sprit-head to the vessel's cutwater runs the bobstay,
generally of chain, which takes the pull of the foretopmast-stay;
and from the bowsprit-head there hangs the spar known as the
dolphin-striker, to give the purchase for continuing the pull of the
foretopgallant and foreroyal stays round to the cutwater; so that really
all the staying starts from the hull, as does the backstay-staying.

Round the lower mastheads are platforms called tops; and round the
topmast-heads are skeleton platforms called crosstrees. These platforms
are required not only to take the lower ends of the topmast and
topgallant rigging, but also to enable the crew to strike and get up
the masts and yards and work the sails. The crosstrees are fitted with
outriggers pointing outward aft to enable the topgallant-backstays to
give a better support to the topgallantmast than they otherwise would
do.

Besides stays and backstays, the masts have "shrouds" to
strengthen them. The topgallant shrouds come from the head of the
topgallant-rigging to the crosstrees, the topmast shrouds come from
the hounds just under the crosstrees to the top, and the main, fore or
mizzen shrouds, as the case may be, come from just under the tops to the
vessel's side.

To take the pull off the tops, the shrouds are continued round to the
mast as "futtock" shrouds, on the same principle as the foretopmast-stay
finds its continuation in the bobstay.

The shrouds are "rattled down;" that is to say, thin lines are fastened
across them to make a ladder for the men to go aloft. These lines are
the "rattle-lines" or "ratlines." The foremost shroud of the lower
rigging has only a "catch ratline;" that is, one ratline in about six
continued to the shroud that lies furthest forward.

And this is one of the signs by which you can tell a man-of-war from
a merchantman, for in war-ships the catch ratline is on the aftermost
shroud instead of on the foremost. In a man-of-war, too, the
topgallant-rigging is never rattled down, as a Jacob's ladder leads from
the topgallantmast-head down to the crosstrees; but this Jacob's ladder
arrangement is found in many clippers.

Another detail in which a man-of-war differs from a merchantman is in
the rigging of the bowsprit, the man-of-war generally having whiskers,
and the merchantman taking the pull of the shroud direct from the
forecastle along the catheads, the whiskers being the spars across the
bowsprit, which take the purchase of the bowspr