Master and Commander

[Greg]

Thanks, Shorty! Those bits were all from the part where Captain Jack Aubrey was taking a first look at his ship, the Sophie. He was thinking that she looked old and old-fashioned, which suited him just fine.

Now it makes a lot more sense!

So... what's a "royal" and why would a harbormaster tell Jack Aubrey that a good captain never sets his royals?

[Miros1]

I think a "royal" is a special sail, but I have no clue where it is, or why you wouldn't set it.

[Greg]

Yeah, I figured out that much from the context. At the point I'm in now, Jack Aubrey is thinking about setting his royals, but the ship is still in the harbor.

[shorty943]

Coming into harbour, masting was usually struck down to foot and topmast level.
The top-gallant mast, and the Royal, the next step up, were never struck until well out to sea. They catch the faster winds up higher, the ship can easily be pushed onto her beam ends. This can make a mess when still in harbour, with no hull speed for stability.

You're close to right Rosie. The sails are named for the mast and section of mast that carries them.
Coarse sail, lower-top, upper-top, top-gallant, royal.
It is the fifth one up, way up.
The main mast was equal to deck length at the top of the top-mast.
Then stepped above that comes, the top-gallant-mast, then the royal.
Fore-mast, Main-mast, Mizzen-mast, all stepped to the Royal

Any square sail higher than that Royal, and cookie is drying his tea-towells.

Edit.

Scanned from Vol 1 of BR 67 (2).

Sorry about the scan quality at the bottom of the page.
If Master and Commander, is of British origins, this is Royal Navy, Admiralty Pattern. They way I was taught. It may help.
This shows one only top-sail, but, many ships were split top-sailers, with an upper and a lower top-sail.
And the term ship, actually strictly applies, only to a three masted vessel, fully square-sail rigged on all three masts.
All others are schooners, ketches, brigantines, barquentines, clippers or some other type of sailing vessel.

[Greg]

Aha! Thanks, Shorty! That 'splains it!

Jack Aubrey is sailing on a brigantine named the Sophie. There's an illustration at the front of the book that shows the names of the sails but this ship doesn't have royals. I see the point now--the royals would put the most torque on the mast per square foot of sail, hence the most wear on this and that.

He keeps talking about the quarterdeck as if it were a poop deck, and in one spot even says it's "like a poop deck, almost a castle." It's a relatively small ship; a 150-foot brig that previously belonged to the Spanish. I think it was taken as a prize, but the book hasn't made that clear.

I'm guessing that Jack Aubrey's brig must look like this:

[shorty943]

Most probably. It is the rig that makes the vessel, not the hull shape or function.
That by the way, is a very "jaunty" little brig. Clipper bow, and a very racy countered stern.
A very sexy little brig.
Not a "Jackass Brig" with a schooner rigged mainsail, (no main squares) like One and All.
Most of the later big "Clipper Ships" were more like schooner rigged Brigs.
The British held to ship rigs, square rigs. Go like the blazes before the wind.
Not so good "uphill". The square rig can't turn around the mast and rigging far enough. A square sail can not "point" into the "eye of the wind".

The "eye" is the exact bearing of the wind.
A fore and aft jib-head, or Bermuda rig, of a modern yacht, can point up to about 1 1\2 "points" (1 point is about 11 degrees) or about 17/18 compass degrees, into the wind to be able to tack up-wind.
A square rig, you might, get to within 7 points into the eye.
In a ship rig, you tack across the wind. Literally.

An exercise.

Go GoogleEarth,
find Kangaroo Island, and the passage between the Island and York Peninsular. (It looks a lot like Italy. Boot shaped.)
Eastern end, Troubridge Island with Marion Bay behind.
Now picture this, truth, One and All.
2230 (hrs) All's well. Safety rounds over.
Weather fine, easy westerly, we're sailing west to Port Lincoln.
Shorty gets head down. Sleeps.
0600 duty watch call Chief Engineer Shorty.
Step on deck, seems like all is were I left it. There is Marion Bay, there's KI.
Down the Nav hutch go I, count and strain, almost 8 hours sailing, at an average speed of 10 knots, with 3 tacks thrown in overnight, we had "made good" 3 Nautical Miles to the west.
It can take a while, to get nowhere, in a square-rigger.

