RIGGING OF STEAMSHIPS

set up by means of heavy bottle
screws to good eyebolts in the same
positions

The rigging at the topmast-head
is shackled on. An iron hounds
band is fitted round the masthead
on to which are welded four eyes.
One is on the foreside for the stay,
two a little abaft the middle part of
the mast for the backstays, and
one on the after side for the juniper
(triatic) stay. This is generally
shackled on to one topmast-head, led
down through a fitting at the other
mast set up with a bottle screw or
lanyard.

In old ships a grommet was
beaten down on to the hounds of
the mast, and large eyes spliced in
to the stay and backstays which go
on over the masthead. Stay first,
then starboard and port backstays.
« The weight of the topmast rests
on an iron fid, a square bolt which
goes through the heel of the top-
mast, each end resting on the
trestle trees. The trestle trees are
two short fore-and-aft angle bars
riveted to the sides of the lower
mast at the level of the fid.

Telescopic Mast.—When a tele-
scopic topmast is first fitted, a short
piece of wire or chain is rove through
the sheave hole in the heel and made
fast at each side of the lower mast-
head. To send the mast down. Take
the end of a wire mastrope aloft,
marry it on to this short piece, haul
it through the sheave hole and
make fast to the lowermast-

Fig. 2.—A Telescopic Topmast.