RIGGING of a SHIP, a general name given to all the ropes employed to support the masts, and to extend or reduce the sails, or arrange them to the disposition of the wind. The former, which are used to fulfill the masts, remain usually in a fixed position, and are called standing rigging; such are the shrouds, stays, and backstays. The latter, whose office is to manage the sails, by communicating with various blocks or pulleys, situated in different parts of the masts, yards, shrouds, &c., are comprehended in the general term of running rigging; such are the braces, sheets, halyards, clue-lines, brails, &c.

In rigging a mast, the first thing usually fixed upon its head is a circular wreath or rope, called the grommet or collar, which is firmly beat down upon the top of the hounds. The intent of this is to prevent the shrouds from being fretted or worn by the trestle-trees, or shoulders of the mast; after this are laid on the two pendants, from whose lower ends the main or fore tackles are suspended; and next, the shrouds of the starboard and larboard side, in pairs, alternately. The whole is covered by the stays, which are the largest ropes of the rigging.—When a yard is to be rigged, a grommet is also driven first on each of its extremities; next to this are fitted on the horses, the braces, and lastly the lifts or top-fall sheet-blocks.

The principal objects to be considered in rigging a ship, appear to be strength, convenience, and simplicity; or, the properties of affording sufficient security to the masts, yards, and sails; of arranging the whole machi- Rigging, nery in the most advantageous manner, to sustain the Right. masts, and facilitate the management of the sails; and of avoiding perplexity, and rejecting whatever is superfluous or unnecessary. The perfection of this art, then, confists in retaining all those qualities, and in preserving a judicious medium between them. See Ship-building.