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Jury rigging
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Look up jury-rig in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Model showing a method for jury-rigging a rudder

In maritime transport and sailing, jury rigging or jury-rigging[1] is making temporary makeshift running repairs with only the tools and materials on board. It originates from sail-powered boats and ships. Jury-rigging can be applied to any part of a ship; be it its super-structure (hull, decks), propulsion systems (mast, sails, rigging, engine, transmission, propeller), or controls (helm, rudder, centreboard, daggerboards, rigging).

Similarly, a jury mast is a replacement mast after a dismasting.[2] If necessary, a yard would also be fashioned and stayed to allow a watercraft to resume making way.

Etymology

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The Oxford English Dictionary states that jury-mast is "Of unknown origin", adding "Apparently either a corruption of some earlier name, or a jocular appellation invented by sailors. For the suggestion that it may have been short for injury-mast, no supporting evidence has been found." It defines it as "Nautical: A temporary mast put up in place of one that has been broken or carried away." and the earliest citation given is from 1616, with the spelling lury mast.[3]

The 1881 edition of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable defines Jury Mast as "A corruption of joury mast, i.e. a mast for the day, a temporary mast, being a spar used for the nonce when the mast has been carried away. (French, jour, a day)",[4] but the 1970 Centenary Edition of the same work states that "the etymology of 'jury' here is a matter of surmise".[5] A further suggested derivation is from the old French ajurie (aid).[6]

Rigging

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Three variations of the jury mast knot.

A sail-powered boat may carry a limited amount of repair materials, from which some form of jury-rig can be fashioned. Additionally, anything salvageable, such as a spar or spinnaker pole, could be adapted to carry a makeshift sail.

Ships typically carried a selection of spare parts such as topmasts. However, due to their much larger size, at up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) in diameter, the lower masts were too large to carry as spares. Example jury-rig configurations include:

  • A spare topmast
  • The main boom of a brig
  • Replacing the foremast with the mizzenmast (mentioned in William N. Brady's The Kedge Anchor, or Young Sailors' Assistant, 1852)
  • The bowsprit set upright and tied to the stump of the original mast.

The jury mast knot may provide anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to support a jury mast, although there is differing evidence of the knot's actual historical use.[7][8][9]

Jury-rigs are not limited to sail-powered boats. Any unpowered watercraft can carry jury sail. A rudder, tiller, or any other component can be jury-rigged by improvising a repair out of materials at hand.[1]

Similar terms

[edit]
  • Jerry-built things, which are things 'built unsubstantially of bad materials', has a separate unknown etymology. It is probably linked to earlier pejorative uses of the word jerry, attested as early as 1721, and may have been influenced by jury-rigged.[10][11][12] The blended terms jerry rigging and jerry-rigged are also common.[13][14]
  • Afro engineering (short for African engineering)[15] or nigger-rigging[16] is a fix that is temporary, done quickly, technically improperly, or without attention to or care for detail. It can also be shoddy, second-rate workmanship, with whatever available materials.[17] Nigger-rigging originated in the 1950s United States;[15] the term was euphemized as afro engineering in the 1970s[16][18] and later again as ghetto rigging. The terms have been used in the U.S. auto mechanic industry to describe quick makeshift repairs.[19] These phrases have largely fallen out of common usage due to their colloquial nature, but are occasionally used within the African-American community.[20][21][22][23]
  • The American expression redneck technology similarly refers to crude forms of technology, often hastily or poorly finished, but broadly functional.[24]
  • To MacGyver (or MacGyverize) something is to rig up something in a hurry using materials at hand, from the title character of the American television show of the same name, who specialized in such improvisation stunts.[25]
  • In New Zealand, having a Number 8 wire mentality means to have the ability to make or repair something using any materials at hand, such as standard farm fencing wire.[26]
  • In British slang, bodge and bodging refer to doing a job serviceably but inelegantly using whatever tools and materials are at hand; the term derives from bodging, for expedient woodturning using unseasoned, green wood (especially branches recently removed from a nearby tree).
  • The chiefly English term do-it-yourself (DIY) relatedly refers to creating, repairing, or modifying things without professional or expert assistance.
  • Similar concepts in other languages include: jugaad in Hindi and jugaar in Urdu, urawaza (裏技) in Japanese, tapullo in Genoese dialect, tǔ fǎ (土法) in Chinese, Trick 17 in German, desenrascar in Portuguese and gambiarra in Brazilian Portuguese, degaje in Haitian Creole, système D in French, jua kali in Swahili. Several equivalent terms in South Africa are n boer maak 'n plan in Afrikaans, izenzele in Zulu, iketsetse in Sotho, and itirele in Tswana.[27]

