Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Detailed explanation of how to rig a sailing ship, November 4, 1998
This book contains a detailed explanation of how to rig a sailing ship. Complete with a glossary of terms and line drawings it is written by a 19th century Royal Navy captain. Although a little too detailed and specialised for other than builders of square-riggers I found it most helpful as a reference while I was crewing aboard HM Bark Endeavour. Anybody who has crewed for the first time on a square-rigger will know that it takes a while to sort out the mass of lines and blocks and determine the purpose and function of each rig, while more experienced hands rarely have the time to explain things fully. This handy reference book helps enormously in clarifying this puzzle and speeds up the learning process. For instance, I was unable to understand why the jib boom guy was necessary, or what the difference between a clewline and a clew-garnet was, until I read this book. A very helpful reference, if a bit old-fashioned in its presentation style, for all those who are, or are considering, crewing on a sailing ship.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Art of Rigging, December 5, 1999
By A Customer
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.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Time Machine to the Age of Sail, January 19, 2004
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.(...)
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