Page 470 - The Ashley Book of Knots

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CHAPTER 36: ODD SPLICES

That girl who fain would choose a mate

Who'd ne'er in fondness fail her

May thank her lucky stars if fate

Should splice her to a sailor.

CHARLES DWOEN, 1745-1814

One hundred years ago Richard Dana, in Two Years before the

Mast, spoke of the "HOMEWARD-BoUND SPLICE" without giving any

intimation of just what such a splice might be.

At sea to "splice the main brace" is to serve grog to all hands at

the completion of some particularly arduous labor. On a whaler

grog was always served when the last blanket piece had swung in-

board after cutting in a whale.

Moffat mentions the "ANTIGALLICAN SPLICE" in Seamanship and

Rigging (1861); this is probably just another euphemism for the

CUT SPLICE, which at sea bears a far lustier name. "Antigalligans"

were preventer backstays which, being single, required a CUT SPLICE

to ass over the topmast head.

rady (1841) speaks of a "SHORT LONG SPLICE," which presumably

meant a LONG SPLICE somewhat shorter than was customary.

To any woman the verb to splice means just one thing-to marry a

sailor. An IRISH SPLICE is resorted to in rattling down. When a ratline

is too long or too short for its purpose a belaying pin is inserted in the

eye at one end and the lay is twisted, one way or the other, until the

ratline fits the space. This saves resplicing the eye.

ROUND SPLICE was the early English name for SHORT SPLICE; it is

given by both Captain John Smith and Sir Henry Manwayring.

The late Dr. F. A. Lucas, then acting director of the American

Museum of Natural History, some fifteen years ago told me the fol-

lowing story while splices were under discussion. He had heard it

aboard ship on his first voyage to the Chincha Islands in 1861.

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