Sorry, but I can't resist putting my two penn'orth in!

Right. The wooden ships' masts were supported at the sides (and to take the strain from the wind on the sails) by ropes called shrouds. Each shroud was attached as Fadac describes, to a pair of deadeyes which were joined together by a rope which looped through holes in the deadeyes, and could be adjusted to tighten up the shroud. The bottom deadeye was attached by a wrought iron fitting at the edge of the chain plate, which is a wooden platform that sticks out at right angles to the hull and parallel to the water. This fitting was attached by a wrought iron strap called a chain, the bottom end of which was bolted through the hull of the ship. OK so far? the chain plate was also called the chain wale, or channel when you're chewing your wad. The leadsman would stand in the forechains (i.e. of the foremast) and take soundings by heaving the lead - a lead weight on a line marked off in fathoms, shouting things like "By the mark twain!". For deep-sea soundings, he would use a deep-sea (promounced dipsey) lead, on a long line. Don't ask about tinky-winky and laa-laa leads! The leadsman could get into trouble if he was too idle and just pretended to to heave the lead and haul it back in; he'd be swinging the lead.

Have a look here for more info. Don't be overwhelmed by the amount of rigging on a ship: just remember that it's basically fairly simple, but multiplied by the number of sails and the number of masts!.

There are lots of good books on the subject if you get hooked; meanwhile try reading Patrick O'Brian's novels.

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Nearly forgot! Stottin' doon the waall is from the north-east of England. Stotting is what you do instead of walking after several pints of N'castle Broon Ale. I think the wall was the wall of a ropeworks (and therefore very long) in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which prevented stotters from falling over on their way from the pub.

Steve