The main topsail

The running rigging of a 74-gun ship, about 1805

The lookup page: choose a sail, then a line, to trace it through all three views. The square sails explained in order is the place to start.

From astern, looking forward. Starboard is on the right. Lines that leave for another mast are cut short here; follow them in the profile.
Profile, bow to the right. The yards are square, so each is seen end-on and the sail edge-on.
Deck plan, drawn under the profile to the same scale. belays on the forecastle, quarterdeck or poop, at the shrouds or in the top belays on the upper deck, a level below fitting not named in the period sources

lead as Steel or Lever describe it position not given by either; my inference made fast block belayed A dotted name in the list has no lead to draw.

Which sail has which line

All the square sails at once. A dot means the line is fitted, a dash that the sources say it is not, a question mark that they disagree or are silent. The sail names open that sail above.

How this is drawn

The spars are those of the 74 in David Steel’s tables of 1794: a large-class ship of 1,799 tons with a lower deck of 176 feet, a main yard of 97 feet and a main topsail yard of 70. Mast positions follow his rule. The heights of the decks above the water, and so of everything aloft, are my estimates and are good to a few feet, not to inches. The deck layout is taken from Admiralty draughts of the Bellona and Arrogant classes and Elephant (1786), stretched to Steel’s length.

The sail is set, the yard hoisted and the yards square. Ropes that in life lie against the mast or along the yard are drawn a little apart so they can be told from one another. Rope sizes are circumferences, as the period measured them, and were read from a poor scan of Steel’s table.

The ship is rigged as of about 1805. Where Steel (1794) and Lever (1808) differ, both are given and the drawing says which it follows. Lever is quoted from the 1819 text; the 1843 American edition that is easiest to find online was rewritten to later practice. The mizen is drawn with a standing gaff and a driver boom.

Sources