The Art of Rigging (Dover Maritime) [Paperback]

George Biddlecombe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1990 | Series: Dover Maritime

The best manual ever produced on rigging a sailing ship, based on extensively revised and updated 1848 edition prepared by Biddlecombe, Master in the Royal Navy. Complete definition of terms, on-shore operations, process of rigging ships, reeving the running rigging and bending sails, rigging brigs, yachts and small vessels, more. 17 plates.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (August 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486263436
• ISBN-13: 978-0486263434
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Ships > History

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Art of Rigging, December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Rigging (Dover Maritime) (Paperback)

Used as reference for model ship rigging. The text and extensive, accurate pictures are outstanding. Very glad I purchased it from Amazon.com to enhance research library.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Time Machine to the Age of Sail, January 19, 2004

By 

Joe Heintz (Manchester, TN USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Art of Rigging (Dover Maritime) (Paperback)

When you open the pages of "The Art of Rigging," you step back in time over two hundred years. The language herein is that of mariners of the days of wooden ships. You must learn the language to fully appreciate the treasure that is this book.
The author or, more properly, reviser, Captain George Biddlecombe, Royal Navy, died in 1878. This book, first published in 1848 by another author, Charles Wilson, was based on a rigging manual published in 1794. It was again revised and published in 1925.
If you are expecting modern terms, word usage, and grammar, forget it! This is the real stuff, exactly as done and recorded by the men of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
If you are expecting an easy read on the order of "Dick & Jane and Their Dog Spot," forget it! This book is hard work, even the pictures can be difficult, but it is a varitable gold mine of information if you're willing to dig.
Here is a quotation that I found particularly opaque until I translated it into modern English: "Burton pendants are triced up by the girtlines, and placed over the top-mast-head, that the thimbles may hang on each side, to hook the burton-tackles in."
Poetry! I leave it to you to perform your own translation!
If you believe that there is no gain without pain, this book is for you. If you want your pablum spoon-fed to you, you'd best be advised to buy a plastic model.(...)

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars There so much better available, August 2, 2000

By 

Robert Lester (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Rigging (Dover Maritime) (Paperback)

For your money, you are probably better off spending more and getting something more comprehensive. Yes, it is basically a dictionary, but if you are after a good reference, get the 'Ship model builders assistant', or go the whole hog, 'Anatomy of Nelson's ships'. It contains little in the way of diagrams, and is very limited in its variance of ships.