PARREL

There are four different sorts of parrels, one of which is formed of a single rope; another, of a rope communicating with an assemblage of ribs and trucks; a third, of a rope passing through several trucks, without any ribs; and the fourth, of a truss, by which the yard may be at any time slackened from the mast, or confined thereto as close as possible.

The first of these, which is also the simplest, is formed of a piece of rope, well covered with leather, or spun-yarn, and furnished with an eye at each end. The middle of it being passed round the middle of the yard, both parts of it are fastened together on the after-tide of the yard, and the two ends, which are equally long, are passed round the after-part of the mast and one of them being brought under, and the other over the yard, the two eyes are lathed together with a piece of spun-yarn on the fore-tide thereof, whilst another lathing is employed to bind them together, behind the mast, according to the manner described in the article MARLING.

The second and most complicated is composed of ribs and trucks, the former of which are long fiat pieces of wood, having two holes near their ends, bigots, as represented by fig. a. plate VIII. the latter, pommes, are small globular pieces, b, with a hole through the middle, of the same size with those of the ribs. Between every two ribs are placed two trucks, of which one is opposite to the upper hole, and the other to the lower holes of both ribs; so that the parrel-rope, bâtard, which passes through the whole, unites them together like a string of beads.

Plate VIII

In order to fasten this machine c more conveniently about the mast and yard, so as to attach the latter to the former, the parrel-rope is formed of two pieces, each of which are furnished with an eye at one end, and both eyes lie on one side of the mast; that is to say, one piece of the rope passes through the lower part of the parrel, and thence under the yard, whilst the other comes through the upper part of the parrel and over the yard, till both eyes meet on the fore-side of the yard, where they are joined together. The other two ends of the parrel-rope are passed about the yard, and the hind part of the parrel alternately, till the latter is sufficiently secured to the former. The whole process is completed by marling the turns of the parrel rope together, so as to confine them close in the cavity, formed on the back of the ribs, as expressed in the figure.

The third is nothing more than a single rope, with any number of tracks thereon, sufficient to embrace the mast. These are calculated for the cheeks of a gaff. See that article.

The last, which are known by the name of truss-parrels,. are somewhat resembling the first, only that instead of. being fastened by lashings, the ropes, of which they are composed, communicate with tackles reaching to the deck, so that the parrel may be occasionally slackened or straitened, in order to let the yard move off from the mast, or confine it thereto as strictly as possible. The last of these are peculiar to the lower-yards, whereon they are extremely convenient. The second are always used for the topsail-yards, and frequently for the lower-yards, in merchant-ships; and the first are seldom employed but for the top-gallant-yards.

Reference Works