Climbing the Rigging

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Okay... now do it again, without the safety lines and caribiner clips and the nonslip pads, in a half-gale... and make it faster this time, sailor!

(Egad. It boggles the mind. But this sort of climb would be a multi-times-daily routine for the topmen, and they'd think nothing of it...)

 

[johnnydef47]

i have had the chance to work in the topsails and almost as high as the topgallants and its a funny feeling. you really want to get the job done and get down but once back on deck I really wanted to be back up there. doing it in a gale is another story.....

 

[Patrick H]

Of course, the disorienting danger of climbing the rigging is enhanced by the wide angle lens here. That said, this is a perfect example of why I should stay firmly on dry land at all times. (...but I do love sailing in small boats as long as I don't have to do the climbing!)

 

[AndyHall]

. . . and a bosun's mate down below with a starter for, um, encouragement!

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

That video is why I would never have advanced beyond the rate of landsman.

 

[unionblue]

Can't swim or fly, hence my joining the Army.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

USS Macedonia, this made my toes curl anyway and am not really all that freaked out by heights.

USS Pensacola

 

[Carronade]

Robert Massie in Dreadnought mentions that when some ships of the British navy manned the yards, they would also have a sailor standing at the top of each mast. Not for all the rum in Blighty.....

 

[diane]

Very neat video! It's one thing to read about this but sure another thing to watch it...or do it! They say most of these sailors had no fingernails, finger tips or fingers... I think about the poor guy swept up in a Brit impressment gang who never set foot off dry land...! That's probably why they started them off at 9 or 10 - kids haven't got much of a sense of danger or fear of dying by ker-splat... Can't talk much, though. My New England ancestors watched an 80 ft whale go by and thought "I'll get my shallow little six foot canoe and go bring that thing back for dinner."

 

[rebelatsea]

Robert Massie in Dreadnought mentions that when some ships of the British navy manned the yards, they would also have a sailor standing at the top of each mast. Not for all the rum in Blighty.....

In the mast manning ceremony at HMS Ganges they still have the "button Boy" standing upright on the mast head.
It's also done at a couple of other places that have slipped my mind.

 

[bankerpapaw]

Can you even imagine climbing the rigging during a storm? Not for the faint hearted.

 

[AndyHall]

Can you even imagine climbing the rigging during a storm? Not for the faint hearted.

Expired Image Removed

Hence the old topmens' saying, "one hand for the ship, and one for yourself."

 

[DaveBrt]

Notice that they are standing on a rope -- and ropes get slick when wet and they break!!

The ones who really get me are the ones who signed up for a ship that intended to go round Cape Horn -- storms and gales for at least a week, each way -- and they were only signing up for money (and not much of it). Strongly suggest Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast."

 

[Brenal]

In the mast manning ceremony at HMS Ganges they still have the "button Boy" standing upright on the mast head.
It's also done at a couple of other places that have slipped my mind.

I thought Hms Ganges closed down in the late 1970's. My brother was there in 1973 and stood on that mast but not as button boy.

 

[diane]

One of the saddest scenes in Master and Commander involved rigging:

 

[peteanddelmar]

(Egad. It boggles the mind. But this sort of climb would be a multi-times-daily routine for the topmen, and they'd think nothing of it...)

IDK about navies, but weren't merchantmen filled with boys climbing to the top? 12 year olds were the topmen?

 

[johnnydef47]

Notice that they are standing on a rope -- and ropes get slick when wet and they break!!

The ones who really get me are the ones who signed up for a ship that intended to go round Cape Horn -- storms and gales for at least a week, each way -- and they were only signing up for money (and not much of it). Strongly suggest Richard Henry Dana's "Two Years Before the Mast."

great book. another good one is 'the last grain race' don't remember by who though

 

[John Winn]

I'm afraid of heights (well, if not well secured) and definitely of being in the water so that job is definitely of the nightmare type. It's amazing that such was required for most of the time sailing has been in existence. Hard choice: starve or join the navy and run the rigging.

I'd face canister before I'd climb up there during a storm at sea.

 

[rebelatsea]

I thought Hms Ganges closed down in the late 1970's. My brother was there in 1973 and stood on that mast but not as button boy.

You may well be right, but I have seen it done elsewhere, notably at Portsmouth on a specially rigged mast. Don't think the guardians of Victory would allow such shenanigans on board. I noticed the other day she has been de -rigged yet again.