The smart owners and Masters, went to square on the fore-mast to run before the wind. With the rest schooner rigged, on big booms and gaff heads.

[Greg]

In the book, Captain Jack Aubrey's Sophie is obviously square-rigged but with a lot of staysails. I still haven't figured out what his ship looked like, which leads to some confusion when trying to follow the action.

He was talking to one of the officers about maybe doing 6 points into the wind. It's not clear whether the 6 points would be measured parallel to the wind or perpendicular to it.

[shorty943]

It is relative to the winds eye. That is, the winds true direction.
Measured radially, left or right, of the eye. So, we sail as few "points" from the eye of the wind as possible. As "close hauled" as we can.
Must maintain optimum angle of attack. Think of a sail, as a vertically arranged aerofoil section.

As in my above post, 1 point of wind is about 11 compass degrees.
To be able to "point" a square rigger up to 6? Nah, no way man.
Like I said, about 7 points at best. That is, 77 compass degrees off the winds true direction, then we tack or even "ware ship" (a yacht is "jibed" through the wind, a tail to the wind maneuver, a square rigger is "worn" through the wind, a frightening maneuver, much better feeling to tack nose through the wind in both types of vessel) around to the other tack. 77 degrees from the winds eye. Total tack, sailing direction change, 154 compass degrees.
All square riggers carried stay sails. Worst comes to worst, furl the squares and try to run into the wind on staysl's. But, the standing rigging still spoils air flow. Modern yachts are only stay-sail rigged.

It is the relationship between the ships center-line, and the angle of attack of the sail, to the true wind direction. Stay-sails are bent on the center-line, and the entire vessel, can be brought closer up into the eye of the wind. Squares, are bent onto yard-arms, which are arranged to pivot around the mast. And they are just not able to pull the yard-arms far enough around the mast, because of the shrouds that stay the mast sideways or athwart-ships. Square rigs are romantic, but not efficient. All sails, even to this day, are "bent" onto a mast, yard or boom. Using proper "bends and hitches", not KNOTS.

Once again, One and All.
2 masts, 13 sails. But, only 3 of them squares. All the rest, stay or boom bent, on the center-line. And even we could not point into the wind, because of the square rigging spoiling air flow over the masts, and therefore the leading edge of our "wings".
Laminar flow, Chord ratios and aspect ratios. Differentials of pressure.
Sound like aerodynamics? Sailing is. We just use the generated power, as drive not lift. But, still all the same practical applied science.

[Miros1]

I got A's in Physics and my eyes just went crossed....

[shorty943]

Okay.

Sails work using a differential in air speed and therefore pressure, between the 2 sides of the sail cloth, the front more curved side, air speeds up and loses some pressure, the rear theoretically flat side, the air speed remains constant and so does pressure.
This results in the higher pressure side being pushed towards the lower pressure side, giving the sail drive. In an airplane this force is called lift.
In order to generate this drive we must place our sails at a certain "angle of attack" relative to the true wind direction. We can't push the wind around, so we haul our yards and booms, into the right positions, to get the right shape into our sails for power.

Oh, were are my old theory books on aerodynamics?

In all sailing craft, the standing rigging that holds the mast(s) in place, can interfere with gear movement. In a square rig, the yard-arms can only move a certain distance before being stopped by the "shrouds", the big stays that hold the mast(s) side to side. This is not so in a fore and aft rig like a staysail.

A fore and aft rigged vessel can be brought up to tack closer into the "eye of the wind" than a square rigger, because her sails are on her center-line not across it.

It is here, Shorty realises he really must find diagrams.
Thumbnail dipped in tar, does not seem to translate from floor to ether very well.

More to follow.
Sail theory 101 will resume, after this short station identification break.

