Page 592 - The Ashley Book of Knots

DECORATIVE MARLINGSPIKE SEAMANSHIP (APPLIED KNOTS)

3757. A bell rope. Make a loop of FOUR-STRAND SQUARE SINNET,

tie an EIGHT-STRAND MATTHEW WALKER KNOT and follow with

EIGHT-STRAND SQUARE SINNET, after which SINNET KNOT ~761 fol-

lows. Add CROWN SINNET ~ 2920 and finish off with a DOUBLE MAT-

THEW WALKER, covered with KNOT ~9S4'

"Outside" knot work is painted to save weathering. Before painting,

it should be sized with casein, glue or shellac. Manropes, bell ropes, life

lines, etc., are always treated in this way. Manropes reeve through '31

stanchions let in the rail, and provide a handhold for anyone coming

aboard. When ships were high-sided and visitors mounted through an

"entering port" they were called "entering ropes." The Naval Repository

of 1762 gives the following: "The Entering Rope is suspended from the

Top of the Ladder by which you enter the ship; and for the most Part

covered with Scarlet Cloth curiously fringed and tasseled, the genteeler }7S8 &'2.

to accommodate the Captain or any Visitor, it seldom being used at any

other Time." For a short while before the term "manrope" was adopted,

they were called "sideropes."

3758. Manropes are made of four-strand rope, canvas-covered. A

NARROW TURK'S-HEAD of small fishline covers each joint of the can-

vas. The joints are the width of a cloth apart. The knob is generally

a Two- or THREE-PLY MANROPE KNOT tied with canvas-coveTed

strtmds and furnished with a pinked leather washer. Often the point 316~

is finished off with an eye, by which it is lashed. 316

Admiral Luce recommends that manropes be "pointed over with

neat small line, the job is a tedious one, but worth the expense and

trouble." Alston described them coachwhipped the full length.

3759. A mmzrope stanchion of white whalebone. The hole is

eleven sixteenths of an inch in diameter, indicating that it was made

for either linen or hemp rope.

3760. A coachwhipped yoke rope of fishline with a very attenu-

at;ed grafted point bearing a tassel. The knob is a MANROPE KNOT,

covered with NINE-LEAD X EIGHT-BIGHT X THREE-PLY TURK'S-

HEAD. The pointing in this case is pure swank, as it could not be used

practically on account of the tassel. The points in this case were not

rove; the knots were buttoned instead to two beckets in the yoke. A

square knotted yoke rope is described on page 404.

3761. A deck stoppeT is made of hawser-laid rope one half the size

of the cable and one fathom in length. The lanyard is twice as long

as the stopper itself and one third the diameter. In one end is a

STOPPER KNOT (~674)' in the other end is a shackle or hook. The 3165' 166

ends are laid up three or four inches after the knot has been tied and

is strongly whipped and snaked.

3762. A mttnTOpe with a MATTHEW WALKER KNOT covered with

a red slashed leather cap (see ~724)' There is a TURK'S-HEAD around

-

the leather collar and the point is canvas-covered.

3763. A bronze mulzt'Ope stcmchion. Similar but shorter stanchions

are used at the knightheads to hold a net on which the headsails are

doused.

3764. A deck stopper for a large ship was sometimes of cable.

Often the three heart strands were cut out and a SPRITSAIL SHEET

KNOT tied with the remaining strands.

3765, 3766. Mess kid and mess table pendants are shown in a draw-

ing by Cruickshank (1815)' The table is held with MULTI-STRAND - - -

STOPPER KNOTS, presumably MATTHEW WALKERS. The tassels were

probably of brightly colored yarn~. . .

3767. A bell 1'ope. A small rope 15 mlddled to form the eye and IS

shaped with worming and spun yarn. The middle section is needle

bitched once, and the bulbous parts are covered with TURK'S-HEADS.

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