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The Mariner's Mirror Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmir20 THE WHIPSTAFF.—II H. S. Vaughan Published online: 22 Mar 2013.

To cite this article: H. S. Vaughan (1914) THE WHIPSTAFF.—II, The Mariner's Mirror, 4:5, 133-144, DOI: 10.1080/00253359.1914.10654796 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00253359.1914.10654796

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east window of Malvern Priory Church are typical examples) ; and there are the collar-like ropes which are passed round the only (of these we have examples in the drawings of Matthew 1 Paris and in Queen Mary's Psalter). I have pointed out (u) that the latter kind of "stem-ropes" much resemble certain bands round stem or sterp which do not project from the outlines thereof and so seem to be stripes of paint or something else purely orna­ mental. Such "stripes" are seen in some of the Bayeux Stitchwork ships and in some of the ships of Matthew Paris, who, as has been said, also depicts the collar-like "stem-rope." Thus an additional difficulty arises; but if the collar kind of stem-rope is a real fitting, it seems just possible that it has no relation to the more massive ropes which are lower down the stem and so encircle the planking. The suggestion may be offered that the collars were a kind of fender, much the same as we see to-day on the stems of dumb barges and ship's boats. Whether the other kind of stem rope was a girdling to give additional strength to the stem or something else altogether, medireval representations at present unknown to us may decide. The matter is not yet ripe for dogmatic statement; as the Editor has recently reminded us, our Society has hardly got as far as marking out the ground for excavation.

(u.) II. 50· ERRATA.-As the present article refers several times to my previous one on stem-ropes in Vol. II., I may perhaps be allowed to correct certain errors therein which I regret having passed for press. Page 4· the number of turns of rope round stem in the Half Noble of Edward Ill. should be stated as " I, 2 or 3·" Pag1 45· l. 7, for "forestage " read ••forestay." Page 46, l. 18, for "John Beaufort" read "Thomas Beau­ fort." Pare so. l. u, /rom bottom, for "stem-''" read "­ 'head.' ..

THE WHIPSTAFF .-11.

Bv H. S. VAUGHAN. Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 BEFORE proceeding to the later phases of the evolution ?f t.he w~ipstaff I may perhaps be allowed to refer again to the mtroducbon of the stern and to quote, with his permission, from a letter which Mr. L. G. Carr Laughton has been good enough to send me with reference to my remarks, p. 231 par. 3 "M. M" . A ugust, 1913. ' ' («) "It has always been assumed that the stern rudder was I34 'tHE WHlPs'tAFF. more efficient than the quarter rudder, but quite possibly there may in many cases have been a decided loss of efficiency in the action of the rudder. On the quarter it would grip solid water ; abaft the stem post it was and is in the position which is theoretic­ ally the worst that could be found for it, for it is always in danger of losing its effect from dead water." . . . " I doubt if the mere transference of the rudder from quarter to stem would make a ship handier of itself alone. But of course it is likely that the improved method of controlling the helm may have resulted in a net improvement." {b) "It might be supposed that the side rudder was open to objection as being more efficient on one tack than on the other. I should doubt the truth of the objection. For in that case it is reasonable to conclude that Northern nations would early have adopted the Mediterranean expedient of placing a rudder on each quarter, but, as far as I know, they never did so. Why the Italians did does not appear, and it is at least curious that the last surviving side are Italian, and on. one side only." (c) " I would be tempted therefore to look for the reason for the change in some other direction. If it did not lie in increased ttfficiency of the ntdder, was it to be sought in the greater power of the helm? Possibly, to some extent. A fore and helm could be made longer than a thwartship one without getting hopelessly in the wav." "It s;ems significant that the change began at the time when were being developed as permanent structures and this may have had a good deal to do with it. If it was fouild that the side stanchions of the after stage interfered with the working of the a change had become imperative. This could be effected either by lengthening the rudder-stock so that the tiller should work on the after stage, or by shifting the rudder to the stem post. In the former case the helmsman would be in the way of the fighting men and the lengthening of the rudder­ stock would be clumsy and weak: in the latter case the helms­

Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 man would be out of the way and under cover, a longer tiller would be possible and the rudder could be more securely hung, by being gudgeoned lower down than before.'' "It seems to me that probably the chief cause may have been that it was found impossible to bring the old thwartship tiller in through the side of the after stage or stem castle. This would explain the continuance of the side rudder after the intro­ duction of the stem rudder, on the supposition that the latter THE WHIPSTAFF. 13.5

was foUI\d more suitable for ships with after castles and the former for those without." For convenience I haYe attached reference letters to the principal points raised in the foregoing. It is not altogether easy to account for the prolonged existence of the side rudder, which, except for local variants in the form of a long steering oar pro­ jecting over the stern, constituted the universal form of the helm from the days of primitive mankind until the Xlllth and XIVth centuries of our era. The origin of the affair, one may assume, was the primitive" dug-out" or the canoe of the savage, propelled as well as steered hy the single paddle on the quarter. No serious attempt appears to have been made up to the present to explain this prolonged retention of what must have been, at best, an inconvenient arrangement. This, however, is not quite the same question as that now under consirleration, viz., what were the actual reasons for the adoption of the stern rudder in the special circumstances of the Xlllth and XIVth centuries? (a) Deadwater. We know that in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries ships sometimes steered badly from deep immersion when overloaded, but the mention of this latter cause leads one to infer that when norn1ally loaded their steering was not as a rule a subject for serious complaint, and the point is whether the consideration of deadwater could have had much weight when the stern rudder was first adopted.* I do not think we can assume that the ships of that period always had the full stems and coarse runs of later times; contem­ porary evidence, such as it is, does not invariably lead to that conclusion. It will be noticed that even the complaints of later date quoted in the footnote assign causes other than mere coarse run, or full end at normal trim for the creation of the dead water which rendered the action of the rudder ineffective.

• See Hollands Disc014rses (Appx., p. 370: "Defects and Abuses of the Navy "), " Divers of His Majesty's Ships are not able to store six months'·victuals of all proportions, and those that are able to take them in are buried deep in the water that they can neither steer nor sail as they ought." In The Jewell of Arls (Add MSS., Ig,88g) mention is made of difficulty in Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 steering the ships of c. x6oo, which "proceedeth of this that ye post whereon ye rud er hangeth standing further out than ye stearne of ye ship, and being left broader than ye edge of ye rudder, doth take away ye qui:;ke water for ye same," and the remedy suggested is to " make ye fore edge of ye rudder as thick as ye stern post and ye after edge one-third thicker," of the succt'SS of which expedie_nt the author ?f the MS. says that he had personal experience. It ts at least curtous to note that the idea embodied in this suggestion-a rudder of wedge-shaped section, with the fore and narrowest end of the same thick­ n~ as the stem J?OSt-had been adopted by the Spaniards more than a century earlier. See particulars as to the helm of the Santa Maria of Columbus.-" El grueso era el mismo del codaste en la parte interior en que iban los machos y ensanchaba en Ia parte exterior, teniendo Ia seccion horizontal forma de cufia." IJ6 THE WHIPSTAFF.

I think that the lateral play of the side rudder-i.e., its effective angle-as generally fitted in the later stages of its exist­ ence, must have been very inadequate. Recent personal experi­ ence on Lake Como, where the apparatus survives in practically the medireval form, has strengthened this view. Figs. 9 and 10, from sketches made at Varenna last September, show the method of fitting. Although the side rudder worked in quick water, and the stern rudder had more or less disadvantage in that respect, yet the respective factors of the small angle at which the former entered the water and of its relatively trivial immersion seem to indicate that a comparative gain of efficiency in steering on the whole must have resulted from the adoption of the stern rudder. The increasing height of freeboard aft in ships of the period must have already involved some lengthening of the stock of the side rudder ·with consequent weakness and greater difficulty in manipulation. (b) From the point of view of practical seamanship it seems to me (vide " M. M." III. p. 231) that it could not have been possible for deep sea ships to work with real efficiency to wind· ward with the side-rudder. When the medireval seaman began to use his sails not merely to " run before the fav'ring gale," but to sail on a wind, he at about the same time adopted the stern rudder. This, of course, is not evidence. But it is at least probable that in turning to windward a rudder on one side­ say the starboard-would be not exactly useless, but inefficient. On the port tack it would in a stiff breeze be buried deep, and would become difficult to handle from the weight and rush of the seas, while the unfortunate helmsman in the lee scuppers would probably be up to his knees in water, and badly placed for conning the ship and watching the approaching seas. On the starboard tack, again with anything of a breeze, the blade of the rudder would be well-nigh out of water. Assume, therefore, that our deep-sea mariners chose to adopt the Italian expedient

Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 of a rudder on each quarter. This seems to me to provide them with cumbrous and complicated machinery, which most seamen would gladly discard in favour of the simplicity of the stern rudder. With a following wind and sea their ships would roll more or less heavily-in the manner familiar to most sailing vessels in the like circumstances-and the combined efforts of their helmsmen to make effective use of their paddles when they could get a on the water, and so Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 12:56 30 January 2015 Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] at 12:56 30 January 2015 THE WHIPSTAFF. 137 prevent, not indeed the gybe of the modem fore and after, but the worse danger of branching to, would have been diverting to watch. Possibly the Italian twin rudder system was suitable only for comparatively smooth waters so far as sailing ships were concerned, and never really caught on in deep sea circles generally.* (c). On p. 232, " M. M.," Ill., I pointed out, that on the disappearance of the side rudder from the seals, &c., the figure of the helmsman also begins to disappear and the after castle soon becomes a closed in structure. In short, the existence of the side rudder was not compatible with the development of the after staging, and the adoption of the stem rudder enabled the helms­ man and his apparatus to be protected under cover. The huge, clumsy steering machine on the quarter must have been a constant source of anxiety to the commander of a fighting ship during an engagement. Even if it were not cmshed to splinters in the melee of laying alongside and boarding, it must have osten­ tatiously invited the subsequent attack of an enemy. The man-of-war at least must have gained in efficiency in this respect by the adoption of the stem rudder, and one would think that the merchantman also found his cumbersome steering paddle, with its brackets and supports of various kinds much in the way and very liable to injury when going alongside a pier or quay. I have recently had the opportunity of seeing at Cologne some old models, among which was that of Das Culner RatsschiU, of the year 1500. This huge, uncouth-looking vessel was steered from the starboard quarter, and an inspection of her side rudder (see Fig. u), which is very similar to the modem Italian instance given above, convinced me as to the unwieldly nature of this old-world appliance. With all its enormous size this of the Ratsschitf cannot have been very efficient, as they had to help her head round by means of another long steering paddle pro­ jecting from her bows, controlled by a party of men thereon. It has been seen that the tranc;ition from the side to the Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 • Was it not in fact derived from the galleys of Greece ? It would be interest· ing to know if a specimen of Pritchett's "Pirate of the Persian Gulf," with its double rudders still survives. His Shipping and Craft was published in t899,and tl\e last fifteen yl'ars of" Progress" have made almost acleansweep of survivals all the world over. On Maggiore last autumn I saw one of the old lake barges propelled by au:'iliary motor power, with the long steering-oar in the plane of the projectmg astern and a rudder on the port quarter in addition. The side rudder in this case, however, can hardly have been a survival and was possibly added to counteract some tendency of the propeller. Unfortunately through passing rapidly at close quarters I was unable to get either a photograph or a sketch. THE WHIPSTAFF.

stern rudder was a matter of no sudden change, but that it took place gradually during a period of about a hundred years. Probably the introduction of the true whipstaff with fukrum was effected in much the same way during the XVIth century. The previous century was the final epoch of the medireval Navv, and by the time it closed a considerable development in ship­ building had taken place. But whether due or not to the state of anarchy prevailing in the country during most of the century, there is a dearth of documentary evidence relating to the period in England,* and nothing very satisfactory for our purpose has so far come to light from foreign sources. It appears, however, that some form of the whipstaff was used in the Santa Maria, the flagship of Columbus, in 1492. A reconstruction of this vessel was made-and sailed across the Atlantic-in 1892-3, from plans and other historical data in Spanish archives, and the following reference to her helm is taken from an official work, entitled La Nao Santa Maria: Memoria de la Comision Arqutologica Ejecutiva, 1892 :- " El tim6n era recto, de pala ancha que se estrechaba hacia la parte superior con dos escalones. El grueso era el mismo del codaste en la parte interior, en que ibon los machos, y ensan­ chaba en Ia parte exterior, teniendo la secci6n horizontal fom1a de cufia. Se manejaba por rnedio de caila que encajaba en la cabeza. Ordinariamente no eran necessaries guardines pero ponianse en caso de mar gruesa 6 vientos recios. Aveces con un sencillo mecanisme se gobemaba desde Ia tolda." . The word tolda in this passage is puzzling at first sight. Tolda, mod. Span. = awning; toldilla = poop; but Jal (Gloss. Naut.) throws light on the matter. " Tolda: esp. port. ital. anc. s.£. Pont superieur du navire, Tillac, Demi pont, Chateau d'arriere, Gaillard d'arriere. Au XVIe siecle, en Espagne, le chateau qui etait fait sur la partie posterieure de la Tolda avait pris le nom de la Tolda elle-m~e. et etait devenu synonyme d'Alca;ar." (Alcazar= quarter .) From the Spanish quotation we may infer that, as we know

Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 was the case in English ships at a later date, the Whipstaff was only used in fair weather, tiller ropes or tackles being used in the event of heavy seas and a gale of wind. Fig. 12, from the plan reproduced in this memorial of the reconstruction, shows a vertical pin transfixing the tiller head, but no Whipstaff. Very little evidence is obtainable until towards the end of the XVI. century. At the taking of the Madre de Dios (1592) * See also Administration of the Royal Navy, p. 29, lines I to I2. THE WHIPSTAFF. I39

we read that " the greatness of the Stirage required the labour of twelve or fourteen men at once; and some of our ships beating her in at the stem with their ordnance, oftentimes with one shot Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015

slew four or flve labouring on either side of the helm." f H akluyt Ed. I599-I6oo). It is clear from this that no \Vhipstaff was in use in the THE WHIPSTAFF.

huge carrack, at all events on the occasion of her capture by Sir John Burrough, and this seems to confirm Manwayring's remark (quoted in my first chapter) as applicable to big ships of that period, though not to those of the end of the XVII. century. Linschoten's account of the trouble that occurred on his homeward voyage in 1589 leaves us in doubt whether the Portu­ guese used the \Vhipstaff, for although he says that" our Rudder­ Staff brake, and two more that we had in the ship, brake like­ wise, one after the other on being put unto it, with the pin and joint whereon the end of the rubber hung," yet it is clear from the context, as well as from the nature of the repairs that were subsequently executed, that it was the tiller, and not a Whipstaff, which was broken. During subsequent heavy weather "there stood ten or twelve men at the rudder," and again, " the Staffe of our Rudder brake in pieces, and had almost slain two or three of our men." By the end of the XVIth century, however, it can be said with certainty the Whipstaff had become well established in ships of medium size : this is inferred from the earliest published works on Seamanship, in which it is dealt with as no new inven­ tion, as well as from surviving plans such as those of the Half Moon, in which Hudson made his voyage of r610. We have here the seco?ld, or intermediate stage of the Whipstaff, the first being the primitive stick and ring with a knob or pin on the helm (referred to in the previous chapter\, designed mainly to enable the helmsman to control the movements of the tiller from a fixed position:* the third and final stage being the more elaborate form of the Whipstaff as fitted in large ships at the end of the XVIIth century. It is curio~s to remark how little was kno·wn as to the nature of the Whipstaff among writers and seamen of the XIXth century, Jal and Paris excepted. To show what quaint theories on the subject existed, R. Leslie, an indefatigable seeker in the byeways of nautical archreology, is worth quoting. Old Sea Wings gives "Whip-staff. A piece of wood attached to the helm

Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 and held bv the steersman. Before the introduction of the steering-whe"el the connection between a big ship's long tiller which came in upon her lower deck, was made by means of an upright staff connected with the tiller, and passing up to the steerage or space under the fore-part of the quarter deck. t How • Fig. 13. Steering stick, turned back along tiller when not in use: modern barge, France and the Low Countries. Fig. 14. Ditto. Cologne Ship of 1700: model. t A very confused sentence, but the meaning is obvious. THE WHIPSTAFF.

this long vertical staff acted upon the tiller in ships of two or more decks is not very clear, unless it took the form of a Spanish windlass, acting upon the tiller by means of . tackles upon the lower deck; the upper end of the staff being then turned about by a smaller cross-bar passing horizontally through it. In many small vessels, like the Thames barge or Dutch galliot, still steered by large , the upright pin or handle which passes through the end of the tiller is evidently a rudimentary form of the old whip-staff." In the last few lines, Leslie has a distorted vision of the truth, but fails to perceive that the pin is the survival, not of the Whipstaff, but of the knob or pin on the end of the tiller to which the ringed stick was applied, and which was also used, and still is used, in small vessels as a belaying pin for the helm lanyards or lashings. The essential principles of the Whipstaff cannot be displayed with greater simplicity* than in the plans of the Half Moon (Figs 16 and 17). This vessel was built in 16o8 ; the method of fitting the Whipstaff is that followed at the end of the XVIth century. A replica of the Half Moon was constructed by Mr. E. J. Benthem, of the Directie der Marine, Amsterdam, for the Hudson tercentenary and Fulton centenary celebrations of September, 1gog, on the Hudson River.t This ship was actually steered, on every point of sailing, by her Whipstaff, and it is very interesting to have the assurance of Mr. -Benthem, who handled her himself, that no difficulty was experienced in the steering, and that the ship responded readily to what was required of her, the action of the helm being always assisted, when putting the ship about, or as otherwise necessary, by trimming the sails. Bearing in mind the latter point, to which I have already drawn attention (M. M. III. p. 237}, it appears that this very interesting practical experience has to some extent disposed of the theory of Paris and some others as to the inefficiehcy of the Whipstaff on account of the small angle allowed to the helm. " On voit ainsa que l'angle maximum donne a la barre, en portant le Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 manuelle aux extremites de sa fente, n'etait que de 5° ... sans

