Page 450 - The Ashley Book of Knots

LONG AND SHORT SPLICES (MULTI-STRAND BENDS)

2708. Cables consist of three plain- or hawser-laid ropes twisted

together left-handed. Each component rope having three strands,

the cable itself has nine strands. In the following descriptions, when

a rope is spoken of it will refer to one third of the cable, and when

a strand is spoken of it will mean one third of a rope, or one ninth

of the cable.

An old nineteenth-century custom was to call the ropes strands, and

the strands "readies," but the different rope works today have each their

own names for the different parts of a cable. 2106

A cable is hard-laid and the work of splicing one is, at times,exacting.

But these mechanical difficulties are discussed under ~2714. Until that is

reached we will merely describe the mechanics of the splices.

The splice pictured is perhaps the simplest of the LONG CABLE SPLICES;

it bulks four ropes at the center, or thirty-three per cent larger than the

cable itself, but it requires less material than the other LONG SPLICES and

is one of the most practical for towing, warping, etc.

The ends are opened up each into its three ropes for a length equal to

about ten times the circumference of the cable. The two ends are married

and "laid out and laid in" to the right and left just as strands were treated

in the ROPE SPLICES last described. These two drawings depict the splic-

ing of two rope ends-that is, one third only of a whole CABLE LONG

SPLICE. The two rope ends are married as shown at the top. After having

been crotched, if the ropes prove too loose, the upper strand end should

be carefully unlaid (withdrawn) one full turn and will then occupy the

lowest position of the three strands. It may be necessary to repeat this

operation until the right tension is achieved. This having been done, the

strands that point to the right are all three tucked under the adjacent

rope to the right and the left-hand strands under the adjacent rope to the

left. The bottom strand at the right is now left out and the remaining two 210~

are tucked once, over and under the ropes to the right. Again the bottom

strand is left out and the remaining strand is tucked over and under the

next rope to the right. The splice is now turned end for end and the other

end is spliced as the first. If the cable is to be used for towing the last

strand should be backed one tuck.

2709. The MARINER'S SPLICE. Alston, Luce and other nautical

authorities say this "can only be done with old soft cables which are

not worth the trouble and for these a shroud knot is the best treat-

ment." However, the drilling cable of today is smaller than the ship

cables that the naval gentlemen referred to, and a LONG CABLE SPLICE . - •••

is required nowadays. The MARINER'S SPLICE is always described as •

"a long spliced cable with long spliced strands" (ropes).

A cable is opened and the ropes laid out and in as pictured in the 2110 2., II

second diagram. The ropes in turn are opened and the strands laid

out and laid in so that there are nine pairs of strands to be spliced as

shown in the third diagram. Each strand is divided and one half is

tucked over one and under one as shown in the upper diagram, all

the tucks being kept on the surface of the rope. For these tasks a

marlingspike and considerable force are required.

2710. Bushell's MARINER'S SPLICE. The illustrations show the

method of tucking two opposing strands. There are nine such joints

I 2112

in the splice.

2711. The British Admiralty MARINER'S SPLICE from The Manual

of the Sea (189 I). The method of tucking two opposite strands is 1'113

shown.

2712. Admiral Luce's MARINER'S SPLICE. The HALF KNOT is diffi-

cult to draw u and it cannot fail to be objectionably prominent in

the finished sp ice.

2713. A CABLE SPLICE given by Murphy and Jeffers (1849). Two

opposite rope ends in the cable are treated as described in ~ 2675.

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