In the good old days, the ship designer had fulfilled his duty regarding the rigging once he had created a complete sail plan along with a list of the dimensions of the round timber and possibly the standing rigging. He could leave the execution of the fittings to the blacksmith and locksmith, the blocks to the block maker, and the rest to the rigger and sailmaker. The aforementioned tasks were generally carried out in a craft-based manner, which is also why no book contained even remotely usable drawings or sketches of the details of the rigging. This changed around the turn of the century, as sailing ships grew larger, and against this backdrop, this book was created. The author was Friedrich Ludwig Middendorf, the then director of the Germanischer Lloyd.