Page 139 - Lindsey Philpott "The Ultimate Book of Decorative Knots"

covering knots 133

Many of the names for these coverings derive The method I have shown here is drawn from
from nautical sources; ample idle time was available another of Ashley’s illustrations, #3604.
on board for eager hands if there were no cleaning
or sail-setting to do. Some derive from other, more
obvious sources, either by appearance or by usage.
St Mary’s Hitching probably came from the Scilly
Isles off Great Britain, and the term coachwhipping
likely came from coachmen’s handle coverings. On
the other hand, by conjecture, sinnet work, whose
name origins are unknown, may have come from the
English expression for a week (the time it took to
make some of this at sea) known as a seven-night or
a sennite in its original spelling.

CaCkling, kaCkling or 1 Form a Half Hitch.
keCkling
Keckling is the process of adding a material to
chafing points on a cable (used to tie a ship to a
dock) or a hawser (the anchor cable). It was first
mentioned in print in about 1627 in Captain
Smith’s Seaman’s Grammar, where he noted
keckling is ‘to bind some old clouts [clothes or rags]
to keepe it from binding or galling in the Hawse or
Ring’. Although he does not illustrate the process
specifically, Lt. George S. Nares Seamanship (1862)
notes that when ‘splicing the eye in a rope cable,
long ends are left which are wormed into the lays of
the cable; this served over with rope is also called
“keckling” and keeps the end of the cable from being 2 Form another Half Hitch, but in the opposite
chafed’. The illustration below is from Ashley direction.
and shows one right-laid rope laid into the cantline
of a plain-laid hawser as worming, to protect the
hawser from chafe against sea-bottom rocks or the
barnacle-encrusted side of the hull. The wearing
piece of the keckling could readily be replaced when
worn, rather than having to replace the expensive
large hawser.

3 Form a third Half Hitch, again reversing

direction.