101-1 a quick diagram to show drive generated. All sails work the same.

101-2, an attempt to show the difference in a rigs ability to bring the ship herself into the wind. In a square rigger, the sails may be as close into the wind as any sail can be, but, the rig itself won't let the ship get up into the wind.
A fore and aft rig can be hauled right in to the center-line, and driven hard up into the winds true direction, instead of having to sail across the face of it.

Angle of attack.

[Miros1]

Between that and the David Weber canvas-and-cannon novel, I got it!

[Greg]

Yeah, that's it.

Capt. Aubrey's sailing master didn't think the Sophie would make six points to the wind, either. She has two square-rigged masts, each with three squares plus the royals. Then they hang staysails on every chunk of rope that isn't busy doing something.

From the description, it sounds like the stern is more of a tub, but so far the text hasn't been really clear on either the bow or the stern.

Rose, the key thing about sailing into the wind is that the sail creates lift toward the direction you want to go (sort of) while the keel balances that force to keep you from going off all caddywumpus. It's sort of like how an airplane flies except that the wing is on its side and the keel does the job of the gravity vector.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by Miros1

Between that and the David Weber canvas-and-cannon novel, I got it!

What David Weber canvas-and-cannon novel?

[Miros1]

The new one, Off Armageddon Reef! I wrote about it in the books thread....

[Greg]

Oops! It completely slipped my mind.

[shorty943]

Originally Posted by Greg

Yeah, that's it.
Then they hang staysails on every chunk of rope that isn't busy doing something.


Rose, the key thing about sailing into the wind is that the sail creates lift toward the direction you want to go (sort of) while the keel balances that force to keep you from going off all caddywumpus. It's sort of like how an airplane flies except that the wing is on its side and the keel does the job of the gravity vector.

Stays'ls everywhere.

One and All. On the Foremast.

Fore-stays'l, bent to the forestay, runs from bow to the foremast futtocks, and top-mast step.

Inner-jib, from 1\3 jib-boom to top of lower tops'l.

Outer-jib, from 2\3 jib-boom to top of upper-tops'l.

Flying-jib, from jib-boom end to way up the top.

Even on a "tupperware" club yacht, the fores'ls or jibs, are actually staysails.


Rose, the "thing" about sailing full stop.
Is the wind only ever comes, from where you want to go.

Seriously, a sail generates drive, using exactly the same laws of physics that a wing uses to generate lift. The same mathematical equations are used, to calculate the amount of drive a sail produces at any given wind speed, as those used to calculate wing loading for an aircraft.
And yes, a keel is a very handy thing to have. On any kind of boat.
It makes you go straight, Ish. In a sailing boat it stops you sliding sideways in the wind. It bites the water and forces the drive from the sail, transfered down the mast into the keel, to push the boat forward.
Or backwards, because you can actually force your sails "flat-aback" into the wind, and be pushed backwards. Tricky though, easy to fall over.

[Greg]

Does it count as a stays'l if it's not attached to a stay?

The impression I'm getting is that you shouldn't stand in one spot too long on deck because if you do, somebody will attach some canvas to you!

[Miros1]

It sounds like only things that are physically connected to the keel (even indirectly) are worth putting sails on. Loose stuff, like people, would just blow away.

[Eleyia]

Fortunately, it takes a pretty strong wind to blow people away. (Although I've sailed with some I wouldn't have minded if they just got swept away...)

Loose stuff on a ship, if not blown away, is just potentially dangerous, as we found out in Nova Scotia with a green crew who didn't understand what "lash everything down" meant. The pans in the galley threatened to take off the heads of the 1st mate and my future husband.

[Greg]

Eeek! I would guess that the homicidally inclined pans were propelled by the motion of the boat rather than the wind, unless it was one heck of a wind!

Yeah, now that you've got me thinking about it, it does take a pretty strong wind to blow people away, maybe even a tornado. Otherwise we would see bunches of empty windsurf boards coming ashore in Galveston.