Rigging

Materials:

Rigging was made of hemp rope until much later steel ships with metal wires were used. The hemp for English ships was grown in England and then woven there. The major source for rope in England during the 13^th and 14^th centuries was Bridgeport in Dorset. The city sent out 4.327.3 kg of rope in 1348-51 costing 134 pounds including transportation 420 miles. About 80% of this cost would be the rope and 20% the transport. It was not too hard to make and only needed a winder and a long strip of clear land. Cordage was the overall name for the different types of ropes, going from thin threads to rope to cable, which could be as much as a few feet thick. A ratio of cordage needed to tons of a ship in the early 1400s is 1 ton cordage:33 tons ship⁽³⁾.

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Types:

(a) Standard rigging - taut lines that are unmoving, held with shrouds and stays fixed to masts and bows⁽¹⁾. (b) Running rigging - slack, slightly curved lines that pass through blocks on sails and then are belayed (wrapped around pegs instead of tied) on lower masts⁽³⁾.

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Reasons for the two types:

Standard rigging was there to help support the mast while running rigging was there to furl and unfurl different sails depending on the wind ⁽¹⁾.

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Changes over time:

Started out with very little, simply three ropes to hold the single mast and a few for the square sail, but then with the additon of masts and then many smaller sails on each mast in the 15^th century much more rigging was added⁽¹⁾. First had wooden pulley for the ropes, then changed over to bronze in the 15^th century⁽³⁾.

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Different styles:

Southern Europe used a ladder attached to the mast while northern ships had a woven ladder in the rigging. The northern style later became popular in the south as well⁽²⁾.

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Sources:

• ⁽¹⁾ The Sailing Ship. (MIT)
• ⁽²⁾ Marshall, Michal. Ocean Traders. Facts of File, NY: 1990. VM15.M368
• ⁽³⁾ Friel, Ian. The Good Ship. John Hopkins University Press, Maryland: 1995. VM17.F75