The Rigging of Ships: In the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720

For ship model-makers and students and enthusiasts of historic sailing ships, this generously illustrated book is essential reading and invaluable as a reference. It describes and depicts in detail how 17th-century English, French, Dutch and other European trading ships and warships were rigged from stem to stern throughout this colorful period in maritime history.

The book begins in 1600, the earliest date of our detailed knowledge of ships' rigging, and the earliest to which that characteristic 17th-century fitting, the spritsail topmast, has been traced. It ends in 1720, roughly the time when the spritsail topmast was superceded by the jib boom and other innovations of the 18th-century rigging. The book's 12 chapters cover every aspect of ship's rigging of the period, from the lower masts and bowsprit to the running rigging of the topsails and topgallants. Over 360 fine line drawings illustrate every item used in the rigging. Twenty-five halftones, extensively annotated, illustrate typical ships that plied the seas in the days of the bowsprit mast - English merchantmen and gun ships, French and dutch men - of- war and more.