The Seaman's Friend Part 3

TO BEND TOPGALLANT SAILS AND ROYALS.--These are generally bent to their yards on deck; the royals always. After being bent to the yard, they are furled, with their clews out, ready for sending aloft. If the topgallant sail is to be bent aloft, send it up to the topmast cross-trees by the clewlines, or by the royal halyards; and there bend on the sheets, clewlines, buntlines and bowlines, and bring the sail to the yard as with a topsail.

TO BEND A JIB.--Bend the jib halyards round the body of the sail, and the downhaul to the tack. Haul out on the downhaul, hoisting and lowering on the halyards. Seize the tack to the boom, the hanks to the luff of the sail, and the halyards to its head. Reeve the downhaul up through the hanks and make it fast to the head of the sail. Seize the middle of the sheet-pennant to the clew.

In some vessels the hanks are first seized to the sail, and the jib-stay unrove, brought in-board, and pa.s.sed down through the hanks, as the sail is sent out, rove in its place and set up. This is more troublesome, and wears out the jib-stay.

TO BEND A SPANKER.--Lower the gaff, and reeve the throat-rope through the hole in the gaff under the jaws, and secure it. Sometimes the head of the luff fits with a hook. Then haul out the head of the sail by the peak-earing, which is pa.s.sed like the head-earing of a topsail. When the head-rope is taut, pa.s.s the lacings through the eyelet-holes, and round the jack-stay. Seize the bights of the throat and peak brails to the leech, at distances from the peak which will admit of the sail's being brailed up taut along the gaff, and reeve them through their blocks on the gaff, and at the jaws, on each side of the sail. The foot brail is seized to the leech just above the clew. Seize the luff of the sail to the hoops or hanks around the spanker mast, beginning with the upper hoop and hoisting the gaff as they are secured. The tack is hooked or seized to the boom or to the mast. Hook on the outhaul tackle. This is usually fitted with an eye round the boom, rove through a single block at the clew, and then through a sheave-hole in the boom.

Some spankers are bent with a peak outhaul; the head traversing on the jack-stay of the gaff.

THE FORE AND MAIN SPENCERS are bent like the spanker, except that they have no boom, the clew being hauled aft by a sheet, which is generally a gun-tackle purchase, hooked to an eye-bolt in the deck.

TO UNBEND A COURSE.--Haul it up, cast off the robands, and make the buntlines fast round the sail. Ease the earings off together, and lower away by the buntlines and clew-garnets. At sea, the lee earing is cast off first, rousing in the lee body of the sail, and securing it by the earing to the buntlines.

TO UNBEND A TOPSAIL.--Clew it up, cast off the robands, secure the buntlines round the sail, unhook the sheets, and unreeve the clewlines and reef-tackles; ease off the earings, and lower by the buntlines.

A _top gallant sail_ is unbent in the same manner, and sent down by the buntlines. A _royal_ is usually sent down with the yard.

TO UNBEND A JIB.--Haul it down, cast off the hank seizings and the tack-lashing, cast off and unreeve the downhaul and make it fast round the sail, and cast off the sheet-pennant lashings. Haul aboard by the downhaul, hoisting clear by the halyards.

The rules above given are for a vessel in port, with squared yards. If you are at sea and it is blowing fresh, and the topsail or course is reefed, to send it down, you must cast off a few robands and reef-points, and pa.s.s good stops around the sail; then secure the buntlines also around it, and cast off all the robands, reef-points and reef-earings. Bend a line to the lee head-earing and let it go, haul the sail well up to windward, and make fast the lee earing to the buntlines. Get a hauling line to the deck, forward; ease off the weather earing, and lower away.

To bend a new topsail in a gale of wind, it has been found convenient to make the sail up with the reef-bands together, the points all being out fair, to pa.s.s several good stops round the sail, and send up as before. This will present less surface to the wind. One course may be sent up as the other goes down, by unbending the buntlines from the foot of the old sail, pa.s.sing them down between the head of the sail and the yard, bending them to the foot of the new sail, and making the new sail up to be sent aloft by them, as before directed. Run the new sail up to the yard abaft the old one, and send the old one down by the leechlines and the head-earings, bent to the topmast studdingsail halyards, or some other convenient rope.

One topsail may be sent up by the topsail halyards, got ready for bending, and brought to the yard, while the old one is sent down by the buntlines.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V.]

CHAPTER VII.

WORK UPON RIGGING.--ROPE, KNOTS, SPLICES, BENDS AND HITCHES.

