Truck (rigging)
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A truck is a wooden ball, disk, or bun-shaped cap at the top of a mast, with holes in it through which flag halyards are passed.[1] Trucks are also used on wooden flagpoles, to prevent them from splitting.[citation needed]
Without a masthead truck, water could easily seep into the circular growth rings of a wooden mast. However, the grain in the truck is perpendicular to that of the mast, allowing the water to run off it.[citation needed]
Multi-masted vessels may have a main-truck on the main-mast and a mizzen-truck on the mizzen-mast, etc.
Flagpoles
[edit]Flagpoles often have a truck on top of them which often holds a decorative piece above, known as a finial, which is usually a ball. They are usually made of solid metal, however a tradition in the United States is to sometimes put a razor, a penny, or a grain of rice inside.[2]
References
[edit]- ↑ Underhill, Harold A. (1946). Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier: With Authentic Plans, Working Drawings and Details of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Sailing Ship (reprint ed.). Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson. p. 44. ISBN 9780851741734.
{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ↑ Milzarski, Eric (2018-05-15). "This is what is actually inside the top of the flag pole". We Are The Mighty. Retrieved 2023-06-22.