File:Fore and aft craft and their story; an account of the fore and aft rig from the earliest times to the present day (1922) (14597449020).jpg

Identifier: foreaftcraftthei00chat2 (find matches)
Title: Fore and aft craft and their story; an account of the fore and aft rig from the earliest times to the present day
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Chatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble), 1878-1944
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Seeley, Service
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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sh for the big spar of the spritsail up aloft,swinging its heavy weight backwards and forwardsacross the ship as the latter rose and fell to thewaves. Any one who has had experience of ridingto nets or anchor with a spritsail rig in bad weatherwill agree that in such cases the sprit-rig is an abomi-nation. I have never heard of a spritsail-rigged vesselbeing employed in the fishing industry, with the excep-tion of the small hoogarts of Walcheren, and it is signifi-cant that the bawley rig, which is the nearest of all Britishfishing craft to the Dutch rig, has for her boomlessmainsail not a sprit but a gaff. But I have been toldby the owner of an English barge yacht what it feelslike to be in bad weather, even at anchor, with such aspar as shipmate. He had been compelled to run backfor shelter to the Dutch coast, and anchored. Therecame a shift of wind, and the sea got up. Presentlythis developed into a gale, the force of which I wellremember, for I was tied up in the snuggest of Dutch
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FORE-AND-AFT RIG IN HOLLAND 95 harbours a few miles away, and felt much of its powereven then. A terribly anxious night was spent, myfriend told me, as the barge viciously snubbed at heranchor, but the greatest anxiety was whether thatswaying sprit would break adrift and drop down,killing some of them, and perhaps crashing throughthe ship. This is not the place to tell the wholestory, but it may be added that after burning flaresfor a while during the night the barge had eventuallyto be abandoned, and was wrecked, though, I believe,subsequently salvaged, j^et much damaged. I mention this experience, which occurred only asrecently as the end of last summer, for it shows thatwhatever virtues this almost universal rig in Hollandpossessed in the seventeenth century, yet emphaticallyit was not suitable for vessels that were not keen onmaking a quick passage. Thus, if we turn now to thenext Van der Velde (Fig. 18), we shall see that theDutch did away with the sprit on some of their main-sai

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