See also

[edit]
  • Chindōgu – Gadgets creating more problems than they solve
  • Do it yourself – Building, modifying, or repairing, without the aid of experts or professionals
  • Improvisation – Process of devising a solution to a requirement in an ad hoc fashion
  • Jugaad – Indian term describing a creative hack or kludge
  • Kludge – Unmaintainable solution
  • Life hack – Trick to make life easier
  • Repurposing – Using object intended for one purpose in alternative way

References

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Jury rigging

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Jury rigging is the nautical practice of improvising temporary repairs or functional setups using onboard materials and tools to address damage, such as replacing a broken mast with a spare spar or boom to enable a vessel to continue . The term originates from the 17th-century lexicon, where "" denoted provisional or emergency measures, as in a " mast"—a makeshift replacement for a lost or damaged primary mast—and "rig" referred to sails and spars, with the full phrase "jury-rigged" documented by 1788. This resourceful technique, essential for at sea before modern capabilities, exemplifies adaptive under duress, often involving lashing knots or redirecting elements like the main boom as a substitute. Distinct from "jerry-rigged," which implies shoddy or cheaply constructed work derived from "jerry-built," rigging emphasizes clever, expedient functionality rather than permanence or quality. Beyond maritime use, the concept has extended to general and scenarios, underscoring ingenuity in averting catastrophe through first-available means.

Etymology and Terminology

Origins of the Term

The term "jury rigging" derives from nautical practices of the 17th and 18th centuries, where sailors improvised temporary masts or rigging—known as "jury masts"—to restore basic functionality to damaged vessels using available materials. The adjective "jury," denoting makeshift or provisional, likely stems from ajurie (aid or relief), reflecting the emergency nature of such repairs as a form of immediate assistance rather than permanent restoration. The verb "to rig," incorporated into the phrase, originated in the as a term for fitting a ship with ropes, sails, and spars. Earliest documented uses of "" appear in English maritime records from the early 1600s, with the full phrase "" attested by 1788, often in accounts of ships compensating for lost during storms or combat. This distinguishes it from later folk variants like "jerry-rigged," which emerged in the possibly influenced by "jerry-built" (cheap ) but lacks direct nautical ties. Primary sources, such as naval logs and dictionaries like the , confirm the term's specialized maritime roots without evidence of broader legal connotations from "" in the modern sense of a panel of peers.

Distinction from Similar Expressions

"Jury rigging" is distinct from "jerry rigging," a term that emerged later as a folk variant or , often implying a more haphazard or inferior rather than a purposeful temporary expedient. While "jury-rigged" specifically denotes an improvised setup using available materials for immediate functionality, typically in maritime emergencies, "jerry-rigged" blends influences from "jerry-built," which refers to structures erected cheaply and unsubstantially with poor materials, dating to the mid-19th century. The etymological root of "" in this derives from a 15th-century nautical meaning "temporary" or "makeshift," unrelated to legal juries, whereas "jerry" in "jerry-built" or "jerry-rigged" has obscure origins, possibly linked to for Germans ("Jerry") during or earlier associations with shoddy work, but lacks the specialized emergency connotation of jury rigging. Claims tying "jerry-rigged" exclusively to wartime German engineering are unsubstantiated folk etymologies, as the term's sense predates widespread WWII usage. Further distinctions exist from unrelated expressions like "," which involves manipulating boundaries for political gain and stems from Massachusetts Elbridge Gerry's 1812 , sharing no semantic overlap with rigging despite superficial phonetic similarity. Similarly, "jury rigging" differs from general terms for such as "kludging" in , which implies inefficient patchwork without the nautical heritage of resourcefulness under duress.

