NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Patrick O'Brian characters discuss time andlongitude
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2016 Jun 26, 19:43 -0400
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2016 Jun 26, 19:43 -0400
On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 6:38 PM, Rommel John Miller <NoReply_Miller@fer3.com> wrote:
The clew as opposed to the tack can be a bad nightmare if allowed to loosened in any stiff breeze. The earring is the largish grommet on the fly end of a sail at the base of the leech. To thread the earring would be to rig the tensioning line secured to the mast.
Since the clew to earring reference to me suggests the line which runs along a loose footed sail to the tack and is fastened into the clew.
Aubrey commands a square rigger, for which the terms differ slightly from that of a modern fore and aft sailboat. The clews are the two lower corners of a square sail, the earrings the attachments to the upper two corners. Clew to earring is the nautical equivalent from head to toe.
Don Seltzer
