On Sun, 07 Jun 2015 09:17:35 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:

On 6/5/2015 5:58 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 05 Jun 2015 06:15:59 -0600, Paul Cassel
wrote:


I suspect it was a matter of "that is the way it is" so they just went
ahead and did it. Read the book "White Jacket", my Melville, for an
account of a voyage from San Francisco to New York (I believe) not so
much for the brutality but for the matter of fact attitude of the
crew. "Oh, the wind is blowing, we got to reduce sail. Well boys, lets
get at it".
--

I did and I"ve also taken a look at these model ships. I am having a
difficult time thinking of how they managed to survive these trips.
IIRC, White Jacket was a story about a frigate trip.

To furl or reef a sail, you crawled up the mast to the appropriate yard,
hustled out there holding the yard with your arms with feet on a line
below the yard. Then, when all in position, you pulled up a canvas sail
which was wet.


That is exactly how it was done, except of course it wasn't just you
up there, it was shoulder to shoulder across the spar. A Clipper ship
might have a crew of 200, largely to handle the sails. The crew of a
Frigate would have been larger.

See http://tinyurl.com/n9q8o8s which includes some actual photos of
reefing square sails.

Maybe I got that wrong, but that's how I saw it. The guides (?) on the
boat had no idea of its ops but rather wanted to sell this or that
tourist memorabilia.

I've been aloft in modest weather and can't imagine being up there in
heavy AND handling sails that way.

The nice thing about having been aloft in modest weather is now
amusement park rides not only fail to scare me, they relax me.

-paul

--
Cheers,

Bruce