Mike Harrison wrote:

I was in a tea shop today where they had a model of the sailing ship "The
Cutty Sark". I was intrigued by the way the masts were spliced. I would have
expected that if a long enough tree trunk was not available, they would have
spliced two pieces together using perhaps a scarf joint with maybe some
metal binding as reinforcement. The actual splices on the model were
overlapped by a distance approximately equal to 6 mast diameters, and
adjacent to one another with the upper section towards the front of the
ship. There was a horizontal plate at the top and bottom of the splice. Can
anyone tell me if this is the type of splice that was actually used and what
special feature about it made it the best splice to use?



Yes, from what you describe, the model was probably pretty
accurate. This was a standard way of making masts taller
than trees for several hundred years.

http://www.mkheritage.co.uk/cv/docs/...rnaticpic.html

In the pic linked to above, see #20 "crosstrees." These were
the pieces used at top & bottom of the splice between upper
& lowr mast sections. One advantage of doing it this way is
that the ship could carry spare mast sections and replace
spars along the way.

Here's another interesting link
http://sailing-ships.oktett.net/square-rigging.html

Fresh Breezes- Doug King