HMS Victory currently carrys neither royal masts nor royal yards. But several sources states that ships not specially equipped with royal masts can still routinely deploy royal sails and yards using top gallant mast. But in such cases the royal yards would be taken down and stowed on the tops, secured to the topmast shrouds, whenever the royal sails are not actually in use. So the question is does this method of deploying royals require any special modification to the top gallant masts, and could the Victory have deployed royals in the current configuration?
Also, it is said that on ships with dedicated royal masts, then royal yards are rigged in an identical fashion to topgallant yards. But when the ship has no royal masts, royal yards when deployed are “set flying”. When does “set flying” mean?
ChuckFan, the first part of your question I can’t help you with. Logic would seem to demand a somewhat sturdier topgallant mast if the royal were to be set above the topgallant. The second part, however: “set flying” describes the work of setting a sail already bent to its yard. The topgallant, bent to the yard, would be hoisted to the truck of the royal mast in this case, as opposed to, say, the topsail, which would be bent to a standing yard and furled, dropped or shortened (reefed) while the yard remains crossed on the mast. Most “kites” (skys’ls, moons’ls, cloud pokers) would have been “set flying.”
Best,
Ron Mariner
Hi, Ron:
In this case, royals are said to be said to be set normally in the same manner as topgallants when royal masts are fitted, and set flying when royal mast are not fitted. So it seems that when the royals are set “flying” it is clearly set differently from the top gallants. Does this simply mean thast royal yards are not normally crossed?
Also, when the royal yards are crossed, would their running rigging be substantially different from those of a normal yard?
Chuck
Wait! Wait! I apologize and wish to correct. The ROYAL, bent to its yard, is hauled up to the TOPGALLANT mast truck in the absence of a ROYAL mast. I had those reversed in my earlier note. (Flu medicine does NOT sharpen your wits!) And, no, the royal yard is not normally crossed but is raised with the sail when needed. How does this change the running rigging? I’ll have to get back to you on this after some more research. Generally the kites were simply handled from the tops and crosstrees.
Best,
Ron
Drawings in HMS Victory : Her Construction, Career, and Restoration by Alan P. McGowan, John McKay, and Alan McGowan shows that currently her topgallant mast shrouds are rigged with thimbles for royal mast lifts. So I guess as she is configured now she is equiped to use royal yards and sails. So it would not be amiss to depict her with royal yards stowed in the topmast shrouds.