An old song about life on a whaling ship included these lyrics "clear away the running gear and blow ye winds

Question

hi ho." I get the "hi ho" part but what is a running gear and why would you want to clear it away?

Answer 1

"running rigging" or "running gear" is that part of a ships rigging which moves... as opposed to the "standing rigging", which is fixed.

For example, the stays, which hold the mast up, are fixed, and are part of the standing rigging. Whereas the halyards, used to raise and lower sails, or the sheets, used to control the position and tension of a sail, are "loose" and thus part of the running gear.

The shanty you mention is specifically about a whaling ship...
Once a whale was caught, it had to be processed... its blubber flayed off and boiled down, etc. Generally reduced to more manageable chunks.
To give them room to do this, all the running gear would be removed or secured, out of the way, giving a clearer deck to work on.

in some cases, the ship was designed such that parts of the running gear could double as whale-processing tools... capstan winches could be used to haul the carcass aboard, sheet tackle re-hung from the yards to make a crane for lifting the bigger lumps, smaller winches and even the steam powered donkey engine used to pull flensing knives through the carcass.

Answer 2

They had to furl all the sails. The ship was not sailable while they were working on a whale. The triworks were set up to boil down the blubber. The whale was cut up along side the ship and hauled aboard. Running gear is the shets and halyards used to raise and control the sails.

Answer 3

the most important part is the RUM.....