What Is a Topsail Halyard?

The topsail halyard is used to raise the topsail -- which only answers the question in part, for the halyard is made of rope, but is not a rope; and the topsail is not the highest sail on a ship. To understand this mystery, you need to "learn the ropes," of which there are only 12, and a very few things about sails.

  1. Halyards and Ropes

    • The halyard's name comes from its purpose, hauling the yard, the horizontal wooden beam the sail hangs from to vary its place on the mast -- "ha'l yard." The halyard was tied to a "spreader," a line that stretched from one end of the yard to the other to help prevent the yard from tipping from side to side. Although made from rope, the halyard is not called a rope. There are nearly 300 lines aboard a sailing ship, but when a new seafarer "learns the ropes," he learns that in the very specific language of the seaman, there are only 12: the buoy rope, foot rope, wheel rope, back rope, top rope, foot rope, yard rope, slip rope, man rope, ridge rope, bell rope and bucket rope. The rest are the stays that hold the masts forward and backward; sheets to secure the sails' lower corners; braces to turn the sails from side to side; or halyards.

    The Topsail

    • On a full-rigged sailing ship, the topsail is the second sail above the deck. The fore-main, located on the foremast -- the forward-most mast -- and the mainsail on the main mast are the lowest two sails, called "coursing sails." The topsails directly above the coursing sails are called the fore-topsail or "fore-top" and the main topsail; they are identified by the mast from which they fly. Herman Melville's last novel, "Billy Budd, Foretopman," was about the life of a seaman who worked above the deck with the fore-topsail.

    Function of the Topsail Halyard

    • The topsail halyard is part of the ship's "running rigging," which controls the sails and may be moved to make the ship sail easier or faster. The ship's "standing rigging" holds the masts upright in a fixed position. To go faster, the halyard is pulled to raise the yard on which the sail is hung, exposing more sail to the wind. When the ship is "running before the wind," with the wind coming from directly behind, the sails fill with wind. When the wind comes from another direction, the sails act like wings; the crew pulls braces -- the lines that turn the sails from side to side -- so the wind blows across the sails. A low pressure area forms ahead of the billowing sail and the high pressure behind it pushes the sail and the ship forward.

    Halyard Materials

    • In early sailing ships, the halyard was made from twisted jute rope. Three groups of three threads each were twisted counterclockwise to form a strand. Three strands were then twisted clockwise to form the rope. The rope was then slathered with tar to make it waterproof. As rope technology changed, so did the material from which the halyard was made. Today, the topsail halyard may be made from twisted nylon or woven high-tech fabrics like Kevlar.