Okay, we all know about tacking…but tacking our yachts is a simple affair taking mostly seconds and quite often single handed.
Ever given a thought to the task of tacking one of the old time square riggers, with the masses of gear, sequence of orders and the thought involved of timing to the winds and waves? How about this;
First Command
'Ready about! Stations for stays' this was the signal for all to go to their designated positions, see everything clear, braces ready for running and so on. The ship was got moving through the water as fast possible.
Second Command
'Ready! Ready! Ease down the helm' This last order indicated to the helmsman that the wheel should be put down, spoke by spoke rather than being jammed hard a-lee abruptly, which could cause a reduction in speed in consequence of the extra drag. To aid the luffing the jib sheets would be eased.
Third Command
'Helm's a-lee!' This order is a grammatical assertion and was the signal to let go the foresheet and headsheets. This lessened the effect of forward sail allowing the bow to swing into the wind.
Fourth Command
'Rise tacks and sheets!' The intention here was to run the clewgarnets up sufficiently so that the clews of the course would clear the nettings when the yards were swung. The lee tack and weather sheet were now shortened in as much as possible.
Fifth Command
'Haul taut! Mainsail haul!' If the main course were not set, the order was "Main topsail haul!" The yards on the main and crossjack were swung around together as quickly as possible and braced up sharp on the new tack.
Sixth Command
'Haul taut! Let go and haul' The head braces were manned, and the yards swung around smartly onto the new tack. The movement was expedited by hauling on the tack, fore and top bowlines
All the foregoing was not the whole story, far from it. In among that lot were myriad other orders and goings on; beckets and tricing lines, topsail halliards and breast backstays, early or late mainsail haul, early or late haul of headyards, and the helm to be taken care of…most important.
Imagine all this being carried out in the teeth of a screaming gale, being bombarded by hailstones on a pitching rolling deck or up the mast swinging like a pendulum. Lord Anson's fleet had to contend with all this when he rounded Cape Horn in 1740, his crews were decimated by scurvy and two of his ships deserted and returned to England. He was sailing east to west and it took him eight weeks to crawl round into the Pacific, tack after tack, with a weak crew. But they made it. Men would come down from aloft with their clothes frozen to their bodies, men of steel indeed. Alright, they were not yachts but it makes you think doesn't it?
