Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-27
SPARS, ROPE AND TACKLE
NEW YORK SHIPRIGGERS AND
THEIR DANGEROUS CALLING.
Ropes a Foot Thick-The Cost OF
a Ships Rigging.

Ropes a Foot Thick-The Cost OF
a Ships Rigging.
The truth is that it looks like molasses
candy, but it is only tarred rope. One
end is made fast to the eastern wall of
great loft in South street. The other end
is wound about windlass, which four
stout fellows are laboriously winding.
You might suppose they were trying to
draw the two walls together, but they are
merely testing the rope. 1t was 200 feet
long to begin with, and it will be twenty
feet longer by the time the stretching
process is done.
Every rigger's loft in New York is
furnished with a windlass for stretching
cordage. II opens landsman's eyes rs
to the dimensions of hemp. He really
doesn't know rope until he has seen it
here. Giant Despair and his wife Diff
fdence could have hanged themselves
comfortably with the smallest bit Of cord
age that the riggers stretch. A three
inch cable is small. They run clear up
to eight, ten and twelve inches. Then
there are cables thick as mans wrists.
In all this port there are less than half
dozen rigging lofts, and not more than
200 riggers. 1t is ticklisn business,
fell vi sudden deaths and minor mishaps.
A man undertakes it after he has had
eight or ten years experience as q sailor.
If such man isquick and clever he can be
valuable outside assistant in fortnight.
That is a mere matter Of muscle and
agility. 1t takes longer to learn the less
dangerous, but more difficult, business OF
fitting and shaping. Once competent
rigger, man is sure of steady employ
ment at $40 to S25 week so long as his
bones and muscles are nimble enough to
make climbing safe and easy. There are
men forty-fve years in the business who
will yet shin up the tallest mast in the
harbor. In all the world there are no
more reckless men than the New York
riggers. Some one of the two hundred
are always at the hospital for repairs.
The foreman of a gang must watch from
morning till night if he would prevent
his men from performing feats that no
sane man would undertake. They will
climb to any height, walk out on the
slipperiest spar and hang by the most
treacherous rotten cordage. Cats go
into fits of horror at the sight, and mon
! keys turn green with envy.
The riggers are responsible for the ur-
| gallant saying that ship is called ''she"
because the rigging costs more than the
hull. 1t is not quite true, either, but
| spars and cordage are no small part of a
vessels cost. You may rig Il 2O00-ton
ship for $4,000. That means good spars
and stout cordage. Yachts cost more in
! proportion, because their rigging is a
delicate matter and the material used is
more expensive than that usually put in
| everyday merchantmen. A 2Q0-ton
schooner yacht just fitting out will be
rugged at cost of $4,000.
When vessel is to be rigged dia-
grams, drawn to scale, are made, snow
ing every line and spar. 1t is then a
matter of easy calculation to learn the
exact length Of all her cordage. This
once determined and the ma ;erial tested,
the cordage is cut TO fit. Everything
must be right to an inch. All this is
done in the rigger's loft. When every
thing is prepared, dozen men are set tc
work on the ship. A gang of skilled
riggers will take the bare hull of great
ship, and in two weeks time turn her
out with every line and spar in place.
Once the masts and spars have been set
up, the riggers are all over the ship like
so many monkeys.
| An old South street rigger, fifty five
years in business, talked about the trade
the other day:
Give rugged many big clipper ship, VI
said he. ''We put stout cordage in those
vessels. None of your wire cables, but
pure hemp that would last twenty years
as rigging and then fetch fair price in
market. Why, you can sell suit OF
hemp rigging that old for enough to buy
new suit of wire Not crucible steel
wire, that costs more than hemp and lasts
lifetime, but ordinary charcoal wire.
1t seems cheap at first, but it won't last,
and when it begins to go there's nothing
to be done but throw it into the sea. No.
body will take it off your hands. We've
more patching and less full-rigging than
we used to have. And there was the
navy. We used to rig the great war
ships, but now we look after only the
the revenue cutters and lighthouse ten
ders. '-NeoC York Star.