by R. C. Anderson
From the Preface--The production of a book on rigging by one who is neither a professional seaman nor a shipbuilder seems to require explanation, if not apology. The justification lies in the fact that a knowledge of rigging of any date before the introduction of wire-rope and other modern improvements is more a matter of historical research than of personal experience. The "old sailor" has a knowledge of the rigging of his own time at sea far more thorough and more practical than anything that can be obtained from the study of books, pictures and models ; but for the ships of a century or more before his time he is a very dangerous guide. Many a model has been spoilt by being rigged or restored by a man whose experience at sea belonged to quite a different period to that of the model. To give a very simple example, it is difficult to persuade a modern seaman that ships of 165o had no bobstays, and yet we know that this was the case. I myself parted company with one quite able rigger over this very question ; he insisted that he had been at sea and his father and grandfather before him and that there had always been a bobstay in their time — therefore there must have been one from the beginning of things. To the model-maker who uses this book as a guide, I have one request to make. That is that he should read the book right through before starting work. It has proved impossible, or at any rate undesirable, to stick rigidly to the order in which the work should be done, when it came to describing it. To some extent I have done this; for instance, spars come before standing rigging and this comes before running rigging; but I must admit at once that the book is not as easy to use as a "cookery book," where each operation is described in its proper place and one has only to follow instructions. If it had been a matter of describing the rigging of one particular model of a definite date and country, it might have been done; but with fittings and leads varying with nationality and with date, it would be almost impossible. A few words seem needed to explain the choice of dates for the beginning and end of this study. I chose 1600 for a start for two reasons: first, because it marks about the furthest limit of our knowledge of rigging in any detail; secondly, because it is the earliest date to which that characteristic 17th century fitting, the spritsail topmast has yet been traced; and my end date, 1720, was roughly the time when it was finally superseded by the jib boom and when 17th century rigging may be said to have given place to that of the 18th century.