• Jal (Gloss. Naut.) gives a clear diagram (reproduced in Fig. 15), but a somewhat meanderin& explanation, and he is obviously wrong when he says, "Le timonier possait il le levier a droite, en faisant effort sur Ia partie KP. Ia barre ~u gouvemail allait a droite, et le gouvemail AB se portait a gauche." The Whtpstaff and the Wheel acted similarly in this respect,-a turn of either to starboard would po,t the helm and tum the rudder and ship's head to star­ board. t I am greatly indebted io Mr. Benthe.m for information regarding the Half Moon, and for the plans from which I have drawn Figs. 16 and 17. TRE WBlPSTAFF.

compter les flexions du bois, et il est difficile de comprendre comment ties vaisseaux pouvaient evoluer dans les escadres Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015

les plus nombreuses qu'il y ait eu, avec un moyen aussi imparfait." The angle in the Half Moon was nearer I0° than 5". The principal parts of the earliest Whipstaff steering gear TilE WHIPSTA.FF. 143

of which we have definite knowledge, as fitted m tile Half Moon and contemporary ships, are as follows (Fig. 16 and 17) :- A: Whipstaff. B: Rowle. C · Ring. D: Tiller. E.: Crossbeam. F: Hutch (Dos d'1ne). · Smith's Sea Grammar (1653) briefly explains the functions of these parts, except E and F. "The \Vhipstaff is that peece of wood like a strong staffe the Stearsman hath alwaies in his hand, going through the Rowle, and then made fast to the Tiller with a ring. The Tiller is a strong peece of Wood made fast to the

D ·=- iA

--,:;.. --r----:-=.{;: -=-~.. --- 1-----r;.Lr-1 , ,~--

--u---<-- /~---0---- \ ---11------="---i ---·------~ f---@ -- 1/$,/ • '7'"~-

Rudder.... The Tiller playeth in the Gunroome over the Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015 Ordnances by the Whipstaffe, whereby the Rudder is so turned to and fro as the Helmsman pleaseth." A full description of A, B, and C must be left over to the next chapter, but a note is needed here as toE and F. E. The Crossbeam (Dutch Luiwagen), on which the tiller made its short traverse, is the early form of what Falconer calls a tratJsom (Fr. Tamisaillc, or Tam1:sc, "the , upon which the tiller traverses in a ship's gun-room." Marine THE WHIPSTAFF.

Dictionary). I have not traced any English reference to the Crossbeam in the early XVIIth century, but the Royal Charles (ex Naseby} was fitted with an iron one, and she had a roller of iron on the tiller head. At the end of the same century, it was well known in English ships, and was called the Sweep. It is obvious, however, that with the downward thrust of the Whipstaff such an appliance must have been necessary from the first. The Crossbeam, Sweep, or Tamise became a much more elaborate affair later on. F. The Hutch (Dos d' anc, or Bogt boven de kolder-stok) was fitted in the Half Moon, and appears in other Dutch plans of about 1600, but I have found no reference to it so far as English ships are concerned, and I ought to have mentioned this in my remarks in the first Whipstaff article, pp. 236-7, in which I referred to Mr. Carr Laughton's criticism of the Revenge. My excuse is that in these articles I am dealing with the Whipstaff on general lines, and not as appertaining to the ships of a par­ ticular nation. Even where, however, confirmatory evidence is, for the present, lacking, I think we may assume that any useful improvement adopted by one of the great northern sea­ faring nations at that date would find its way eventually into the fleets of neighbouring peoples. But the Hutch, as I have called it, for it looks more 1ike a rabbit-hutch than anything else, was evidently used chiefly in small ships in cases where the deck was not high enough for the helmsman to stand upright. It is shown in several Dutch prints of 16oo. The need for it no longer existed (a) when the height between decks increased, and (b) when in large ships by passing the Whipstaff through two decks instead of one, the helmsman was enabled to stand upright under cover and yet to get the necessary outlook forward. It is of some interest to record the fact that the Dos d' ane or Hutch appeared in a full-page cartoon of Punch on July 24th, IgiO, where it figures on the deck of the Earl's Court Revenge, in com­ pany with Mr. Punch himself and the First Lord of the Admiralty. Downloaded by [University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign] 12:56 30 January 2015