Also barton.
A small tackle consisting of two or three blocks or pulleys used to set up or tighten rigging, or to shift heavy bodies. There are several varieties, as Spanish burton, top burton.
1704. in Harris, Lex. Technicum.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Burton, a … small tackle, formed by two blocks or pulleys … generally employed to tighten the shrouds of the top-masts.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 199. Burton-Pendents are … placed over the topmast-head, that the thimbles may hang on each side, to hook the burton-tackles in.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 118/1. The Spanish barton consists of two moveable wheels and one fixed wheel.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 35. The top burtons are hooked to the burton pendants.
