io6 ALL AFLOAT 



(or rope) and the fore and aft points connected 

 by the stays to the masts, the fore point low 

 and the aft high. This is not the nautical 

 way of saying it. But ' points ' and ' corners ' 

 and other homely land terms sometimes save 

 many explanations which, in their turn, lead 

 on to other explanations. 



The heads of square sails are made fast to 

 yards, which are at right angles to the masts 

 on which they pivot. Sails and yards are 

 raised, lowered, swung at the proper angle 

 to catch the wind, and held in place by 

 halliards, lifts, braces, and sheets, which can 

 be worked from the deck. Sheets are ropes 

 running from the lower corners of sails. All 

 upper sails have their sheets running through 

 sheave-holes in the yardarms next below, then 

 through quarter-blocks underneath these yards 

 and beside the masts, and then down to the 

 deck. Braces are the ropes which swing the 

 yards to the proper angle. Halliards are those 

 which hoist or lower both the yards and sails. 

 The square sails themselves are controlled by 

 drawlines called clew-garnets running up from 

 the lower corners, leechlines running in 

 diagonally from the middle of the outside 

 edges, buntlines running up from the foot, and 

 spilling lines, to spill the wind in heavy 



