Maine’s First Ship Spring Lecture Series

Anyone watching the construction of the replica Virginia would recognize most of the tools employed. Saws, hammers, chisels, and planes may have become electrified in the past 400 years, but they are still essentially the same tool. Not so with rigging. Many of the tools used to construct the Virginia’s rig, from serving mallets and palms and fids and marlin spikes, are little known to the modern observer. Jim Nelson, rigger for the Virginia Project, will discuss how sails and rigging worked in a 17^th century vessel and give hands-on demonstrations of some the ancient techniques being used on Virginia today.