backstays

But how many would gratify their taste at the expense of bringing the soil on their own backs, plodding on "backstays" over four miles of loose shingle?

Faces and Places 1884

Between Dungeness and Lydd there is an expanse of shingle which makes the transit an arduous undertaking, and one not to be accomplished easily without the aid of "backstays" (pronounced

Faces and Places 1884

The two new crewmembers then rig the running backstays, and attend to other minor tasks.

OVERBOARD ! MICHAEL J. TOUGIAS 2010

The two new crewmembers then rig the running backstays, and attend to other minor tasks.

OVERBOARD ! MICHAEL J. TOUGIAS 2010

He also, I learnt later, had slid down one of the backstays on to the deck, only a very short while before we reached the top.

The Ghost Pirates 2007

Our backstays had carried away once before when iced up and were not too strongly fastened now.

South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917 2006

The shrouds, the stays and backstays, were then carefully refitted, some of the sails were changed, and the whole of the running rigging was renewed.

The Survivors of the Chancellor 2003

For several minutes he remained there examining the open space around, then seizing one of the backstays he glided down and rejoined us on the poop.

The Survivors of the Chancellor 2003

Unmindful of the tedious rope-ladders of the shrouds, the men, like shooting stars, slid to the deck, by the isolated backstays and halyards; while Ahab, less dartingly, but still rapidly was dropped from his perch.

Moby Dick; or the Whale 2002

Our backstays had carried away once before when iced up and were not too strongly fastened now.

The Greatest Survival Stories Ever Told Underwood, Lamar 2001