Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on December 29, 2007 at 21:23:44 from 82.27.31.42 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: WDMTGTS questions, one fairly esoteric/nautical posted by Alex Forbes on December 29, 2007 at 16:19:37:
I have had a further search for photographs of Nancy Blackett and can confirm that there is a purchase on the main halyard but the standing part and the tail both run straight down to the foot of the mast, as one would expect.
I don't find any of the explanations for the block about ten feet up on the starboard side with a rope from the foot of the mast to the starboard chainplates convincing, but this block is in exactly the same position in 'All but OB', 'In the lock at Flushing' and 'Meeting the Sailing Ship'. The falls of the rope are also visible in the photograph of Nancy Blackett meeting the Pommern reproduced in Roger Wardale's Arthur Ransome's East Anglia, so it certainly was there in the 1930s. In both photograph and pictures the rope is taut, despite the pictures showing respectively heavily reefed mainsail, mainsail lowered and full mainsail .
And does the rope run aft, as appears in 'All but OB'? 'Rescue at sea' shows three cleats on the starboard side of the cockpit, but I would assume that these are jib sheet, staysail sheet and running backstay.