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sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship
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sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship |
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Subject: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: Roberto Date: 24 Dec 06 - 03:04 AM From Sam Larner's version of Henry Martin: "Now come heave up your courses and let go of your main sheets And let her come under your lee" Please, help with these three expressions: heave up your courses (I intend this as to veer: right?) let go of your main sheets (I intend this as to lower the main sails: right?) come under you lee (I intend this as to go near to Henry Martin's ship, on the lee side). Thanks. R |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: gnomad Date: 24 Dec 06 - 03:35 AM Courses are the lower sail on fore- and main-mast of a square rigged ship. I would interpret the orders as stopping the sails from drawing by spilling the wind and heaving to [though backing the sails on one mast is not mentioned] allowing the other ship to approach the downwind [lee] side. Some square-rigger terminology scroll down. No doubt some real expert, maybe Les from Hull, can go into real detail. |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: Darowyn Date: 24 Dec 06 - 04:33 AM Heaving up your courses, would be preparatory to brailing them,(see the other thread) and the main sheets are the ropes that set the sails to the wind. Letting them go will just let the sails flap in the wind. Just like in the other thread, this will de-power the ship. Whether a skipper would then have the steerage way to "come under the lee" would be difficult to judge. Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: Charley Noble Date: 24 Dec 06 - 10:08 AM Roberto- "let go of your main sheets" "Sheets" in this sense are ropes (lines) which control the direction of the sails set. "Let go the sheets" would leave the sails flapping, spilling the breeze. "Halyards" are the ropes (lines) used to raise or lower sails (and their yards). I do hope you are careful when you are trying to sail next. Old nautical ballads may not be the easiest way to learn to sail. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 24 Dec 06 - 10:30 AM Roberto, you said: "Now come heave up your courses and let go of your main sheets And let her come under your lee" At least as I've known this song for many, many years, the word "of" doesn't belong there. It spoils the scansion of the line, and is not grammatically necessary anyway. And it's "let her come under my lee." The command is to the captain of the other ship, and "her" that captain's ship, so to "let her come under your lee" is self contradictory. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: Roberto Date: 24 Dec 06 - 10:45 AM Dave, Sam Larner sings as I wrote. Of course, not always the traditional singers sing logical verses. As for the meaning, I'm sure your interpretation is correct. R |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: dick greenhaus Date: 24 Dec 06 - 11:22 AM The reason being that one couldn't really aim a ship's guns--one had to aim the whole ship. |
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Subject: RE: sails in Larner's Lofty Tall Ship From: EBarnacle Date: 24 Dec 06 - 02:17 PM Let go your courses and let go your main sheets is redundant. The main sheets are the lines that control the lower corners of the courses, in this case, specifically the course on the main mast. If the instruction were followed literally, all of the lower sails on each mast would flap impotently. However, as the instruction only refers to the main there probably would not be much change in speed. It was normal, in the days of fighting sail, to shorten all sail except the topsails when accepting a combat challenge. This allowed the combatants to concentrate the crews at the guns while still having enough sail to control the vessel. In other words, the person who either wrote this song or ran it through the folk process did not know anything about operating a square rigged vesse. |
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