Working a 74-gun ship, about 1805, order by order
Each evolution is a sequence of orders. Step through it: the drawing shows the ship from above with the wind at the top of the sheet, the text beside it gives the order in the period’s words and says which ropes are let go and which hauled, and the deck plan underneath shows where on deck that work is done. The left and right arrow keys step whichever evolution is in the middle of the window.
full, drawing ahead aback, the wind on its fore side shivering, edge-on to the wind becalmed by another sail loosed or clewed up, hanging in its gear furled: bare yard tiller (thin) and rudder way through the water
On each mast the yards are drawn at the angle they are braced to, the lower yard longest, and each sail as a belly on its yard: the course widest, the topsail and topgallant inside it. A sail that bulges towards the bow is full. One that bulges aft, in red, is aback. Whether a sail is full, shivering or aback is worked out from the wind and the angle of its yard, so the picture follows from the geometry. It is right in kind and no more: the angles are round figures, the track is a sketch, and nothing here is a simulation of a ship.
The headings and the wind are Darcy Lever’s. In his worked examples the wind is at ENE and a ship close-hauled lies six points from it: head north on the starboard tack, head SE on the larboard. Where he gives her heading at an order, it is shown above the order.
Helm orders in this period name the tiller, so “helm a-lee” puts the tiller to leeward and turns her head to windward. Each step says what the helm is doing; the convention, the wheel and the helm orders themselves are on the steering and theory page.
The gaff sail on the mizen mast is called the mizen, as Lever calls it. His “driver” and “spanker” are fair-weather sails set in its place. Larboard is the left side of the ship; the helm order for that side was already “port”.
The period manuals say what is done to the ropes and almost never who does it. The ship’s company of a 74 was 590 to 650 on paper. It was divided by skill (this is Masefield’s account of 1905, drawn from memoirs): forecastle men, the older prime seamen, who work the anchors, the bowsprit, the head sails and the fore yard; fore, main and mizen topmen, who work aloft; the after-guard, who “worked the after braces, the spanker, main-sail, and lower stay-sails”; the waisters, who “hauled aft the fore and main sheets”; the marines; and the idlers, who stand no watch but turn out when all hands are called.
The table sets those divisions against the station lists in two American manuals of the 1840s and 1860s (Brady, Totten). It is inference throughout, and it is what the steps on this page mean when they say who does something.
| Body | Station for tacking or wearing |
|---|---|
| Forecastle men | Jib and fore topmast staysail sheets, fore tack, fore bowline, head bowlines, spritsail yard braces and jib guys; later the head braces |
| Fore topmen on deck | Fore sheet, head braces, fore clew-garnets; a few aloft at the breast backstays |
| Main topmen on deck | Main tack and bowline, main clew-garnets, main top bowline |
| After-guard, mizen topmen, marines | Main braces, crossjack and mizen topsail braces, main sheet, mizen brails and sheet |
| Waisters | Tail on to the main braces, then run forward to the head braces; fore and main sheets |
| Quartermaster and helmsmen | Conn and wheel |
| Idlers | On deck when all hands are called, tailing on where told |
How many men went to each rope is not known. None of the sources read gives a count of men on the main brace or the topsail halliards for a ship of this size, and no station bill with numbers for a 74 of 1790–1815 was found.
The words “trice up”, “let fall” and “sheet home” are common to the RN and USN books. The RN has “away aloft” and “lie out” (1836) or “lay out” (1862); the USN has “lay aloft”, “lay out and loose”, “lay in” and “lay down from aloft”. All of these are from 1836 or later. For 1790–1815 the sources give the actions and Steel’s phrase “loose the topsails and heave out the staysails”, and no drill.
