Steel tube frames, spruce spars and ribs, covered with fabric.
Small masts and spars are often made of it, and are said to be lighter than those of pine.
But Villeneuve's ill-appointed ships, manned by raw crews, suffered loss of spars in a gale, and he returned to Toulon on the 21st.
In experiments with magnifying glasses, and through spars, the ordinary effects of magnifying and of alteration of view are sometimes produced; sometimes they are not.
Tromp, conscious that his ships were weaker in build, at first drew away, firing at the spars of the English ships in order to cripple them.