A fife rail is a design element of a European-style

sailing ship A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships c ...

used to

belay Belaying is a variety of techniques climbers use to create friction within a climbing system, particularly on a climbing rope, so that a falling climber does not fall very far. A climbing partner typically applies tension at the other end of t ...

the ship's

halyard In sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line (rope) that is used to hoist a ladder, sail, flag or yard. The term ''halyard'' comes from the phrase "to haul yards". Halyards, like most other parts of the running rigging, were classically made of n ...

s at the base of a mast. When surrounding a mast, a fife rail is sometimes referred to specifically by the name of the mast with which it is associated: the main fife rail surrounds the

main mast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation lig ...

; the mizzen fife rail surrounds the mizzen mast, etc. It is one of a dozen or so types of "rails" often found on such ships. Fife rails are typically horizontal strips of either wood or iron and are joined and fitted to the tops of a series of

stanchion A stanchion () is a sturdy upright fixture that provides support for some other object. It can be a permanent fixture. Types In architecture stanchions are the upright iron bars in windows that pass through the eyes of the saddle bars or horizo ...

s. The term apparently derives from the location where the ship's

fifer A fifer is a non-combatant military occupation of a foot soldier who originally played the fife during combat. The practice was instituted during the period of Early Modern warfare to sound signals during changes in formation, such as the line ...

would sit and play his fife at heaving of the ship's anchor.
Fife rail locatioN DIAGRAM

A fife rail surrounding a ship's mast will contain a series of

belaying pin Properly securing a line to a belaying pin starts by leading the line under and behind the base of the pin to begin the figure-8 pattern left, Lines coiled and secured by belaying pins A belaying pin is a solid metal or wooden device used on tr ...

s corresponding to the sails on that mast which they belay. A mast will either have a single horseshoe-shaped fife rail surround the base of the mast on the fore, starboard, and port sides, a single straight rail directly before or directly behind the mast, or a set of two fife rails, one on each side (fore and aft) of the mast. Each sail associated with a given fife rail will have several corresponding belaying pins set into that rail. Although a fife rail is a kind of pin rail, the term "pin rail" is often used to specifically denote those rails containing belaying pins that are attached to the hull. Unlike these, fife rails are freestanding.

References

{{Sail Types Nautical terminology Sailing rigs and rigging Sailboat components