Page 90 - Frank Rosenow "Seagoing Knots"

The Marling Hitch

One summer afternoon in Kas, the yacht Whisper sailed in under a
skinny-looking, battenless mainsail, en route from the Galapagos Islands,
French Polynesia, Vanuatu, Bali, Christmas Island, and South Yemen.
A 14-foot Chilean sculling oar was lashed to the deck but when the
wind gave out just inside the breakwater, Margaret Roth got into the
dinghy and towed the 35-foot boat up to the quay. “Hal likes us to come
in under our own power,” she said, deadpan.
In the days that followed, my white-sloop and the black-hulled Whisper

sailed over to the blue grotto on Kastellorizon Island and up the pine-clad,
mountainous coast of southern Turkey to Fethiye Bay. There, we found a
natural spring under ancient Lycian tombs and, rafting up for the night,
dragged all across the bay on Whisper’s small Danforth.
All the while, Margaret, the daughter of a British engineer in the Bom¬
bay Port Trust, impressed the crew of Moth not only by her finishing school
grace but also by her impeccable seamanship.
It was when we tucked in the sails for the night, the boats rail for rail,
and saw Margaret help lace up the main on Whisper’s boom, that I realized
the difference between the chain and the marling hitch.
The marling hitch is used for lashing up (“marl down”) sails, ham¬
mocks, and awnings. The point, as seen in the drawing, is that you pass the

end down and through with each hitch (rather than up and through as
with a series of half hitches which makes a chain hitch).
Each marling hitch in effect makes an overhand knot which holds better
than a half hitch, jamming the outgoing part of the rope against the canvas
after each hitch is hauled taut.

SEAGOING KNOTS