What is "futtock shrouds"

Futtock \Fu"ttock\, n. [Prob. corrupted fr. foothook.] (Naut.) One of the crooked timbers which are scarfed together to form the lower part of the compound rib of a vessel; one of the crooked transverse timbers passing across and over the keel.

Futtock plates (Naut.), plates of iron to which the dead-eyes of the topmast rigging are secured.

Futtock shrouds, short iron shrouds leading from the upper part of the lower mast or of the main shrouds to the edge of the top, or through it, and connecting the topmast rigging with the lower mast.
--Totten.

Shroud \Shroud\ (shroud), n. [OE. shroud, shrud, schrud, AS. scr[=u]d a garment, clothing; akin to Icel. skru[eth] the shrouds of a ship, furniture of a church, a kind of stuff, Sw. skrud dress, attire, and E. shred. See Shred, and cf. Shrood.]

1. That which clothes, covers, conceals, or protects; a garment.
   --Piers Plowman.

   Swaddled, as new born, in sable shrouds.
   --Sandys.

2. Especially, the dress for the dead; a winding sheet. ``A dead man in his shroud.''
   --Shak.

3. That which covers or shelters like a shroud.

   Jura answers through her misty shroud.
   --Byron.

4. A covered place used as a retreat or shelter, as a cave or den; also, a vault or crypt. [Obs.]

   The shroud to which he won His fair-eyed oxen.
   --Chapman.

   A vault, or shroud, as under a church.
   --Withals.

5. The branching top of a tree; foliage. [R.]

   The Assyrian wad a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and with a shadowing shroad.
   --Ezek. xxxi. 3.

6. pl. (Naut.) A set of ropes serving as stays to support the masts. The lower shrouds are secured to the sides of vessels by heavy iron bolts and are passed around the head of the lower masts.

7. (Mach.) One of the two annular plates at the periphery of a water wheel, which form the sides of the buckets; a shroud plate. Bowsprit shrouds (Naut.), ropes extending from the head of the bowsprit to the sides of the vessel. Futtock shrouds (Naut.), iron rods connecting the topmast rigging with the lower rigging, passing over the edge of the top. Shroud plate.

   1. (Naut.) An iron plate extending from the dead-eyes to the ship's side.
      --Ham. Nav. Encyc.

   2. (Mach.) A shroud. See def. 7, above.

Futtock shrouds are rope, wire or chain links in the rigging of a traditional square rigged ship. They run from the outer edges of a top downwards and inwards to a point on the mast or lower shrouds, and carry the load of the shrouds that rise from the edge of the top. This prevents any tendency of the top itself to tilt relative to the mast.