Catharpin is a nautical term, which is often pronounced cat-harping . It describes one of the short ropes or iron clamps used to brace in the shrouds toward the masts so as to give a freer sweep to the yards . The expression has been borrowed to refer to short lashings which hold halyards away from the masts of sailing yachts by tying to adjacent shrouds so as to prevent noise and fraying by the wind.
3-467: Example from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana: "All the hides, too, that came down in the boats were soaked with water, and unfit to put below, so that we were obliged to trice them up to dry, in the intervals of sunshine or wind, upon all parts of the vessel . . . The rail, fore and aft, the windlass, capstan, the sides of the ship, and every vacant place on deck, were covered with wet hides, on
6-435: A ship is often called the afterdeck or poop deck . Not all ships have an afterdeck or poop deck. Sometimes taffrail refers to just the curved wooden top of the stern of a sailing man-of-war or East Indiaman ship. These wooden sailing ships usually had hand-carved wooden rails, often highly decorated. Sometimes taffrail refers to the complete deck area at the stern of a vessel. A taffrail should not be confused with
9-424: The least sign of an interval for drying. Our ship was nothing but a mass of hides, from the cat-harpins to the water's edge, and from the jib-boom-end to the taffrail ." This naval article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Taffrail In naval architecture , a taffrail is the handrail around the open deck area toward the stern of a ship or boat . The rear deck of
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