burton pendant

A burton pendant is a piece of heavy line that hangs down from the lower masthead, usually with a big eye spliced in its end. It's part of the gear used to tighten the shrouds periodically. When it's decided that a shroud has a bit of slack in it, a heavy tackle is set up, with one block hooked to an eyebolt in the deck and the other hooked to the burton. The end of the lanyard running through the shroud's deadeyes is then loosed and hitched to the tackle. A gang of men then hauls on the tackle, thereby heaving the shroud taut.

Some ships left their burton pendants set up all the time; others unrigged them when they weren't in use.

I have no idea who Mr. Burton was.

cheers jtilley., I was wondering what attached to them., now I know, leave them alone

I remember reading--somewhere--O fickle Memory for taunting me so--that burtons ought  be lashed  to  convenient shroud with small stuff (meaning all but invisible in modeling scales).

Same reference also spoke of using the burtons for setting up tackle for loading cargo.

At least as far as the US Navy is concerned a Burton rig was an underway replenishment rig similar to a yard and stay rig only the two booms involved were on separate ships. One winch would pay out its line while the other took in theirs. It needed careful coordination between the ODs to keep the two ships the correct distance apart and the two winchmen so the cargo didn't drop too low and get swept into the sea. You can find a better description in the Bluejacket's Manual.

Very interesting! I didn't know the term was still in use.

I wonder if there is in fact any connection with the old seventeenth-nineteenth-century rigging term. Or whether they're named after two different people named Burton.

Yhat's probably something I was taught in my sophomore NROTC classes and failed to to remember.  (O, the arrogance of being 19 & Knowing All There Is To Know.)

Now, I'd wager that there was, in the early days of perfecting UnRep (our acronym for Underway Replenishment) and officer named Burton who cobbled up a system which was more flexible than the fixed span-wire method.

But, now that I have written this, I'm wondering  if it comes from the way one rigs a cargo hook from two cargo booms (which uses the hoist winches on both booms.  Which may mean I need to dig through old copies of Knight's and the Bluejacket Manual (I've copies of the former going back to the 13th ed of the former; and 1939 edition of the latter).

The Burton pendants had another important function... They were set up first and used in conjunction with the Burton tackle to sway the lower masts in preparation for rigging the shrouds and stays.  They would steady the mast and hold the proper position/rake as the shrouds were set up... Afterwards, the pendants were utilized to tighten the shrouds.  I think I've seen a few models with the Burton Tackle still rigged to the pendants on deck.

Evan