Page 297 - The Ashley Book of Knots
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THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNufS
1651. Kevels or cl7vils arc a seemingly obsolete variety of cleats or
bitts that were let into the bulwarks of a ship and to which braces
and sheets were belayed. The present drawing is abstracted from Du
Clair bois, Ency clopedie Mithodique Marine (1783).
1652. Timberheads are ribs that are carried well above deck and
mortised through the rail to serve as bitts.
165'" 16Sz.. 1653. A bollard was originally a knighthead and, later, a large post
at either side of a dock. Nowadays the name generally refers to
round bitts of cast iron which may be either single or in pairs and
,;
•
•
• are to be found either on the dockside or on shipboard, in the latter
•
- • case generally on steamships.
•
•
•
• 1654. On wharfs and on steamships iron bollards are apt to have
•
"" mushroom tops to prevent the hawsers from riding. It is generally
•
easier to seize the ends (of hawsers) than it is to make them fast with
hitches. But a large spliced eye placed over the bollard is preferable
to either.
,
- 1655. A long quarter cleat bolted to the starboard. stanchions was
employed on a whale ship either in tying_up or when getting a whale
alongside. A similar cleat was generally to be found forward. It was
not an uncommon fixture in other kind of craft.
1656. A single bitt, from HisMire de la Marine by De Joinville,
•
• is illustrated here. There is a similar one at the main fife rail of the
British school ship Implacable, but without the norman, and with
the addition of several shivs close to deck.
1657. A hawser belayed to double bitts, and made fast with a
SINGLE HITCH, is shown by Steel in 1794. Generally a round turn is
• 2
first taken about one bitt with which to snub the line, before the S
turns are added.
In large stuff it is good practice to put on sufficient turns to make
a it unnecessary to make fast at all, although, if desired, stops can be
......
o added. Hitches are difficult to put in heavy stuff and turns are more
o easily cast off.
1658. A mainmast fair-leader from an old square-rigger. A fair-
leader serves several purposes. It lessens the slatting of the rigging, it
also prevents loose ends from going adrift, since the FIGURE-EIGHT
KNOTS in the rope's ends cannot pass through the holes. When sev-
eral lines are slacked off at a time the positions of the holes serve to
identify them. Fair-leaders, similar to pin racks, are seized in the
shrouds about ten feet above deck, where they fill much the same
purpose as the one given here for the mast.
1659. Ritts and bitt stopper from Gower (1808). The stopper is
secured to a ring on the bitts with a LONG RUNNING EYE. After pass-
ing once around the cable, the end is dogged forward around the
cable and "attended" by a sailor. Any running out of the cable nips
it more firmly to the bitts.
1660. A cable is always "turned" around the bitts as pictured here,
a turn in the starboard bitt being the reverse of the turn in the port
bitt. The end of the cable abaft the bitts is the "bitter end." The
common expression, "reached the bitter end," refers to a situation
of extremity and has nothing at all to do with lees and dregs and
other unpalatable things. It means literally that someone has "got to
166l
the end of his rope."
1661. Deck stoppers are passed and secured to the eyebolts down
both sides of the deck on the way to the chain locker, which used to
be just forward of and below the main hatch.
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