Foot-ropes were the norm in the British Royal Navy / Merchant Navy for handing sails aloft.

No-one in their right mind would stand on top of the yards especially at sea. Although having said that you might see it when crew dress a ship during a parade of sail at a tall ships gathering. But that is showing off, and safety lines are always used for clipping on to.

But I always remember that great sequence in the first series of the recent Hornblower t.v. films. The Brits had raided and invaded a French ship and fought of the 'frogs.' Then Hornblower climbed up the ratlines to get to one of the yards in order to hand the sail, he stepped onto where the footlines should have been, and suddenly discovered that the French rigging of the day did not have footropes (or the French had removed them). Anyway he fell into the ocean and was saved by of of his watch.

CJB


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