"Question for Age of Sail Experts" Topic

I have a sailing terminology question.

Have a look at this here painting (click on the thumbnail image for a larger view):

link

Look at the top left corner of the painting.

There's this brownish circle-shaped thingy that's wrapped around the main mast.

I'm assuming the thingy is not a complete invention by the artist but a free rendition of an actual ship thingy.

What is that thingy called, and what does it do?

Don't say donut.

I think it's supposed to be the main mast "top" -- which is a small platform at the top of the lower main mast where the main shrouds and futtock shrouds connect.

Thanks!

That's what I'm assuming too, based on #43 on this diagram I've finally managed to dig up:

picture

The painting is very impressionistic and hardly shows enough detail to be sure – shrouds not clearly shown but at least one set in an impossible position, for example. Even with the rather strange perspective it is really too low on the mast for a main top but I'd concur that that is probably what the artist intended.

I can think of two alternatives but neither is any more likely given the late date of the vessel and her apparent size.

By shrouds do you mean what the diagram at #81 calls fore rigging? I noticed another diagram called them that.

EDIT: Namely, this one:

link

Only that this one calls shrouds the main mast thingies, while it calls the foremast thingies something that starts with "rat…"?

Shrouds are the standing rigging that hold the masts up. About half a dozen or so vertical lines on each side of the ship. Ratlines, pronounced "rattlins", are lengths of thin line tied between the shrouds to form a ladder.

My word, sometimes TMP does shine…

Less polls, more fo'c'sl's (sp?), plz.

@GildasFacit -- I thought the "top" was the platform at the top of the main mast lower, where the "Crow's Nest" would be at the top of the main top mast? IIRC on warships that first platform should be called a "fighting top."

The platform at the top of the lower mast (s) is called a top in the square-rig days. In the painting it appears as a band because the tops were often not solid – having openings or holes, and the artist was probably not familiar with the open nature of the top he was looking at.

Crow's nest is an earlier term and generally did not survive in common usage into the square-rig days.

"Fighting top" is a later term that came into vogue in the late 1800's when permanent weaponry began to be mounted in the tops – particularly when ships began to carry reduced rigging.

What VSB said plus …

By the 1880's the remaining sailing vessels often did have a larger number of shorter sails on each mast, which could be set or furled separtely rather than have to reef sails. Much of that could be done from the deck and so needed a lower crew count as they didn't need many men aloft.

Because of this the tops were removed and many ships only had a single top, often on the foremast, for a lookout.

A top positioned as in the picture is unlikely (though not impossible) in my opinion. It may be merely a fixing point for the standing rigging but those were usually rectangular, not circular.

It appears to be too low for a top. Also the top of the main mast is not shown there, so is presumably higher up. It could be a support for the lateen sail not shown between the masts as well. In short, I don't know.

Note also that the picture was painted in 1905, thus very late in the life of the sailing ship, and that the ship is a merchantman. And ignore those droopy spars!