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I've just had a quick browse through the Imperial War Museum digital collection, and found two images of sailors receiving a grog ration during WWII. I've not replaced the fair use image, however, as they're only pencilled drawings ( Image:Royal Navy Grog issue.jpg, Image:Rum Issue, John Worsley.jpg). If anyone feels one or both'd be worthwhile sticking on the page, feel free. GeeJo (t)⁄ (c) • 19:51, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I can believe a 5-inch brace on Victory. but a 20-inch brace? Probably not. a 20-inch mainstay would make sense.
Until relatively recently, rope was measured by its circumference. Nelson's men would have called a very large rope a 20 inch rope. Dave Gittins.
I do not pretend to be an expert on sailing ships of the line, but I thought that the mainbrace was the principal fore and aft support of a ship's masts. IOW, a brace.
From the description given here I cannot see how there would not be two of them, or indeed why they would need to be of suge enormous diameter. Other references seem to describe the mainbrace as the line holding the main yard in place up the main mast, which is clearly impossible if not for the simple reason that such a line is not a "brace" but a yard.
Given that the mainbrace is the line which goes to almost to the top of the main mast for fore and aft stability, leaving aside whether other masts were supported by this line, does give reason for it's size and the immense problems of it's repair in battle - and why such a repair was so urgent necessity.
Has any expert a clarifying view, or reference? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drg40 ( talk • contribs) 12:50, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
I'm afraid you are right off the beam. A line providing fore and aft support to a mast is a stay. A brace, such as the mainbrace, goes to the end of a yard and controls its angle to the centreline. Each yard has two braces.
Personally, I'm sceptical about the supposed size of a mainbrace of Nelson's day. It had to run through blocks and be belayed to a belaying pin. Must inquire!
Dave Gittins — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.232.211 ( talk) 08:55, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
In history, it talks about the Royal Navy and then goes off at a tangent to suggest that only those of 20 and + can drink the rum. The alcohol laws are the same on a royal navy vessel as on land I.E 18. Other web sites appear to be copying Wikipedia and spreading this misinformation. Who added this 20 age thing? Where did it come from? Aspro ( talk) 12:45, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
The article states that the USN grog ration ended after the American Civil War. It in fact ended DURING the American Civil War. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles issued an order that the grog ration end on August 31, 1862. Gcal1971 ( talk) 13:58, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
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Even after we have come down from a 20 inch diameter main brace (see discussion above) to a five inch diameter main brace, this still seems very dubious to me:
Compared to other parts of the running rigging, the main brace is not exceptionally thick, but very long. The German edition of Jens Kusk Jensen's book on traditional sailing vessels ("Handbuch der praktischen Seemanschaft auf traditionellen Segelschiffen", 1998) lists on p. 172 the length of a main brace on a Barque as 636 Danish foot = 200m, by far surpassing even the halyards. But why it would be more difficult to splice than any other line in the running rigging is unclear to me. At first I thought it might have been necessary to splice it together from several parts, but apparently the British Royal Navy used a standard of 1000 ft ≈ 300 m ropes as supply, so there goes that... -- Theoprakt ( talk) 21:24, 7 November 2018 (UTC)
![]() | A fact from Splice the mainbrace appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the
Did you know column on 5 November 2006. The text of the entry was as follows:
| ![]() |
![]() | This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I've just had a quick browse through the Imperial War Museum digital collection, and found two images of sailors receiving a grog ration during WWII. I've not replaced the fair use image, however, as they're only pencilled drawings ( Image:Royal Navy Grog issue.jpg, Image:Rum Issue, John Worsley.jpg). If anyone feels one or both'd be worthwhile sticking on the page, feel free. GeeJo (t)⁄ (c) • 19:51, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
I can believe a 5-inch brace on Victory. but a 20-inch brace? Probably not. a 20-inch mainstay would make sense.
Until relatively recently, rope was measured by its circumference. Nelson's men would have called a very large rope a 20 inch rope. Dave Gittins.
I do not pretend to be an expert on sailing ships of the line, but I thought that the mainbrace was the principal fore and aft support of a ship's masts. IOW, a brace.
From the description given here I cannot see how there would not be two of them, or indeed why they would need to be of suge enormous diameter. Other references seem to describe the mainbrace as the line holding the main yard in place up the main mast, which is clearly impossible if not for the simple reason that such a line is not a "brace" but a yard.
Given that the mainbrace is the line which goes to almost to the top of the main mast for fore and aft stability, leaving aside whether other masts were supported by this line, does give reason for it's size and the immense problems of it's repair in battle - and why such a repair was so urgent necessity.
Has any expert a clarifying view, or reference? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drg40 ( talk • contribs) 12:50, 29 September 2011 (UTC)
I'm afraid you are right off the beam. A line providing fore and aft support to a mast is a stay. A brace, such as the mainbrace, goes to the end of a yard and controls its angle to the centreline. Each yard has two braces.
Personally, I'm sceptical about the supposed size of a mainbrace of Nelson's day. It had to run through blocks and be belayed to a belaying pin. Must inquire!
Dave Gittins — Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.90.232.211 ( talk) 08:55, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
In history, it talks about the Royal Navy and then goes off at a tangent to suggest that only those of 20 and + can drink the rum. The alcohol laws are the same on a royal navy vessel as on land I.E 18. Other web sites appear to be copying Wikipedia and spreading this misinformation. Who added this 20 age thing? Where did it come from? Aspro ( talk) 12:45, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
The article states that the USN grog ration ended after the American Civil War. It in fact ended DURING the American Civil War. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles issued an order that the grog ration end on August 31, 1862. Gcal1971 ( talk) 13:58, 30 August 2017 (UTC)
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I have just modified 3 external links on Splice the mainbrace. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
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This message was posted before February 2018.
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have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the
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(last update: 5 June 2024).
Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot ( Report bug) 04:46, 26 January 2018 (UTC)
Even after we have come down from a 20 inch diameter main brace (see discussion above) to a five inch diameter main brace, this still seems very dubious to me:
Compared to other parts of the running rigging, the main brace is not exceptionally thick, but very long. The German edition of Jens Kusk Jensen's book on traditional sailing vessels ("Handbuch der praktischen Seemanschaft auf traditionellen Segelschiffen", 1998) lists on p. 172 the length of a main brace on a Barque as 636 Danish foot = 200m, by far surpassing even the halyards. But why it would be more difficult to splice than any other line in the running rigging is unclear to me. At first I thought it might have been necessary to splice it together from several parts, but apparently the British Royal Navy used a standard of 1000 ft ≈ 300 m ropes as supply, so there goes that... -- Theoprakt ( talk) 21:24, 7 November 2018 (UTC)