Note that we are looking at things from the modeler's point of view ....i.e. from outboard. With shroud- or hawser laid (right-hand laid) shrouds, the lower end is taken round the upper deadeye in a counter-clockwise direction, and the end passed inside (towards the deck) of the standing part of the shroud, crossing so it comes up on the left of the shroud. This means that the short end, comes on the forward side of the shroud on the port side of the ship, and abaft it on the starboard side. A large model of a Swedish warship, c. 1850, on exhibit at the Shipping Museum in Stockholm, shows this arrangement. The reason for making the turn counter-clockwise is to tighten up the twist in the strands and make them more impervious to water. A righthand laid rope is coiled down in clockwise fashion, ie. the opposite way, so the turns lie smoothly. The strands are being slightly untwisted. With cable-laid shrouds, which came into use around 1800 for larger ships, everything would be reversed.
In the prototype, the end crosses the standing part of the shroud, and the cross is secured with a cross-seizing. Unless the modeler is working at a very large scale, it will be far simpler not to cross the ends, and this means that the turn is actually made the opposite way to the prototype.
There is conflicting evidence about this, particular when we come to later
practice, deadeyes turned in cutter-stay fashion, the use of shrouds made of
iron- or steel-wire rope, and so on. Point of view is crucial, and many of the
illustrations found in old seamanship texts, etc do not make everything clear
...Hawser- or cable-laid shrouds, inboard or outboard view, port or starboard,
ends crossed or not, etc.
{John Harland}
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