| Author | Date, navy | When to haul the after yards |
|---|---|---|
| Falconer; Moore | 1769; 1805, British | “When the ship has turned her head directly to windward” |
| Hutchinson, copied by Steel p. 319 | 1777, British | “when the wind is a point on the weather bow” (rough sea, doubtful staying) |
| Gower, copied by Steel p. 281* | 1793, British | head “about a point and a half from the wind” |
| Steel p. 316 (Bourdé) | 1794 | “when the wind is right a-head, or even a little before” |
| Lever, the old method, p. 76 | before 1808 | “head to wind”, which he calls an error |
| Lever p. 77; p. 92 (head sea) | 1808, British | “about a point and a half on the weather bow”; “a point on the weather bow” |
| Dana | 1841, US merchant | “within a point or a point and a half of the wind” |
| Totten, Luce | 1860s, USN | “The general rule, and a safe one, is to do so when the wind is directly ahead. But with a good working breeze… when the wind is about one point on the bow” |
| Boyd | 1860, RN | When the weather outer cloths of the main topsail are aback and the sail bellies aft: “The wind will then have been about two or more points on the bow” |
| Nares | 1862, RN | “a point and a half, or a point from the bow, according to the force of the wind” |
| Alston | 1860, RN | “when the wind is ahead, as a general rule, or, in quick working ships, a little before, taking the main top-sail as your guide” |
The British sources of the period split. The dictionary tradition (Falconer, Moore) says head to wind. The practical seamen (Hutchinson, Gower, Lever) say a point to a point and a half before it, and Lever presents the earlier haul as the modern improvement. The rows in grey are later books.
What the moment depends on: “the strength of the wind and the qualities of the vessel” (Totten); her way through the water (Nares: “If a ship has lost her way through the water, the main yard must not be hauled until the wind is right ahead”); and the look of the main topsail itself (Boyd, Alston).
Too late, the yards come round heavily and she falls off before she is trimmed. Nares explains why the help is lost once she is past the wind: “the weather side is becalmed, and the lee side is full of wind, the sail being aback, therefore it cannot come forward by itself.”
Too early is less tidy in the sources. A modern writer, Sam Willis, says that “if the order for ‘mainsail haul’ was given too early, the ship would surely hang in irons”, and cites no period text for it. Steel says an earlier haul makes the turn faster but “ought not to be attended to, except when the ship has lost her velocity, and the rudder its power”. Alston treats it as a tool: to fore-reach in stays “haul the main yard the moment you can insure her staying”; to avoid fore-reaching “make a late haul of the main yard”. My reading, which no source states in one place: after yards swung while the wind is still well out on the bow meet it more squarely aback than on their old trim, so they turn her faster but stop her sooner, and hauling early is safe only once she is sure to come round.
While she has headway the helm is a-lee. When headway ceases it is righted or shifted, because with sternway the rudder turns her the other way. After the head yards are hauled she may have sternway and fall off fast, so the helm is put a-weather for the new tack to check her. Hutchinson, in Steel p. 319: “the helm should not then be shifted a-lee, but should be kept hard a-weather, till her sternway ceases… Shift the helm a-lee when the sternway ceases.” Falconer’s shorter version has her “checked by the effort of the helm, which for that purpose is put hard a-lee” as she falls off.
Lever p. 92. The fore topmast staysail is hauled down first, because the sea “will continue to strike on the weather bow on every attempt to tack, and tend to pay her head off again”. She is luffed “taking advantage of the smoothest water”, and the fore sheet let go. “Mainsail haul!” is given at a point on the weather bow, with “the main tack, sheet, after bowlines, and lee braces” all let go at once and no separate order for tacks and sheets. “Let go and haul!” follows immediately the wind is on the new bow, “but the weather braces are kept in”. When she gets headway the helm is righted, and the fore topmast staysail is hoisted again.
