Why do I have more lines than points to belay them?
{Ben Langford}

The lack of belaying plans on late 18th and early 19th century vessels has always been a puzzler.

On small vessels does a line really have to belay to a pin? What about cleats, especially shroud cleats. About 10 years ago my wife and took a holiday up on Georgian Bay and visited Penetanguishene, Ontario. There they have a privately run historical tourist attraction called "The Historic Naval and Military Establishment". This, on the site of the old Royal Naval Base and Military Headquarters for HM Forces during the latter part of the 18th Century. On the site was an old building which house a treasure throve of artifacts consisting of ships rigging gear, tools, etc. all of the period. There were dozens of shroud cleats on hand and partially hewn bitt heads. All acceptable substitutes for belaying pins.

Some years ago Chapelle and I were discussing belaying points on small vessels such as schooners and the like and he indicated that at times it was not uncommon to take a line around the base of a deadeye. As long as it would hold and could easily be let go was his only criteria.

As far as more than one line to a single pin I have always heard that that is entirely OK and the rule I have been following is related lines are OK for a common pin. That is to say a bunt line and a clew line for the same sail could be put on the same pin. It stands to reason that when the buntline was let go, the clew would be also.
{Dana L. McCalip}

Another belaying site in this era- at least in the smaller vessels I have been interested in, is the shroud-lashed pin rail secured above the deadeyes at about chest height. A very fine depiction of this format can be found in Merritt A. Edson, Jr.'s three panel drawing "A Rigging Plan for the Shoreham Cutter, c. 1765", published in "Seaways' Ships in Scale", Volume 4, Number 2, March-April, 1993, on page 73.
{Clayton A. Feldman}
RE: schooners. I just finished restoring a model of a 1930's schooner yacht. I went crazy trying to figure out the belaying points for this relatively simple vessel. Chapelle says one thing (primarily about fishing schooners), and other references, like Edson's book about the Bluenose, said something else. No reference I could find (and my library is admittedly incomplete), had a clear explanation or even generic plan for belaying points. I even looked at kit plans (such as, for a Revenue Cutter and a Baltimore Clipper), and they were hard to figure out, incomplete, or conflicted with what other plans said. I'm sure part of my problem was that I was looking at references for different periods and for different types of schooners...but I was desperate!

Some old full-rigged ship models I have repaired clearly have some lines "attached" to the shrouds.

Boy, it sure would be nice to have some clear plans for each basic kind of vessel...at least for schooners and ships. Couldn't some basic rules of thumb and a generic plan for each type be presented?
{David Blanchard}

On the Star of India, launched 1863, an iron hulled bark, we only doubled the bunt lines on a single pin. Shroud cleats, deck cleats, etc.. were only used for temporary belaying such as cargo handling or re rigging. I also researched and built a model of her, circa 1910, and the rig was almost the same. When she was launched, she was a full rigged ship, and even then didn't double up lines. From '89 to '93, I sailed three times and never encountered a reason to double up lines. When Turner's Bounty was in San Diego, we were asked to bend on a new foresail (her crew didn't know how) and they had many lines doubled on belaying pins. It was a nightmare trying to work that way and we were tied to the dock. I don't see how they sailed that way. In an emergency, the only thing to do would be to cut the lines, and then control would be gone.
{Bob Cunningham}
James Lees' book, The Masting and Rigging of English Ships of War 1625-1860 says that belaying pins in shroud racks dates back to about 1745 on small ships but was not seen on larger vessels until the end of the 18th century.

Steel's Elements of Masting, Rigging and Sail Making 1794 edition mentions wood and iron belaying pins and the use of shroud racks but does not mention the size of ships they were used in. An interesting note is that Steel describes iron belaying pins as being tapered from the middle towards each end and driven into boards, called racks. Taken literally, this sounds like a different shape then what we are used to seeing. (This is my own comment)

Keep in mind that all of this refers to English practice and one is left in the dark about American or continental European practice. It might be almost safe to assume that American practice could be somewhat similar, given no other information being available.
{Dana McCalip}

Course sheets are held as far outboard as possible. In many cases, there is a relief in the bulwark just to accommodate the lead of the sheet. It was held as far aft as possible. It's unlikely that a course sheet would be belayed at either fife rail.
{Jim Eagle}
When I mentioned pins I meant to include both pins and cleats. Sometimes there is not enough of either one. I also get puzzled with ships that have cleats on one mast and a fife rail on the other, yet the two masts have basically the same rigs aloft. With these inconsistencies there is absolutely no way you can belay lines in the same location at the two masts.
{Ben Langford}
I'm no expert on period ship rigging, but I am an ex-USCG Barque EAGLE sailor.

I can understand how difficult it would be to bend on a new sail with lines doubled up on pins. That operation, however, is somewhat unusual, and doesn't directly relate to day-to-day sail handling operations. EAGLE has a pin for every line, but in a pinch, we could have gotten by with some lines doubled up, such as the buntlines on the royals, t'gallants, and topsails.

Obviously, certain lines (halyards, lifts, sheets) would need their own pins to be accessible during normal and emergency operations. Tending the bunts and clewlines while setting sail, for example, is a fairly simple task. All you need to do is ensure that the lines run freely, and don't foul in the blocks.

When setting the royal or t'gallant for example, one person would handle the 3 lines on the port pinrail (bunt,bunt,clew) and another would handle the stbd side. This freed up everyone else to help on the halyard, where they were needed when trying to set the sail with just the 10-12 man watch section.

So, while modern practice does not necessarily mean anything when looking at period ships, I do believe that certain lines could have been doubled up on pins and still handled safely.
{Bill Michaels}

A very interesting thing I ran across when doing the Bluenose. Gloucester schooners had shroud bars with pins which gave them plenty of pins to belay. The Bluenose did not use shroud bars at all, so they really restricted themselves. Luckily I found enough pins in the pin rails with some doubling up.

The problem with a generic plan is that you may illustrate it with enough pins, then when you do your ship which has less pins you are stuck again. There are some plans around in books and NRG that give you a general idea. NRG shop notes has the Constitution and I think a whaler. For fishing schooners you have Chapelle, so there are those, but as I said I still get lost on a particular ship. Out of necessity I have to belay a line where it probably should not go, but what do you do when all the other pins are used up. I try to juggle back and forth but this changing drives you crazy.

I made a mistake. I meant to say topsail sheets. They do come down to the fife rail or could go outboard. The point I was trying to make is that if you belay the sheets on the forward cross bar at foremast, and then must belay to the side rail at main since there is no forward rail then you have a difference in the location at fore and main masts.
{Ben Langford}

According to RC Anderson in Seventeenth Century Rigging, he shows as typical at least until the early eighteenth century, as many as three lines on a pin (e.g. spritsail topsail sheet, spt tops'l clueline, spt buntline). There were also cleats & kevels (sometimes lashed to the yards).
{Dale Elhardt}
I participated in the partial re-rigging of the Lettie G. Howard, a Gloucester fishing schooner now at South Street Seaport Museum in New York City, back in the late 60's. I don't recall that we had any difficulty finding adequate belay points for her even though she did not have pin rails on the shrouds.
{Fred Petillo}
If you can acquire a book named In Praise of Sailors by Herbert W. Warden III , you will find on page 296 & 297 a belaying pin plan as well as a spar, rigging, and sail plan with complete labeling/ identification of items for a square rigged ship [mid 19th century clipper ship]. Location is at the back of the book.
{Eric Howard}
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