Brails, in a sailing ship, are small lines

Glossary of nautical terms

This is a glossary of nautical terms; some remain current, many date from the 17th-19th century. See also Wiktionary's nautical terms, :Category:Nautical terms, and Nautical metaphors in English.- A :...

 passing through blocks

Block (sailing)

In sailing, a block is a single or multiple pulley. One or a number of sheaves are enclosed in an assembly between cheeks or chocks. In use a block is fixed to the end of a line, to a spar or to a surface...

, and used to haul in or up the leeches, bottoms, or corners of sail

Sail

A sail is any type of surface intended to move a vessel, vehicle or rotor by being placed in a wind—in essence a propulsion wing. Sails are used in sailing.-History of sails:...

s, before furling

Furl (sailing)

Furling refers to stowing or dousing a boat's sail by flaking , packing , roller furling or just lowering it onto the deck. Nowadays, it is becoming more common to use the term "furling" to refer to reefing a sail that is part of a roller furling system....

. On a ship rig, these brails are found only on the two course

Course (sail)

In sailing, a course is the lowermost sail on a mast.This term is used predominantly in the plural to describe the lowest sails on a square rigged vessel, i.e., a ship's courses would be the foresail, mainsail, and, on the rare occasions in which one is shipped, mizen...

s and the mizzen sail. The command is, hale up the brails, or, brail up the sails. The word brail comes from Middle English brayle, from Anglo-French braiel belt, strap, brail, alteration of Old French braiuel belt, probably ultimately from Latin braca pant.