Kinds of rope. Spunyarn. Worming. Parcelling. Service. Short splice.

Long splice. Eye splice. Flemish eye. Spindle eye. Cut splice. Grommet.

Single and double wall. Matthew Walker. Single and double diamond.

Spritsail sheet knot. Stopper knot. Shroud knot. French shroud knot.

Buoy-rope knot. Half-hitches. Clove hitch. Overhand knot.

Figure-of-eight. Bowline. Running bowline. Bowline-upon-a-bight. Square knot. Timber hitch. Rolling hitch. Blackwall hitch. Cat's paw. Sheet bend. Fisherman's bend. Carrick bend. Bowline bend. Sheep-shank.

Selvagee. Marlin-spike hitch. Round seizing. Throat seizing. Stopping.

Nippering. Racking. Pointing. Snaking. Grafting. Foxes. Spanish foxes.

Gaskets. Sennit. To bend a buoy-rope. To pa.s.s a shear-lashing.

Those ropes in a ship which are stationary are called _standing rigging_, as shrouds, stays, backstays, &c. Those which reeve through blocks or sheave-holes, and are hauled and let go, are called the _running rigging_, as braces, halyards, buntlines, clewlines, &c.

A rope is composed of threads of hemp, or other stuff. These threads are called _yarns_. A number of these yarns twisted together form a _strand_, and three or more strands twisted together form the rope.

The ropes in ordinary use on board a vessel are composed of three strands, laid RIGHT HANDED, (1.) or, as it is called, _with the sun_.

Occasionally a piece of large rope will be found laid up in four strands, also _with_ the sun. This is generally used for standing rigging, tacks, sheets, &c., and is sometimes called _shroud-laid_.

A CABLE-LAID ROPE (2.) is composed of nine strands, and is made by first laying them into three ropes of three strands each, _with_ the sun, and then laying the three ropes up together into one, left-handed, or _against_ the sun. Thus, cable-laid rope is like three small common ropes laid up into one large one. Formerly, the ordinary three-stranded right-hand rope was called _hawser-laid_, and the latter _cable-laid_, and they will be found so distinguished in the books; but among sea-faring men now, the terms _hawser-laid_ and _cable-laid_ are applied indiscriminately to nine-strand rope, and the three stranded, being the usual and ordinary kind of rope, has no particular name, or is called right-hand rope.

Right-hand rope must be coiled _with_ the sun, and cable-laid rope _against_ the sun.

SPUNYARN is made by twisting together two or more yarns taken from old standing rigging, and is called two-yarn or three-yarn spunyarn, according to the number of yarns of which it is composed. Junk, or old rigging, is first unlaid into strands, and then into yarns, and the best of these yarns made up into spunyarn, which is used for worming, serving, seizing, &c. Every merchant vessel carries a spunyarn-winch, for the manufacturing of this stuff, and in making it, the wheel is turned _against_ the sun, which lays the stuff up with the sun.

WORMING a rope, is filling up the divisions between the strands, by pa.s.sing spunyarn along them, to render the surface smooth for parcelling and serving.

PARCELLING a rope is wrapping narrow strips of canva.s.s about it, well tarred, in order to secure it from being injured by rain-water lodging between the parts of the service when worn. The parcelling is put on _with_ the lay of the rope.

SERVICE is the laying on of spunyarn, or other small stuff, in turns round the rope, close together, and hove taut by the use of a serving-board for small rope, and serving-mallet for large rope. Small ropes are sometimes served without being wormed, as the crevices between the strands are not large enough to make the surface very uneven; but a large rope is always wormed and parcelled before being served. The service is put on _against_ the lay of the rope.

SPLICING, is putting the ends of ropes together by opening the strands and placing them into one another, or by putting the strands of the ends of a rope between those of the bight.

A SHORT SPLICE. (3.) Unlay the strands for a convenient length; then take an end in each hand, place them one within the other, and draw them close. Hold the end of one rope and the three strands which come from the opposite rope fast in the left hand, or, if the rope be large, stop them down to it with a rope-yarn. Take the middle strand, which is free, pa.s.s it _over_ the strand which is first next to it, and through _under_ the second, and out between the second and third from it, and haul it taut. Pa.s.s each of the six strands in the same manner; first those on one side, and then those on the other. The same operation may be repeated with each strand, pa.s.sing each _over_ the third from it, and _under_ the fourth, and through; or, as is more usual, after the ends have been stuck once, untwist each strand, divide the yarns, pa.s.s one half as above described, and cut off the other half. This tapers the splice.

