Page 298 - The Ashley Book of Knots

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CHAPTER 21: HITCHES TO SPAR AND RAIL

(RIGHT-ANGLE PULL)

To Hitch, Is to catch-hold of Anything with a roape, to hold it fast.

31R HENRY MANWAYRING:

Tbe Sea-mans Dictionary, 1644

The verb hitch is seldom lneard at sea. The expression make fast

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is used instead, and hitch as a verb is applied only to various marling-

spike seamanship practices, :mch as half hitching, marling, palm and

needle, and ringbolt hitching.

But there is also an exc(;ption in the use of the expression make

fast. Although the knots employed are really hitches, the sailor

bends instead of making fast to an anchor or a spar. There are three

hitches so used that are always termed bends. They are the STUDDING-

SAIL BEND, the TOPSAIL HALYARD BEND and the FISHERMAN'S BEND. .. -
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These three knots are basically alike and the differences between

them consist either in the number of the turns or the method of

tucking the end. I

This chapter is composed of hitches to objects of more or less

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cylindrical form, the pull being at an angle with the object. These • ",,1' ,
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are of two general sorts, the first treated being SNUG HITCHES of If I. .1' "".,.-'"

two or more turns, in which the ends are secured under one or more

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of the turns. The second variety consists of LOOSE HITCHES of one

or more turns in which the ends are secured to the standing part,

generally with one or two HALF HITCHES. -

The TIMBER HITCH is an exception to this classification, for, al-

though it has but one tum around the spar, the end is secured under

the one turn.

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for

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