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[TCC]

What are the vertical details on 1WW capital ships? It seems to be a pulley wheel at the top (under the cap), then 2 wires run down to the base... and then some ships have a coil of wire while some have some sort of fairlead/clamp.

What iare they and what are they for?

I'm not talking about the rigging 'stays', I mean the vertical details on the actual funnels side.

Thanks

[Liverbudgie2]

The "details" you are referring to are either chains or cables and they are used for hauling up platforms so access can be gained to the top of the funnel and the outer casing can be painted as well.

LB

[TCC]

The "details" you are referring to are either chains or cables and they are used for hauling up platforms so access can be gained to the top of the funnel and the outer casing can be painted as well.

LB

Well I never... I'd never have thought they were used for that! Never...

So how are they rigged? What keeps them against the side of the funnel when not 'in use'? There's the pulley at the top and a fairlead type thingy at the bottom, is there anything in the middle?

Thanks LB

[Bryan Young]

If you look at pictures of just about any ship, be it Naval or Merchant, you will see "gantline" blocks rigged at the top of the funnel. Usually they are rigged with just a light line and are used as a "messenger" for the heavier "stuff" needed when rigging for painting / cleaning etc. The light line would generally just be fastened off on a handily placed cleat. The messenger line wouldn't need to be any larger than a flag halyard....if that. If a messenger line broke then it was often the devils own job to get it re-rigged again! BY.

[TCC]

If you look at pictures of just about any ship, be it Naval or Merchant, you will see "gantline" blocks rigged at the top of the funnel. Usually they are rigged with just a light line and are used as a "messenger" for the heavier "stuff" needed when rigging for painting / cleaning etc. The light line would generally just be fastened off on a handily placed cleat. The messenger line wouldn't need to be any larger than a flag halyard....if that. If a messenger line broke then it was often the devils own job to get it re-rigged again! BY.

Thanks Brian, so you think at the bottom of these lines (there's a pair to each pulley sheel, an up & down) are jus tied around a fairlead or cleat? Has anyne got an actual image of a WW1 era capital ship funnel showing the bottom of these lines? All I've seen is models: the very smart 'ANSON' [Alex McFayden?] that's on the home page of this site and one of HOOD and that has coils at the bottom of thse lines.

My own plan (LION, battlecruiser) shows what may be a fairlead/cleat though at an angle, it's just a 2mm line at a slight angle to these lines. J Haynes's LION shows what I think are 'knots' at the bottom.

[MikeK]

Hi TCC, you talk as if this is a single block with two wires ie 'up' and 'down' Bryan is talking about gantline leads every ten or so feet (enough space for a man on a bosuns chair to overlap each run or rig staging (?) I don't recall any lines left reeved to the blocks as the time period between painting the funnel would have meant these lines could have been damaged by fraying in the winds. We always had a seaman climb into the funnel top and reeve the blocks from there. (A nice dirty job !)
There again the Grey Funnel Line had to look a credit to their country so probably spent a lot more time looking tiddly than an old Cardiff Tramp so left something on the funnel all the time !

Mike