Indeed! There were many safety rules to protect the ship as a whole (to prevent fire or accidental explosion), not so much for indivisual health and safety...
Martocticvs wrote:
I was completely unaware that French practice for the 'breach' ropes differed so much from the British. Interesting variation. From an engineer's point of view, I prefer the British version, since it is restraining the thing that needs restraining, rather than the thing merely holding the thing needing the restraining, but intersting nonetheless!
I agree! But from a modeller viewpoint, I prefer the much easier French style...
Now, the modelling of those tackles.
For the blocks, I used 0,3mm discs, punched from 0,13mm plastic sheet. The rope is 0,05mm tinned copper wire.

1: The distance needed between the two blocks is measured, and a piece of copper wire bent at that distance. The other end is left long. Holding it by that end (a convenient handle), the corner of the bend is dipped in superglue and touched to one of the ‘blocks’, gluing it in place.
2: Now the short end of the wire is dipped in glue and touched to the second ‘block’.
3: A little superglue is applied to the top of both blocks, and a straight piece of wire placed over the centre of them.
4: Now, a third, small, piece of wire is glued between the blocks. Finally, a nice thick drop of superglue is added to both blocks, making sure the wires will stay put and thickening and rounding the blocks.
Next, I gave them a basecoat of Humbrol matt 110:

I mimicked the ropes holding the blocks with black paint:

Finally, the end attaching to the hull side was bent upwards and cut short. This will provide some minimal surface for gluing.
The end attaching to the gun (right) was cut short too, and the loose end of the tackle rope was cut to the appropriate length.

The tackles were first superglued to the side of the hull only:

After letting the glue set for a minute, the tackles were carefully bent into place and the rear end superglued to the guns. Excess wire was cut away carefully:

After gluing the tackles on one side of the guns, of course I added them to the other side too:

Note that the ‘crooked’ gun didn’t receive it’s tackles yet. I made and installed them in batches of the same size, and the position of that gun requires different distances between the blocks of the tackles.