Spars and Rigging

Relying on his own experience in the U.S. Navy and consulting his contemporaries in the maritime profession, midshipman John Murphy published this book to provide an accurate portrait of a ship's rigging and spars (masts or yardarms supporting or extending a ship's sail). An important book in maritime history, the study describes every improvement made in seafaring equipment up to 1849. The thorough text is accompanied by more than 200 clear illustrations and diagrams of period equipment that cover everything from anchors, bowlines, bobstays, booms, lift blocks, and cat-head stoppers, to a flying jib, jackstays, top-gallant rigging, halliards, nippers, and topsail buntlines. An authentic look at the nautical world of the mid-nineteenth century, Spars and Rigging is an ideal reference for ship model builders, naval historians, and armchair sailors.