Died at sea

[quiffdo]

Hello all

I have a rellie who died at sea in 1865, it states that he fell off the 'mizen yard'
Now ive looked up Mizen yard but im coming up blank, what exactly is the mizen yard?

Danny

[Little Nell]

Never heard of a miz/zen yard, but there is a mizzen mast:

mizzen - third mast from the bow in a vessel having three or more masts; the after and shorter mast of a yawl, ketch, or dandy

[quiffdo]

Hey Nell

Sounds like it was the Mizzen mast then, i must have misread it or it was spelt wrong.
Did officers ever go up the mizzen mast as he was an officer?

Danny

[Janet in Yorkshire]

I think the yard was the horizontal bar that crossed the mast - the canvasses and ropes were attached to it. Sailors had to climb up and free them if they got snagged, so quite feasible he fell from the mizzen yard.

[quiffdo]

The family were very nautical, his dad was the commander of the countess of galloway and died a year earlier.

Danny

[Bo the Bodger]

Just a quick post - Yes Danny officers did go up the masts and out on to the yard or yardarm. They wouldn't be 'working' the sails but could be supervising the sailors or checking out ships or other things with a telescope after a lookout had reported something.

[keldon]

Mizzen yard
It's the horizontal yard arm marked letter A on this drawing.

http://www.swcp.com/usvmyg/squarerig/sq2.htm

[quiffdo]

Thankyou for the replys, im positive the newspaper spelt it wrong and it was the mizzen mast.

Danny

[Janet in Yorkshire]

Danny,

From online dictionary - Yard:
"Nautical A long tapering spar slung to a mast to support and spread the head of a square sail, lugsail, or lateen."

Think naval displays, when you see them scaling the mast and spreading out to stand on the crossbar or yard. In the days of sailing ships, a fall from there was, sadly, the cause of many deaths.

So your relly could well have fallen from the mizzen yard.

Difficult to explain, so have a look here.

Yard (sailing) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You might also like to click on some of the links (words in blue) to get a feel of what life at sea was like!

[quiffdo]

Thankyou Janet

Im gonna look at that now, sounds intresting

Danny