Page 596 - The Ashley Book of Knots

DECORATIVE MARLING SPIKE SEAMANSHIP (APPLIED KNOTS)

illustrated. If a net is exposed to excessive wear it may be reinforced

-

along the upper half of the center section. This is worked with a

needle on which two parallel cords are wound. The lower section is

worked with another needle, carrying a single cord only. The sec-

tions are worked separately and, whenever they meet each other, all

three threads are joined with a compound OVERHAND BEND (~3789),

and each needle is then reversed and a new row of meshes is started ,

in each direction. After ninety-six single meshes are made along the , "3

head of t}"e net, one hundred double meshes should follow and then

a final ninety-six single meshes. There should be only eleven horizon-

tal rows of double meshes at the top of the mid-section of the net. 380\
38

3796. The ordinary way of tying the MESH KNOT (see also ~ 380 I).

3'797. To add the tape: The tape is held taut by means of a cord

attached to the eyelet.

3798. Narrowing the mesh.

3799 3812. This tennis-ball bag was designed and made for my

cousin Hope Knowles. Use a spool two and three quarters inches in

girth. A galvanized iron mast hoop or lobster pot ring about seven

inches in diameter is called for and a I Ys -inch galvanized iron eyelet

hole ring.

Parcel the seven-inch ring with one-inch adhesive surgical tape and

cover ~38IO with RING BOLT HITCHING ~36IJ. Use small hard white '3802.

fishline. Reef knot the ends of the RING BOLT HITCHING together.

Take a fifty-foot piece of small soft cotton fishline and wind it

at both ends onto two netting needles. Clove hitch (~3799) six-

teen meshes around the small ring. If the ring is not completely cov-

ered substitute enough ROLLING HITCHES (~3800) to fill. Hang the

ring by a toggled cord (~3802) and proceed to make cylindrical net

~ 37 87· Make nine rows of meshes (~3 80 I), completing each tier

with OVERHAND BEND ~ 3803. ,\\-'hen complete, bend the two ends

together with HARNESS BEND ~ 3 804, well up on the side of the mesh.

Take eight feet of cotton cord about twice the diameter of the

netting material, and arrange it on the larg'e ring, as in ~ 3 806, reev-

ing the cord through the meshes of the net as pictured in ~ 3809, and

~811

tying the ends together with a REEF KNOT placed as *3805. Seize

the strands below the ring with a CONSTRICTOR ~ 3808. Have all the

loops of even length. Take several feet of the netting material, leav-

ing the ends long, and tie KNOT ~ 3807, which holds the material in

place. Draw very tight, making certain that the ends of the RINGBOLT

HITCHING are covered. With the ends of the cord serve the knob

)Ver tightly and evenly. Then cover with TURK'S-HEAD ~38II,

38\2

which was designed for this bag and is given in detail as * 1393. Make

the knot three- or four-ply in order to completely cover all under-

neath material. Add a RUNNING TURK'S-HEAD (~38I2) of very hard

cord (log or fishline) around the lanyards for a puckering knot: (see

~ 303-1323 for methods of tying).
I

Columbus' diary states that he found the inhabitants of the

Bahama Islands slept in "nets of cotton" suspended at either end,

"which they called hamacs." The name has been adopted the world

over. Although Columbus remarked upon this as something new and

strange in furniture, Alcibiades is credited with the invention of the

swinging canvas bed, which is still used in the Navy. It was not until

the days of the Greenland whale fishery ~hat bunks w~re firs~ intro-

duced for sailors, and only then because It was found ImpossIble for

a sailor to keep warm in a hammock in Nonhern latitudes. I do not

know when "Cape Ann" hammocks were first made, but they are