A LONG SPLICE. (4.) Unlay the ends of two ropes to a distance three or four times greater than for a short splice, and place them within one another as for a short splice. Unlay one strand for a considerable distance, and fill up the interval which it leaves with the opposite strand from the other rope, and twist the ends of these two together.

Then do the same with two more strands. The two remaining strands are twisted together in the place where they were first crossed. Open the two last named strands, divide in two, take an overhand knot with the opposite halves, and lead the ends over the next strand and through the second, as the whole strands were pa.s.sed for the short splice. Cut off the other two halves. Do the same with the others that are placed together, dividing, knotting, and pa.s.sing them in the same manner.

Before cutting off any of the half strands, the rope should be got well upon a stretch. Sometimes the whole strands are knotted then divided, and the half strands pa.s.sed as above described.

AN EYE SPLICE. (5.) Unlay the end of a rope for a short distance, and lay the three strands upon the standing part, so as to form an eye. Put one end through the strand next to it. Put the next end over that strand and through the second; and put the remaining end through the third strand, on the other side of the rope. Taper them, as in the short splice, by dividing the strands and sticking them again.

A FLEMISH EYE. (6.) Take the end of a rope and unlay one strand. Form an eye by placing the two remaining ends against the standing part.

Pa.s.s the strand which has been unlaid over the end and in the intervals round the eye, until it returns down the standing part, and lies under the eye with the strands. The ends are then sc.r.a.ped down, tapered, marled, and served over with spunyarn.

AN ARTIFICIAL OR SPINDLE EYE.--Unlay the end of a rope and open the strands, separating each rope yarn. Take a piece of wood, the size of the intended eye, and hitch the yarns round it. Sc.r.a.pe them down, marl, parcel, and serve them. This is now usually called a FLEMISH EYE.

A CUT SPLICE. (7.) Cut a rope in two, unlay each end as for a short splice, and place the ends of each rope against the standing part of the other, forming an oblong eye, of the size you wish. Then pa.s.s the ends through the strands of the standing parts, as for a short splice.

A GROMMET. (8.) Take a strand just unlaid from a rope, with all its turns in it, and form a ring of the size you wish, by putting the end over the standing part. Then take the long end and carry it twice round the ring, in the crevices, following the lay, until the ring is complete. Then take an overhand knot with the two ends, divide the yarns, and stick them as in a long splice.

A SINGLE WALL KNOT. (9.) Unlay the end of a rope. Form a bight with one strand, holding its end down to the standing part in your left hand.

Pa.s.s the end of the next strand round this strand. Pa.s.s the remaining strand round the end of the second strand, and up through the bight which was made by the first strand. Haul the ends taut carefully, one by one.

A SINGLE WALL, CROWNED. (10.) Make the single wall as before, and lay one end over the top of the knot. Lay the second end over the first, and the third over the second and through the bight of the first.

A DOUBLE WALL. (11.) Make the single wall slack, and crown it, as above. Then take one end, bring it underneath the part of the first walling next to it, and push it up through the same bight. Do the same with the other strands, pushing them up through two bights. Thus made, it has a double wall and a single crown.

A DOUBLE WALL, DOUBLE CROWNED. (12.) Make the double wall, single crowned, as above. Then lay the strands by the sides of those in the single crown, pushing them through the same bight in the single crown, and down through the double walling. This is sometimes called a TACK KNOT, or a TOPSAIL SHEET KNOT.

A MATTHEW WALKER KNOT. (13.) Unlay the end of a rope. Take one strand round the rope and through its own bight; then the next strand underneath, through the bight of the first, and through its own bight; and the third strand underneath, through both the other bights, and through its own bight.

A SINGLE DIAMOND KNOT. (14.) Unlay the end of a rope for a considerable distance, and with the strands form three bights down the side of the rope, holding them fast with the left hand. Take the end of one strand and pa.s.s it with the lay of the rope over the strand next to it, and up through the bight of the third. Take the end of the second strand over the third and up through the bight of the first. Take the end of the third strand over the first and up through the bight of the second.

Haul taut, and lay the ends up together.

A DOUBLE DIAMOND KNOT. (15.) Make a single diamond, as above, without laying the ends up. Follow the lead of the single knot through two single bights, the ends coming out at the top of the knot. Lead the last strand through two double bights. Haul taut, and lay the ends up.