Page 306 - The Ashley Book of Knots

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CHAPTER 22: HITCHES TO MASTS, RIGGING,

AND CABLE (LENGTHWISE PULL)

Instead of tying, Settmen alwayes say, "Make Fast!"

CAPTAINE JOHN SMITH ("Sometimes Governour of Virginia

and Admirall of New England"): A Sea Grammar, 16z7

To withstand a lengthwise pull without slipping is about the most

that can be asked of a hitch. Great care must be exercised in tying

the following series of knots, and the impossible must not be ex-

pected, particularly on a wet and varnished spar, or on a polished-

brass fireman's pole.

On a cable or taut rope the more turns the tail is "dogged" after

a hitch is made, the greater the friction on the rope, and the safer

the hitch. Always dog with the lay of the rope to which you are

making fast.

In securing a small rope to a large one a hitch sometimes panakes ----------.,

of the nature of a bend (Chapter IS). But in a hitch all the turns will

be in the small rope and the large hawser or cable remains inert, while

in a bend both ropes are involved.

In bending to a mast a sailor often parcels with a canvas patch,

which makes a better holding surface and protects the spar from the

rope.

I have found three things of practical use in making a hitch to a

treacherous surface. The simplest of these is to rub a wet spar with

ashes; the second is to shellac a dry surface and, after the shellac has

"set," to bend to it. But by far the most practical thing is to wrap a

piece of old tire inner tube around the spar before bending to it. So

far I have found no surface on which this is not effective.

Most of the knots and stoppers pictured here are for It downward

pull-that is to say, for the upper block of a tackle. But for bending

to a spar that is to be hoisted, the same knots may be tied "upside

down."

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