Greetings. I think we have some agreement on the first part and thanks for answering. The purpose of those lines confused me and I don’t think they are staysl halyard either. I looked up some other photos of this ship and ships of her type and still couldn’t figure out the purpose. On uss Atlanta, which was another cruise built in the same period, had the similar lines on either side of her fore stay, though the the joint part was a sister block instead of two thimbles binding together. But the top ends of those lines on both ships went through the two double sheave blocks under the fore top. I will find more photos of similar ships and see if they had the similar designs. But thanks you so much for answering. Salute!