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11 Sep 07 - 11:10 AM (#2146417) Subject: Lyrics query Boston Harbour From: GUEST,Andy I've known and sung this song for many a year now but never understood the last two lines of the first verse: 'With the ring-tail set all about the mizzen peak' 'And a dolphin striker plowin' up the deep' Can any knowledgable (and probably nautical)'catters tell me what a ring-tail and a dolphin striker are (or were). Aso, anyone know the songs history/origins? Much obliged for any responses Regards Andy |
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11 Sep 07 - 11:23 AM (#2146428) Subject: RE: Lyrics query Boston Harbour From: dick greenhaus A ringail was an extra-light-air sail set abaft the spanker, or normally rear-most sail. A dolphin striker is a short boom, set at a right angle below the bowsprit; tanding rigging from the base of the sprit to the end of the sprit and passed around the dolphin striker served to stiffen the bowsprit. |
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11 Sep 07 - 11:33 AM (#2146437) Subject: RE: Lyrics query Boston Harbour From: GUEST,Keinstein It's usually sung "Rule Britannia ploughing up the deep" in the UK. This note is from the Monkey's Orphan website: Now the "Ringtail" as far as I can make out, was a sail carried on the after edge (Leach) of a fore and aft sail between the gaff and the boom. This seems more like a light weather sail, similar in principle to the studding-sail (stuns'l) of square rig. Perhaps the drunken skipper had left it too late to hand the ringtail. The dolphin striker is the thing stiicking down at rightangles to the bowsprit. Presumably the ship in the shanty is pretty well head- down, through carrying too much sail. |
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11 Sep 07 - 01:40 PM (#2146534) Subject: RE: Lyrics query Boston Harbour From: Barry Finn His some older stuff that's about your song. A good search would probably turn up more. Boston Harbor; Cords Subject: RE: Heave Up Songs From: Barry - PM Date: 10 Oct 97 - 03:38 PM Fenian, try 'with the ring-tail set all about the mizzen peak'. A ring-tail is a small sail that would be set behind the spanker, the mizzen would be the aft mast (mizzen sail the most aft sail) & peak, you guessed it, the peak. The dolphin striker would be the short spar pointing towards the sea (thus the dolphin striker), that juts downwards from the bowspirit (or widowmaker). The standing rigging would run from the end of the bowspirit to the tip of the dolphin striker then to the bow or stem, this would help to distribute (throughout the vessel) the strains that the mast would put on the rigging that runs from the mast crosstrees & peaks. Barry |
