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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

cordage, and shiftable from larboard to starboard, so as to be always fixed to lee-ward. Tins vessel bad a bowsprit and mizen-mast, which were placed on the lar-board side. It was only the main, however, which deserved the name of a mast;but this latter, which, in effect, supplied the place of all the rest, was, in propor-tion to the vessel, extremely large; and, for its still greater strength, was fishedfrom the kelson as high as the second deck *. Two flat pieces of wood, stronglybolted to the head of the main-mast, the extremities of which united at theheight of seven or eight feet above it, supplied the place of a top-mast.

r lhe sails, as stated in other instances, were formed of matting, square, andtwo in number; which, from their disposition, were fairly to be denominatedmain and fore-sails. The former was more than five-and-fortv feet in height,and twenty or thirty in width ; the latter was in the same proportion to the maston which it was hoisted. On each side of the sails several rows of bamboos werestretched across their width, at the distance, on the outer side, of about one footfrom each other ; but much farther apart on that next the mast. The sails wereattached to the mast by means of several fillets or hoops, as the European boom-sails are, at about one-fourth part of their width, on the side that had no sheet;thus dividing them into two very unequal portions, and leaving more than three-quarters of the sail on the sheet-side; but by means of this distribution, they couldturn round the mast, as on a pivot. The yards served to confine the sails above,and a large boom of wood, of equal length with the yard, performed the sameoffice below: this boom kept the sail in a state of extension; and, in order thatit should not tear it, it was held up by two blocks, suspended by two ropes, whichcame down from the mast for that purpose. These sails had only one sheet each,but several small ropes were attached to the ends of the bamboo already mentioned,and were either fastened to a rope, answering to the European sheet, or madeinto a large knot.

These kind of sails are furled and unfurled somewhat like that particular con-trivance, called a Venetian blind. When they wished to hoist the main-sail,the sailors employed two rollers, and three haulyards, which ran through three

* In the Account of the Embassy to China, mention is made of a considerable number of junksdiffering in construction from each other: some with four stout masts, tapering regularly to the head,and none of them supported by shrouds, but fixed by a strong massy step in the kelson below, andkept firm by large wedges driven in at the partners above. Some of their sails were of matting,others of cotton.

sheaves