Components of a museum-quality model

The Parral     Rose lashing on the yard     In ancient times and in the early Middle Ages the parral consisted of a strong rope strop which held the yard to the mast. Wooden balls known as trucks were threaded on to the parral from the 13th century on, to permit the parral to slide up and down the mast as easily as possible when the yard was hoisted or lowered. They were soon fitted with a tackle which ran down to the deck, so that the parral could be loosened when the yard was hoisted. The lower yard parral   From the beginning of the 13th to the middle 18th century parrals wit up to four rows of trucks were fitted for the lower yards, and ribs were used as spacers where there were two or more rows of trucks. The ribs of three-row parrals were about as long as the yard diameter , and sometimes slightly longer. A rope seizing was usually laid round the yard on the larboard side.    The parral ropes were fixed to this seizing, then passed round the mast and reeved through a thimble, which was seized to the yard on the starboard side. They were then spliced together just below the thimble and led down to the deck, ending in a purchase.    In the 18th century parrals were no longer used on the lower yards. Two truss pendants were now used, which, as the drawing on the left shows, led to the top in Continental ships and to the deck in British ships up to 1810, after which they led to the top and could be set up with purchases. As this form of parral did not slide easily on the mast, it was& fitted with a downhaul when the pendants led to the top. In the, second half of the 19th century fixed iron trusses came into use, which no longer permitted the yards to be moved up and down. The topsail yard parral The topsail yards nearly always carried parrals wIth ribs and trucks un the first half of the 19th century , but in this case a purchase was not fitted, instead they were seized to the yard on either side . In the first half of the 19th century rope parrals alone were used in some areas, in which case the part which passed round the topmast was protected from chafing with a leather sleeve. After this time the upper topsail yard and topgallant yard parrals were also made of iron and fixed to a batten, as the drawing on the right shows. The topgallant and royal parrals Topgallant and royal parrals were sometimes fitted with trucks (but not ribs) until the end of the 17th century, after which time rope parrals were used exclusively without trucks until the middle of the 19th century. The spritsail and cross jack parrals Until the beginning of the 17th century various types of parral with two rows of trucks appeared, and after this time ( and very often before this time) the spritsail yard was suspended from the bowsprit with just a double rope sling. A similar sling was used for the crossjack yard, which could also not be moved up and down.   Truss pendants on the lower yards, I8th century: 1. Mast; 2. Yard; 3. Truss pendant; 4. Thimble; 5. Seizing.   Dolphin