Historical Context

Nautical Beginnings in the 17th-18th Centuries

![Variations of the jury mast knot][float-right] The practice of jury rigging developed as an essential emergency measure on sailing ships during the 17th and 18th centuries, enabling crews to restore basic propulsion after masts were lost to storms, , or structural failure. Ships of this era, reliant on complex arrays of s and spars, often carried spare topmasts, yards, and rigging materials specifically for such contingencies, allowing sailors to improvise functional replacements from available components. These temporary setups, though less efficient than original configurations, provided sufficient sail area to navigate to the nearest for proper repairs, averting the high risks of or prolonged drifting. The term "jury mast" first appears in historical records in 1616, documented by John Smith in his account of an aborted voyage to the , describing a hastily assembled spar to substitute for a damaged or carried-away mast. Crews constructed these by lashing together remnants of broken , booms, or even deck timbers, secured with specialized knots and stays to withstand sea stresses. Dismasting was a frequent peril in transoceanic voyages and naval engagements, where gales could shear away mainmasts, leaving vessels wallowing helplessly; jury masts mitigated this by reestablishing a minimal center of effort for sails. By the late , the phrase "jury-rig" had evolved into a for outfitting a ship with such expedients, with an early attestation in noting vessels prepared "to be jury rigged" for makeshift operations. Naval logs and accounts from the period highlight its application in warfare, where damaged ships jury-rigged rudders or partial rigs from onboard and cordage to evade pursuers or return to fleet support. This ingenuity underscored the era's maritime , prioritizing durability and adaptability in materials like ropes and spars, which permitted lashed assemblies to endure until dry-dock restoration.

Evolution Through Maritime History

As vessels grew more complex during the 18th and 19th centuries, with the adoption of full-rigged configurations featuring three or more masts—, main, and mizzen—jury rigging techniques advanced to address the challenges of restoring balance and propulsion after or storm damage. Crews increasingly relied on spare topmasts, yards, and booms lashed together to form temporary masts, often secured using specialized knots like the jury mast knot to maintain upright positioning and stability. This was driven by the necessities of extended naval campaigns, where demasted ships risked capture if unable to maneuver; vessels of the line typically carried redundant to facilitate such improvisations, enabling partial plans that preserved while minimizing heeling forces. Prominent applications emerged in major engagements of the . After the on October 21, 1805, —having sustained severe damage including the loss of its main and mizzen masts—was jury-rigged with improvised spars and sails, allowing it to proceed under its own power into following initial towing through the narrows. Similarly, during an 1804 action between the British frigate Wilhelmina and French frigate Psyché, the former employed a jury rig to continue operations post-damage, as documented in contemporary accounts. These instances highlight how jury rigging transitioned from rudimentary fixes to structured procedures informed by accumulated naval experience, with crews prioritizing fore-and-aft balance to counteract the asymmetry of partial rigs on multi-masted ships. In the early 19th century, amid the and ongoing maritime trade expansion, techniques further refined for merchant and exploratory vessels, incorporating materials like spare canvas and cordage for makeshift sails. The U.S. Navy's Ariel, damaged in 1780 but exemplifying persistent practices into the period, returned to Groix Roads under a jury rig on October 12, demonstrating the method's reliability for limping to safety over distances. By mid-century, as clipper ships emphasized speed with expansive sail areas, jury rigs adapted to taller, slimmer masts, though core principles—lashing, knotting, and sail distribution—remained consistent, underscoring the practice's resilience amid rigging innovations like metal fittings and iron hulls in later square-riggers.

