With the weather finally cooperating after a seemingly endless winter, the riggers spent the last two days with a crane loading the anchor chain and hoisting spars into position on the Charles W. Morgan. Some of the spars have been refurbished, repainted, and will be reused, but many have been fabricated new by the shipyard staff. The anchor chain, made up of a dozen separate 90-foot-long “shots,” was slid down into the chain locker, which is located just aft the mainmast in the hold. The crew then turned their attention to lifting the new jibboom into place, followed by a topmast and yards. The project required a tremendous amount of preparation work to have everything organized to make efficient use of the crane’s time.
