Page 525 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

3102. Admiral: What mean you by flakes?

Captain: They are only those several circles or rounds of the

roapes or cables, that are quoiled up round.

Boteler's Dialogues, circa 1634

A flake is the sailor's term for a turn in an ordinary coil, or for a

complete tier in a flat coil, as a French or Flemish flake. The current

dictionary form of the word is fake, a word that I have never heard

used with this meaning.

A Flemish flake is a spiral coil of one layer only. It is made on

deck, in this manner, so that it may be walked on if necessary.

Sometimes the outer turn is stopped to the end with sail twine,

31 02. which keeps the flake from being accidentally uncoiled. Commonly

it is circular. Often in yachts and training ships Flemish flakes are

3 ( 0"3 iiewed together on the back and placed about deck for ornament.

(See ~349I.)

3103. Sometimes a Flemish flake is made in elliptical form, when

this shape better suits the space that is to be filled.

3104. A French coil is made of several (usually three or four)

Flemish flakes, one on top of the other. The first one is laid from the

3 104

center outward, the next from the outside, inward. Each flake is

made one turn smaller than the preceding one.

3105. The whaleman's coil is somewhat similar to the last but is

made inside a line tub, which it completely fills, and each spiral flake

is begun at the outer edge. The initial end, which bears an EYE

SPLICE, is left hanging out through a notch in the rim of the tub.

When the center of each flake is reached, the line is led to the outer

edge and a second and succeeding flakes are added until the tub is

full. Each time the line is led from the center to the side, it is ad-

vanced clockwise several inches beyond the previous radius. If we

consider the top plane of the coil as a cl0ck face, the lines radiate

clockwise at five- or six-minute intervals.

3106. An anchor cable is coiled on a grating close to the hatch, be-

tween decks. The grating allows for the circulation of air, which

assists in drying and prevents mildew. Being left-laid, a cable is coiled

left-handed-that is, counterclockwise or "against the sun," usually

in a somewhat angular ellipse which is made as large as the space

will admit. The first flake is from the outside inward, and the second

3106 from the inside outward, each flake being one turn smaller than the

previous one. The center of the coil is left 'well open and is reserved

for stowing smaller hawsers, rope and warps. The space is called the

"cable tier."

3107. A rocket coil is arranged for shooting a light line to a wreck,

by means of which a life line is hauled to ship. It is also used at sea

:3 10 & for passing a line to a disabled veiisel from another.

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