Technical Principles

Core Methods and Configurations

Jury rigging employs improvised spars, lines, and fittings from onboard inventory to restore basic functionality to damaged vessels, prioritizing stability over performance. Core methods focus on securing temporary masts via lashing or ting techniques, such as the jury mast featuring three adjustable loops to hoist and stabilize a spar upright in a or step. This , documented for use in the Age of Sail from the 16th to mid-19th centuries, allows attachment of stays and shrouds using spare halyards or rope to mimic , often at angles like 45 degrees to distribute loads via deadeyes or turnbuckles. Common configurations repurpose the mast stump as a base, with the main boom serving as a yardarm and sails recut into square configurations for , enabling limited capability as demonstrated in practical recoveries. Supports incorporate 7x7 stainless wire with thimbles, bulldog clamps, and jaw-and-jaw turnbuckles lashed to chain plates or U-bolted to remnants, tensioned via rolling hitches to counter flex. For steering, jury rudders assemble from spinnaker poles lashed to marine plywood blades, providing control across 40° to 150° apparent wind angles at speeds up to 4 knots upwind, though requiring significant effort for adjustments. Alternative drag configurations trail warps or drogues from the transom with bridles, steering by differential tension on lines to achieve directional stability at 1.5 to 3.5 knots, ideal for heave-to or slow progress in rough conditions. These setups emphasize redundancy, with sail trim and crew weight as supplementary methods for course holding on steady points like 50° apparent wind.

Materials and Improvisational Techniques

In nautical jury rigging, primary materials include spare such as topmasts or booms, natural or synthetic ropes for lashing and stays, wire for shrouds, sails or tarpaulins for makeshift sails, and wooden planks or poles for structural support. These items, often carried as standard inventory on vessels to enable self-sufficiency at , allow crews to improvise without external aid. Improvisational techniques emphasize securing components through lashing or splicing, such as binding the main boom to a mast stump to form a jury yard, then rigging it with a square sail hoisted via a forestay and backstays fashioned from available line. For steering failures, a common method involves attaching a flat board or bucket to a spinnaker pole or oar, lashed to the sternpost as a jury rudder, providing directional control until port. Specialized knots, like variations of the jury mast knot, secure by wrapping and hitching around the junction of a replacement mast and its supporting stays, distributing load to prevent slippage under pressure. In dismasting scenarios, crews salvage wreckage—such as broken yardarms or derricks—and repurpose it by triangulating stays into a configuration for stability, enabling limited propulsion with improvised square sails. Modern adaptations extend these principles to composite materials like Dyneema line or aluminum poles, but core techniques remain analog, prioritizing friction knots and wedging over mechanical fasteners to accommodate motion and weather. Drag-based , using warps trailed astern with drogues improvised from cones or nets, supplements rigid repairs by leveraging hydrodynamic resistance for course correction.

Applications and Examples

Traditional Maritime Uses

In the era of wooden sailing ships, jury rigging primarily involved constructing temporary masts, or jury masts, from onboard spares like topmasts, yards, booms, and lashed to the stump of a damaged or lost original mast. This allowed vessels to regain partial capability after dismasting in storms, gales, or , enabling return to rather than abandonment. Crews employed lashing techniques, often incorporating knots such as variants of the jury mast knot, to secure the improvised structure against wind and wave stresses. Jury rudders served a parallel function for when the primary was shattered by enemy fire or grounding. These were typically assembled from multiple timbers forming a stock and blade, lashed together and hung from the sternpost or quarter galleries using ropes and chains available aboard. Effectiveness depended on , with calmer conditions permitting better control, though such rigs provided only rudimentary directional stability compared to permanent hardware. Such improvisations were routine in 17th- and 18th-century naval and merchant fleets, where ships carried redundant rigging elements precisely for these contingencies. In battle, after chain-shot severed masts—as seen in engagements like the 1812 clash between and HMS Guerriere, where the latter's collapsed—surviving crews prioritized jury rigs to evade capture or sail for repairs. Sails were adapted by recutting damaged canvas or using spares to fit the temporary , maintaining propulsion with reduced efficiency. These methods underscored the required to exploit causal leverage from wind forces via makeshift geometry, often determining a vessel's survival.

