‍Climbing up the rigging is but a first step to stowing or setting the square sails. Sailors have to climb out onto the yards to reach the gaskets, small pieces of rope or cloth used to tie the sail to the yard to stop it flogging in the wind. Gaskets are the equivalent of ‘sail ties’ on modern yachts.

By the time that Tomasina was sailing, that is in the early 1700s, most yards were equipped with footropes allowing sailors to step out from the shroud ratlines to a rope strung under the yard. This safety provision did not appear until the 1640s and then only on the main yard. They were fixed to the higher yards towards the end of the seventeenth century. There is some speculation about why footropes were initially just on the lowest yard. It is assumed sailors simply ran along the yard, thus arguably it would be more sensible to put footropes on the thinner higher yards. However, it might be that in any but the calmest conditions, the crew sat astride the yard and shuffled quickly along. It is easier to do this on a thin yard. Another reason might be that most ships at that time only had two yards, and the top one was often lowered in rough conditions to spill wind. It might therefore have been possible to tie the sail up from the lower yard.

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"As crew members are about to alight on the footrope they need warn those already standing on it, because it has an unnerving tendency to shoot a body upwards when a new person steps onto it."

Nowadays most square-riggers also have a metal ‘jackstay’ running on top of the yard to which the individual’s safety harness can be attached and which can be firmly gripped. Jackstays were not introduced until the 1830s and therefore in Tomasina’s time sailors would have gripped the ropes securing the sail to the yard or the sail top. Needless to say, safety harnesses are a relatively modern introduction.

It is usually easier to go out to starboard when the yards are braced in the same direction. When to port, or “larboard” as it used to be called, going out to starboard can be a daunting stretch. As crew members are about to alight on the footrope they need warn those already standing on it, because it has an unnerving tendency to shoot a body upwards when another person steps out onto it.  Undoing or tying up a gasket usually takes both hands so crew will lean over the yard, to stop themselves falling off. A warning will enable them to grab the jackstay and stop themselves being catapulted over the yard. One reassuring fact is that on a square rigger, when having to handle the sails the wind will be roughly aft so blowing the crew onto the yard.

Finally, mention needs to be made of the “Flemish horse”. It is particularly important to secure the outside edge, or clew, of the sail being furled. A longer rope called the ‘clew gasket’ is used. The person engaged in this task does not want to be constantly bounced up and down as other crew work on the middle and inside gaskets. They therefore stand on a separate footrope at the end of the yard. One explanation for the term Flemish horse is because one all footropes were called ‘foot horses’ and the outer one is called after horses from Flanders which were regarded as less stable than others.

Tomasina’s initial nervousness about going out and working on the yards is understandable. However, once a crewmember who enjoys climbing, learns how to cope with some of the unnerving conditions, working out on a yard provides a wonderful, even addictive, adrenalin rush - and the views are magnificent.