Page 555 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

3437. Shrouds are always said to be "rattled down" although fOI

many years they have actually been rattled up. Ratlines are light

tarred hemp lines, passing between the shrouds, that serve as the

rungs of a ladder by which sailors climb aloft. The ratlines bear an

EYE SPLICE at either end, and these eyes are seized to forward and

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:lfter shroud~, and are clove hitched to the intervening ones. The two

lower ratlines are heavier than the others, to support the crew before

the men stretch aloft. The ratline is seized at its forward end. Every

fifth ratline, termed a catch ratline, goes to the swifter or forward

shroud; the remainder are seized to the second shroud.

Generally they are fifteen to sixteen inches apart. On boys' train-

ing ships they may be only thirteen or fourteen inches apart. Such

ratlines on a merchant ship are termed in derision "ladies' ladders."

The CLOVE HITCHES are always on the outer side of the shrouds,

and they are tied so that the lower end of the hitch ahJ.Xlys leads aft.

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Wire shrouds are served so that ratlines will not slip.

3437 3438. The EVE SPLICE in a ratline is tucked once and a half times

and is seized in a horizontal position, for the sake of neatness. The

manner of passing the seizing is illustrated alongside. A lanyard of

marline is eye spliced through the end of the ratline. There are no

crossing turns and the end of the seizing is secured with a hitch at

the center ()f the eye.
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• • 3439. Stopping may be either a temporary whipping or a seizing,

the commonest variety consisting of a few round turns finished off

3441 with a REEF KNOT. The purpose of a 'u:hipping is to prevent the end

of a rope from fraying. A seizing holds several objects together.

3440. The STRANGLE KNOT is a neater and more secure stopping

than the last. It is first tied loosely and then worked snug.

3441. The CONSTRICTOR KNOT is the firmest of the three stoppings

shown, although the STRA~GLE KNOT is perhaps neater.

3442. Common, plain or ordinary 7.L'hipping is tied by laying a

loop along the rope and then making a series of turns over it. The

working end is finally stuck through this loop and the end hauled

back out of sight. Both ends are then trimmed short. A whipping

should be, in width, about equal to the diameter of the rope on

3442..

which it is put.

3443. The sailor's whipping is the one that is most commonly

seen. An end is laid down and a number of turns taken about it,.

after which it is hauled taut and laid out. Then the second end is

laid back along the rope and additional turns, not less than four, are

made around the end, with the loop that is formed. It is finally tight-

ened by pulling on the two ends.

This is the whipping with which the "all square" and "sharp up"

marks are put in braces, which aid in trimming sail at night, when

a sailor must "see with his hands."

3444. American wbipping is the name given by the British to

sailor's wbipping (%3443) when the ends, after being hauled out at

the center, are reef knotted together before being trimmed. It is

said to be the "best whipping for hawsers." When putting this and
3444 3445

%3443 in the bight of a rope, the last four or five turns are taken

around a needle or a loop, and are hauled back tightly.

3445. A rigger's 71.:hipping is made in the same way as STOPPING

%3393. The ends of the EVE SPLICE are tucked once and are held by

the turns.