| Stage | Falconer 1769 | Hutchinson 1777 | Gower 1793, Steel 1794 | Moore 1805 | Lever 1808 | Dana 1841, US merchant | Totten 1862, Luce 1866, USN | Alston 1860, Nares 1862, RN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warning | none given | “every thing should be ready and clear, the people properly stationed” | “About ship!”; “Ready about!” | none given | “ready about there!” | “Ready, About!” | “Ready about!” then “Ready! Ready! Ease down the helm!” | “Ready, O!” (Alston); “Ready all.” “Ease the helm down.” (Nares) |
| Helm down | “Helm’s a-lee!” | “order the helm hard a-lee with a loud voice” | “put the helm a-lee” | “Helm’s a-lee” | “The Helm’s a-lee!” | “Helm’s a-lee!” | “Helm’s alee!” | “Helm’s a-lee!” |
| Tacks and sheets | “Up tacks and sheets!” | “To off tacks and sheets” | “raise tacks and sheets” | “Raise tacks and sheets” | “Off Tacks and Sheets!” | “Raise tacks and sheets!” | “Rise tacks and sheets!” or “Rise main tack and sheet!” | “Raise tacks and sheets” |
| After yards | “Haul main-sail, haul!” | “haul mainsail” | “main-sail haul!” | “Haul main-sail, haul” | “Main-sail Haul!” | “Mainsail haul!” | “Haul taut! Mainsail haul!” | “Haul well taut; mainsail haul!” (Alston); “Mainsail haul” (Nares) |
| Head yards | “Haul of all! or, Let go, and haul!” | “haul off all” | “let go and haul” | “Haul of all, or Let go and haul” | “Let Go and Haul!” | “Let go and haul!” | “Haul well taut! Let go and haul!” | “Fore tack, head bowlines — Of all haul!” (Alston); “Of all haul” (Nares) |
More preparatory orders (“Ready! Ready! Ease down the helm!”). A cautionary “Haul taut!” before each haul. Overhauling the lifts and trusses in stays, which is not in Lever. And “Up mainsail” when the mainsail is hauled up for the tack, with “Main-topsail haul!” in place of “Mainsail haul!” (Alston; Totten’s glossary).
Lever draws two compasses to make the point. Tacking from north round to SE, through the wind at ENE, “she had only to move twelve points from her first position, and… till she came head to wind she was gaining considerably to windward”. Wearing from SE back to north “is twenty points, being eight points (or one-fourth) of the compass more”, and all of it run off to leeward.
A normal wear needs sea room because the ship is sailing ahead the whole time she is turning. In box-hauling the first part of the turn is made going astern. The squared after sails drive her astern, the backed head sails throw the bow off, and the rudder, which was put down to luff, is already in the right position to help once the flow over it reverses. She pivots “on her heel” (Lever p. 95) until the wind is abaft the beam, and only then gathers headway and finishes like a wear. This summary is mine, from Lever and Steel.
Steel’s second method uses a kedge on the lee bow, with its hawser brought to an after port, in place of the bower anchor.
Lever p. 94: “the weather ship braces her mizen topsail sharp aback, squares the head yards, drops her mainsail, and claps her helm hard a port or a weather… The head yards being square, drive her a-stern: the after ones with the assistance of the mainsail, greatly add to the sternway, and keep her head to”. To take way off a ship for sounding, he brings her gradually to the wind, brails up the mizen and mizen staysail, and squares the mizen topsail aback.
Two later practices are not in Lever: reefing in stays (“’Bout ship and reef topsails!”, Luce) and the pipe “reef topsails” as a harbour drill against the clock (Boyd).
The sequences come from the research notes for this strand and, for Lever, from the text of the second edition of 1819, which I read for tacking, flatting in, wearing, being taken aback, missing stays, box-hauling, club-hauling, heaving to, reefing, taking in sail, lying to, anchoring and casting. The notes had read the New York edition of 1843. The two agree almost everywhere; where they differ (which mizen topsail brace is hauled in wearing; “driver” for “spanker”) the page follows 1819. Quotations from the other authors are as the research notes give them, and I did not re-read those books except Steel on casting, the viol and the half-board.
Things the sources do not settle, said once more in one place: no period station bill and no numbers of men; almost no spoken orders in Lever or Steel beyond the four for tacking; the timing of “mainsail haul”; which clew of a topgallant sail to start first; what a harbour furl looked like; and whether “fighting sail” ever meant topsails alone. The half-board and the recovery after boxing off rest on one sentence of Steel each.
The deck plans use the leads drawn on the square sails page. Headsail sheets, staysail gear, the mizen’s brails, backstays and ground tackle have no drawn lead here and are named in the text only.