Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Details and Deadeyes

One of the many details in the rigging of a vessel, especially a sailing vessel, is a round wooden disc with holes in it called a deadeye, as seen here aboard the schooner Merrie Ellen.

A concise explanation of how it is used is given here by Wikipedia.
A deadeye is an item used in the standing and running rigging of traditional sailing ships. It is a smallish round thick wooden disc with one or more holes through it, perpendicular to the plane of the disc. Single and triple-hole deadeyes are most commonly seen.
Triple deadeyes are used in pairs; a line called a lanyard is run back and forth between them, through the holes, so that they function again much as a block and tackle would. This provides a mechanical advantage, pulling harder on whatever the deadeyes are attached to. Pairs of deadeyes are placed in the shrouds (the lines that hold up the mast), where they are used to create greater tension in the shrouds.
In recent decades, as steel wire became the prevalent material for sailboat rigging, deadeyes and lanyards gave way to metal turnbuckles for tensioning the wires. More recently, however, with the advent of high-strength and low-stretch synthetic fibres, some sailboats are using synthetic rope for standing rigging, and deadeyes and lanyards are coming back into use as tensioning devices.
View many different uses for the letter D today by particpants in Mrs Nesbitt's ABC Wednesday.

15 comments:

Sylvia K said...

What an interesting post, Raf! I love it when I learn something new! Great shot and word for the day! Have a lovely evening!

Sylvia

Deden said...

you have lots of sharp and colorful picture, this is what i hardly tried to master, but u did it in every single shot. awesome.

greeting from Bandung Indonesia.

Olivier said...

mon anglais étant limité, pas certain d'avoir tout compris, mais beau gros plan...

??? said...

I learned something new from your post, I didn't know that term. It's called a Jungfer, a virgin, in German (I had to look that up, too).
The photo is just gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Nice shot and I've learned something new today. Thank you. :)

Andy said...

Deadeye also means marksman. You did that with a great photo with beautiful colours.

Kate said...

The photo is clear and sharp, and I enjoyed reading the information. I'm getting educated today with these different posts!

Kim, USA said...

Wow that must be strong strong wooden disc to hold such strong ropes. Great shot!


D is for Dad

Rune Eide said...

You have taught me something I didn't know - thank you!

Jay said...

I've seen those and never knew what they were! All I knew was that they were picturesque!

LeAnn said...

I love the rich color in the shot, coupled with the soft drifting cloud in the back.

Roger Owen Green said...

I dig that rig.

On behalf of the ABC Wednesday team, thank you! - Ramblin' with Roger

Louis la Vache said...

This was interesting to read - the old made new again.

Chuck Pefley said...

Thanks for the education, Raf!

Tumblewords: said...

Ah. Now I know what these deadeyes do - terrific photo, too!