A two-masted ship has a foremast and mainmast. Athree-masted ship has a foremast, mainmast, andmizzenmast, in that order from forward. Stacks (neverchimneys or funnels) are the large pipes that carry offsmoke and gases from the boilers. The wider lowersection of a stack is an uptake.Masts are used to support radio and radar antennas,signal halyards (lines used for hoisting signal flagssignal lights, and booms). Stays and shrouds, togetherwith other wires used for similar purposes on stacks,masts, and so on, are known as the ship’s standingrigging. Lines or wires used for hoisting, lowering, orcontrolling booms, boats, and so on, are known asrunning rigging.Look at figure 8-10. The top of a mast is called thetruck. A small sheave (a pulley, pronounced shiv) at thetruck is used to run halyard lines for hoisting. The top ofthe foremast is the foretruck, and the top of the main-mast is the main truck. Commissioned ships of the U.S.Navy fly a commission pennant secured to a pigstickand hoisted to the truck. Ships that have radar antennasat the top of their masts fly the commission pennantfrom a sheave fixed in the highest convenient location.Most foremasts have a light spar, called a yard, andmounted horizontally athwartships on their upper part.The port and starboard halves of a yard are the port andstarboard yardarms. The yardarms carry a number ofsheaves for signal halyards. Also, yardarms usuallycarry a set (two) of blinker lights, used (by means of atelegraph key) for signaling. The gaff is a light sparsuspended at an angle abaft the upper part of themainmast. The upper end of the gaff is the peak. Thenational ensign is flown at the peak while a ship is underway. When a ship is anchored or moored, the nationalensign flies from the flagstaff at the stern, and the unionjack flies from the jackstaff at the bow.The bridge, from which the ship is controlled whileunder way, is located in the superstructure. The bridgecontains the primary equipment used by the bridge watchpersonnel to control (conn) the movement of the ship:helm (steering control), lee helm (speed control), andradar repeaters. Ships also have a secondary conningstation from which control can be maintained if the bridgeis put out of commission. Some larger classes of shipshave, in addition to the navigation bridge (conn), a flagbridge for the use of the squadron commander or admiraland staff.The signal bridge (where Signalmen operate thesignal lights, flags, and pennants) is normally locatedatop the bridge. On aircraft carriers, the signal bridge isabaft and usually one deck above the navigation bridge.Outboard, open ends of a bridge are called bridge wings.Located near the bridge is the chart house, where charts(maps) are stowed and worked on by the Quartermaster.Also nearby (on some ships) is the combat informationcenter (CIC) manned by operations and combat systemsdepartment personnel.8-7Student Notes:Figure 8-10.—Top hamper.
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