What I thought would be a huge and recurring problem in my sailing career: The Bermuda Triangle
What is actually a huge and recurring problem in my sailing career: Tangled jib sheets
Which brings us to a very overdue Random Nautical Fact, in which we will discuss the difference between ropes,lines, and sheets.
First, a diagram of a sail, courtesy the American Sailing Association:
Aline is any rope that is part of a sailing ship or sailboat’s standing rigging or running rigging. Standing rigging is the collective name for all the lines that hold up the mast and the bowsprit (if the vessel has one). Standing rigging is not messed with while sailing. Running rigging is the collective name of the lines that control the shape and direction of the sails, so, these are the lines that you’ll be actively messing with in order to go anywhere.
Asheet in sailing is a line that controls the direction of a sail. It is connected to the sail’s clews. Its name tells you what it does, or vice-versa: for instance, on your basic fore-and-aft rigged sailboat, the mainsheets control the mainsail and the jib sheets control the jib.
Arope isn’t doing anything. If it’s just coiled up on the deck, it’s a rope.
On the 12th of December, 1715, pirate Captain Francis Fernando, commander of the sloop Bennett, received his privateering commission from Jamaican Governor Lord Archibald Hamilton; one of many who had been granted the right to hunt down pirates in the area.
Pirates had been causing issues around Jamaica, as ‘privateers without licenses’ as merchants complained. In total, fourteen sloops, including Fernando’s Bennett, were commissioned to hunt down the rogues, but would later all be referred to as “…the remedy was worse than the disease.”
As for Captain Fernando, he was described as a mulatto commander of his sloop and that “this tawny Moor has an estate at Jamaica and has given good security for his navigation.” He had also sold a share of one-third of his sloop to Governor Hamilton, meaning that any profit he’d make out at sea, the Governor would stand to profit from it.
However, once at sea, Captain Fernando and the crew of the Bennett immediately turned to piracy. Rather than setting out to pursue the ‘rogue privateers’, they intercepted a Spanish sloop (a target not acceptable for his privateering commission) named the Nuestra Senora de Belen, captained by Manuel de Aramburu. She had been making her way to Havan from Veracruz, but had been severely damaged by a storm at sea, seeing her dismasted and her guns thrown overboard to keep afloat.
Fernando would go on to easily seize the vessel, which contained 250,000 pieces of eight, jewels and fine goods. He would write a letter to Hamilton, with his excuse that what he did was okay, as the sloop had originally been named the Kensington, an English sloop that had been captured by the Spaniards off of Cartagena, and that he was simply returning her to the English. When the captured and enraged Spanish captain was brought before Hamilton, Hamilton agreed with him that what Fernando had done was indeed piracy, but offered no remedy.
Before Fernando and the crew of the Bennett could be chastised for his actions, they departed for the Bahamas. Early into 1716, the crew would hit more ships, including another Spanish sloop who’s contents would be brought to the pirate haven of Nassau. By the end of the year Captain Francis Fernando would be mentioned in a letter by Captain William Howard of the HMS Shoreham off of Charles Town South Carolina, along with Henry Jennings and Benjamin Hornigold as privateers turned pirates who take refuge at Nassau, stating multiple vessels had arrived in Charles Town harbor that had been plundered by each.
(Pictured is a letter of marque being held up [from Pirates of the Caribbean], the coastline of Jamaica, and a load of gold below deck [from Black Sails])
It’s been a minute, so for this Random Nautical Fact I’m going back to basics with what it means to be on the port tack and what it means to be on the starboard tack.
If you are facing the front of the boat:
You are on the Port Tack if the wind is coming over the Port (left) side of the boat.
You are on the Starboard Tack is the wind is coming over the Starboard (right) side of the boat.
If you’re facing directly into the wind, you are what’s known as In Irons are you’re not going anywhere, no, literally, your boat is not moving except for whatever currents you might be in
If the wind is coming directly over the stern – the back of the boat – you’re running
If you are looking at me like “WTF are you on about”, as a cheat you can use the What Side of the Boat Are the Sails On trick for fore-and-aft or gaff-rigged vessels, i.e. Not Square Riggers: if the sails are on the starboard side, you are on the port tack, and if the sails are on the port side, you are on the starboard tack: meah, I know, it’s opposite and lots of people find that bit counterintuitive.
Also, if you’re on the port tack, you have to give way to vessels on the starboard tack. Rules of the road, as it were: boats on the starboard tack get right of way. (Right of Way/Stand-On probably deserves its own Random Nautical Facts entry but it’s midnight and I’m tired.)
