The objects in this chest were used in the operation and maintenance of the rigging of this ship when it made its voyages in the 20th century. Nevertheless, they would have been very familiar to a 16th century crew. To the left-hand side of the chest are parrel boards and parrel trucks. These formed a set which wrapped around the mast and secured the yards. The round trucks rolled, and allowed the yards to be turned, raised and lowered. You can see more examples of these on the masts and yards.
In the bottom right-hand corner is a block, comprised of sheave between two cheeks, and a hook. The sheave is a grooved wooden wheel on an axle which allowed a line to run through the block. Threading a line through a block is called ‘reeving’ and a block that has been threaded is ‘rove’.
Blocks were used as pulleys, either to change the direction of a line, or to give a mechanical advantage when lifting a heavy load. A system of two or more blocks with a line threaded between them is called a block and tackle.
Beneath the block are fairleads. These fairleads were bound (also known as seized) to the shrouds - the thick, black ropes which run from the fighting tops to the sides of the ship and hold up the mast. Lines from the ship’s sails were passed through them, keeping said lines in place and stopping them from getting tangled or ‘fouled’ in other parts of the rigging.
Finally, in the top right-hand corner is a fid. Fids are simple tools used to hold open knots, or separate the strands of a rope, allowing for splicing. Fids like this are still used on modern ships today.
The objects in all our chests sit on pieces of one of this ship’s sails which hung from the main yard on several of its voyages.