Chapter XLIII: My Flagstaff, and How I Rigged It

There are many forms of flagstaffs, and many ways of erecting and rigging them. They are sometimes made of iron, and are not unfrequently rigged with wire or with wire rope. Some are fitted with topmasts, yards, and gaffs, others simply consist of the one pole.

The flagstaff we are going to describe is not one that will run our readers into any unnecessary expense. It can be erected, fitted, and rigged by any ordinary boy of average ability, at a small expense, although of course the more money that is laid out upon it the better it should look when erected.

We shall give the description, however, of the very cheapest that can be made consistently with safety. To commence with, the staff itself can be obtained from any builder by purchasing a small scaffold pole, which will cost--according to your skill in bargaining--from one penny to three halfpence a foot. This can either be planed and varnished; or, if our reader is not much of a carpenter, it may be painted white with paint obtained already mixed from the nearest oilshop at about sixpence a pound.

The height we must leave to the taste of the reader, but the following scale will be found convenient, and will look very well. Let the pole be 46 feet in length. Then a hole will have to be dug in the ground 6 feet in depth to receive that amount of the staff. But before it is erected it must be rigged and have the ‘knees’ screwed or nailed upon it. A big flagstaff would have ‘crosstrees’ like the topmast of a ship, but it will be more easy and will look less clumsy simply to fix it with knees. These are pieces of wood which will be described afterwards, and which have to be fixed about 30 feet from the ground.

The next thing to arrange is the rigging. For that we shall require three shrouds on each side and one stay in front, besides signal halliards to hoist and lower the flag. Two-inch rope will do very well for the shrouds, but 2-1/2-inch would perhaps be a little safer. Rope is sold by weight, and 2-inch rope may be purchased at sixpence a pound, a pound of 2-inch rope equalling one fathom, which is 6 feet. The easiest way of measuring in order to ascertain what length of rope you will require is as follows. Having obtained your staff, lay it upon the ground. Then measure off the 6 feet that has to go in the ground and mark it with a piece of chalk. Now measure the 30 feet and mark the staff where the knees will be placed. Now measure a straight line at right angles to the lower chalk mark, where the staff, when erected, will be flush with the ground.

_a_, Six feet for insertion in ground. _b_, Thirty feet between ground and the knees. _c_, Ten feet above the knees. _d_, Chalk mark for knees. _e_, Chalk mark for insertion in ground. _f_, Chalk mark on ground ten feet from staff. _g_, Straight line. _h_, Length of one shroud or of the stay.]

A good distance is about one-third the height of the staff from the ground to the knees, so we will say 10 feet, and mark the ground. Then stretch a piece of string from the upper mark to the mark on the ground, allowing also the circumference of the staff, that will give you the length of one shroud (Fig. 1).

Now you must measure for the ratlines.

Having obtained your rope, the next operation is to cut it into proper lengths. First of all make both ends fast, and stretch it as much as you can. Then measure with the line you used to obtain the length, and cut off two shrouds separately, and the stay. Then cut the remaining rope in half, so as to make two pairs of shrouds. The stay is generally of thicker and stronger rope than the shrouds, but with the staff 6 feet in the ground there is no necessity for this.

A, Pair of shrouds. _a_, The collar to go over the staff. _b_, The seizing. B, The single shrouds. _a_, The cut splice. C, The stay. _a_, The eye-splice.]

Now comes the fitting of the rigging. With the two single shrouds you must make a cut-splice, making the splice sufficiently large to fit nicely over the staff. Then double the two pairs and seize them together separately, A, Fig. 2, leaving sufficient room to pass over the staff without chafing.

The stay you must fit with an eye-splice; and make the eye large enough, or it will look lubberly. (Fig. 2)

The eye and collars should be wormed, parcelled, and served, but this is not absolutely necessary, and might look clumsy if done by an amateur. Now screw on the knees; they are triangular pieces of wood to support the rigging and prevent it slipping down the staff. Two bolters, or rounded pieces of wood, will answer the purpose equally well, but they must be firmly attached to the staff. Now put on the rigging--first of all one pair of shrouds, next the other pair, then the single shrouds with the cut splice, and lastly the stay.

The truck must now be placed on the top of the staff. If one is purchased a sheave will be found in it for the signal halliards to reeve through, and these had better be rove at once.

A, Iron spike. B, Cleats, _a_, wooden. _b_, iron.]

If the reader’s taste runs in such a direction, a vane to show the direction of the wind can be placed on the truck--such as an arrow, a cock, or any of the numerous articles that are sold for the purpose. A cleat (Fig. 3) should be screwed to the side of the staff just within easy reach of the arm, say between 3 and 4 feet from the ground, in order to belay or make fast the halliards.

Now fix the staff in the ground, and see that the earth, etc., is well beaten in round it. The next proceeding is to set up the rigging. This may be done with deadeyes or with thimbles; the latter is certainly the neater way of doing it. Setting up with deadeyes need not be described here. The following is the method of doing it with thimbles.

Splice the end of each rope round a thimble, which is done as follows. Open out the rope to the length of twice and a half the round of the rope. Then measure the round of the thimble and the round of the rope, and put the marlin spike in there and commence splicing as though for an eyepiece. Now you will require for each rope an iron spike about 3 feet in length with an eye in it. These must be driven into the ground at regular intervals in a straight line, three on each side of the staff, 10 feet distant, and one for the stay in front. Then obtain some stout seizing stuff, such as cod-line, and splice it into the eye of the spike; then pass it through the thimble and then through the eye again, and so on, pulling it as tight as you can every time. At sea the necessary strength for getting the rigging as tight as possible is obtained with a tackle.

_a_ _a_ _a_, Shrouds. _b_, Stay.]

Now your staff ought to look like Fig. 4, and you can commence ratling it down, for which half-inch rope ought to be used.