Modern Engineering and Survival Contexts

In , jury rigging has proven essential during critical missions where standard components fail under extreme conditions. On April 13, 1970, during NASA's mission, an oxygen tank explosion crippled the spacecraft's life support systems, prompting ground engineers and the crew to improvise a adapter. Using materials aboard the —including plastic bags, cardboard from flight manuals, , and hoses—they modified a square lithium hydroxide canister to interface with the module's round ventilation system, preventing toxic CO2 buildup and enabling the crew's safe return after 87 hours of improvised operations. Similarly, on December 11-14, 1972, astronauts Eugene Cernan and repaired a torn rear fender on the vehicle (LRV) by affixing lunar maps, a plastic notebook cover, and to the frame, mitigating abrasive dust that could impair wheel function and mission mobility during extravehicular activities covering 36 kilometers. These adaptations highlight the reliance on available onboard resources for structural and environmental repairs in vacuum and zero-gravity settings, where delays could be fatal. In survival scenarios, extends to terrestrial and maritime emergencies, emphasizing rapid, resource-constrained fixes to sustain life or enable evacuation. Modern adventurers and responders, for example, improvise shelters or tools from debris in or zones, such as binding fractured limbs with splints from branches and clothing strips to stabilize until medical aid arrives, drawing on principles tested in historical expeditions like Ernest Shackleton's 1915-1916 , where crew jury-rigged a lifeboat from wreckage for an 800-mile open-boat journey. In contemporary survival, sailors facing dismasted vessels or failures deploy makeshift drogues—bridles of sheets with weights—to maintain directional control in heavy seas, as demonstrated in post-2010 storm recoveries where such rigs prevented broaching and facilitated safe harbor returns. These techniques prioritize causal durability, using tension and leverage from improvised materials to counter environmental forces until professional intervention.

Linguistic and Cultural Extensions

Broader Idiomatic Usage

In contemporary English, "jury-rigged" has evolved beyond its nautical origins to describe any improvised, temporary assembly or repair using available materials and tools, often in response to urgency or scarcity. This usage emphasizes resourcefulness and functionality over permanence, distinguishing it from terms implying shoddy or inferior construction, such as "jerry-built." For instance, in engineering contexts, it refers to fixes that restore operability, as seen in descriptions of constructing devices from scavenged parts during fieldwork or emergencies. The term's figurative application extends to non-technical domains, including and administration, where it denotes hastily contrived systems or processes intended as stopgaps. Legal analyses have applied it to manipulated methods, critiquing them as engineered shortcuts rather than genuine . In everyday language, it conveys clever , such as rigging a household appliance with wire and tape to extend its use until replacement, highlighting without endorsing long-term viability. This broadening reflects the idiom's adaptability, appearing in print by the early in general contexts, though often conflated with "jerry-rigged," a variant possibly influenced by World War II slang for German but lacking the nautical connotation of deliberate temporariness. Distinctions in usage underscore causal differences: jury-rigging prioritizes immediate through first-s adaptation, whereas pejorative variants suggest inherent flaws from . In survival scenarios, such as wilderness repairs or , it praises ingenuity, as in fabricating shelters or tools from post-event, with validated by real-world outcomes rather than aesthetic standards. Over-reliance on such methods, however, risks cascading failures if underlying issues persist, a evident in case studies where temporary rigs precede systematic overhauls. Jerry-rigging, a common variant of jury-rigging, refers to assembling or repairing something in a crude, improvised manner using available materials, often implying lower quality than the original nautical sense of temporary but functional fixes. This term likely arose as a phonetic blend of "jury-rigged" (makeshift ) and "jerry-built" (shoddy , first attested around 1860 in Liverpool's cheap trade, possibly from "jury" meaning makeshift or an unrelated for inferior work). While some usage overlaps with jury-rigging's emphasis on expediency in emergencies, jerry-rigging more frequently connotes hasty or substandard results rather than resourceful adaptations. MacGyvering represents a contemporary cultural extension of jury-rigging principles, describing the invention of clever devices or solutions from ordinary objects under duress, popularized by the 1985-1992 television series , where the protagonist Angus MacGyver routinely engineered escapes and repairs using items like and Swiss Army knives. This concept broadens the improvisational ethos into non-maritime domains, such as survival training and engineering hacks, but retains the core idea of causal efficacy through available resources without specialized tools. In technical slang, related variants include "kludging," originating in mid-20th-century to denote functional but inelegant software or hardware patches that prioritize operability over elegance, often leading to accumulated complexity. British English employs "bodging" or "fudging" for similar amateurish repairs, typically involving woodwork or with suboptimal materials, reflecting regional adaptations of the same pragmatic . These terms diverge from jury-rigging's historical precision in maritime emergencies but share the underlying realism of causal constraints dictating feasible outcomes.

References

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