarity a Scot has an Englishman as a hero that is Basil Lubbock who's books I have a few.
I have a fair collection of books on sailing ships and one that may interest you is BY THE WIND Captain J. Murray Lindsay. In World War 2 he was a navigation instructor, stationed in Western Australia. He was believed to be the last man in Western Australia to hold a master's ticket in square-rigged sail. The book was published in the early Nineteen Sixties and he was born Nineteen Hundred.
Bill

[Keith Tindell]

John ref 6, when i retired, already owning a sailing boat, and taking qualification, i used to work for a sailing academy for youngsters. We used to take them away for a week at a time, and these were troubled kids. to see the confidence they had at the end of a week was incredible. We used to teach them very basic navigation, and from these kids skipping school etc, they would be seen scanning the charts and giving the course for the next day, and sailing there themselves. There are several sailing schools here in the solent who run this type of course for kids, Helen Macauther being one of them, kt

[j.sabourn]

#7...Bill don't think there are any holders of a square rigged ticket today. Sailed with a couple when serving my time , but they are a long time dead now. Giving a few more years and there will be no one able to navigate in the time honoured way also. Is not taught in any depth to what it used to be. There was an Engineer in Seaforths in the early 80"s who had sailed round the Horn in sail, and remember him dying in his middle years, but cant remember his name. You can see by the number of sails on the average ship that it took people who knew what they were doing to carry all that sail at one given time. I seem to recollect that on a visit to the Greenwich Museum, also visited the Cutty Sark ( on my honeymoon in 1962, would of thought had better things to do than look at ships) but the Cutty Sark was said to have never carried all that sail together as the masters there were always very moderate in their vocation, yet the Thermoplae did, memory might, may be wrong, as obviously had other things on mind at the time, rather think Cappys good friend Capt. Roberts and also Capt. Lamb served their time in sail. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

Captain Brown of the Shell Tanker AURIS served his apprenticeship on the famous Monkbarns, a Cape Horner.
Captain Fitzgerald Captain of the GEORGIC sailed on a Four Year voyage on one of the big Cape Horners, forget the name just yet.
Cheers
Brian