Lower yard lift span, late 18th century
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The lifts' purpose was to hold the yards horizontal. They consisted a pair of ropes, which ran from the yard arms to the mast and from the, downwards to the deck. In ancient times and in the early Middle Age the lift blocks were situated at the masthead; until the beginning of the 17th century they were on the crosstrees, and since then have been on the cap.
British ships employed either common or fiddle blocks for this purpose. while Continental practice varied: in the 17th century they had special extended lift blocks (see drawing on the left), from the early 18th century fiddle blocks were used for the lower yard lifts, and sometimes for the topsail yards, while common blocks were used for the upper yards.
From the middle of the 16th century in Britain the yard arm blocks were stropped to the sheet blocks, while on the Continent the lifts reeved through the upper part of the specially shaped sheet blocks (see SHEETS).
The lower yard lifts were almost always doubled, and sometimes even trebled, while those of the topsail yards were usually double, and those of the topgallant and royal yards were single. In smaller British ships the topgallant sail sheets sometimes doubled as topsail yard lifts. The lower yard lifts belayed on pins in the bulwark, while the topsail lifts often belayed in the top until the first half of the 16th century. Later they also belayed to pins on the bulwark, while the topgallant lifts almost always belayed in the top. In the second half of the 19th century the lifts were sometimes made from steel wire rope, and in the case of non-lowering yards standing lifts were used i.e. the lifts were fixed to the yard arm with a shackle, without any blocks, taken to an eyebolt on the mast, and shackled in place there too.
The spritsail yard lifts
The spritsail yard lifts could be either fixed or movable. Standing lifts were connected to deadeyes stropped to the yard, and further deadeyes attached to the bowsprit on a long strop, the pairs of deadeyes being linked by a lanyard, like the oud deadeyes. Running lifts consisted of two blocks on the yard and two blocks on the bowsprit, which were linked with falls and belayed at the foot of the bowsprit. The blocks or deadeyes of the spritsail yard lifts were not fitted at the yard arms, but half-way between the yard arms and the slings.
One of the commonest mistakes on model ships is incorrect positioning of the yards. Basically it is safe to assume with earlier, smaller ships that the fore, main, mizen and crossjack yards were rigged just below the mast cheeks and were not normally lowered from this location; the spritsail yard and sprit topsail yard were also likely to remain in a "fixed" position. However, as ships grew larger the topsail, upper topsail, topgallant and royal yards, carried immediately below the hounds when the sails were set, were lowered to just above the cap below when the sails were furled or removed. A typical example is "La Jeanne d'Arc" . Inspection of museum models or reliable illustrations of ships of similar size and date to that under construction should resolve any doubt.
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