57.—A DEAD-EYE
Is a large round piece of wood with three holes in it, (as you see in the Plate,) and a groove cut round it for the shroud to lie in. It is used to turn in the ends of shrouds and backstays;—the three holes are used to reeve the lanyard through, when setting up the shroud or backstay.
A bull’s-eye is a kind of thick wooden thimble, with a hole in the centre, and a groove cut round the outside for the rope or seizing to lay in.
58.—A HEART
Is a block of wood with a large hole in the centre, at the bottom of which are four or five scores, and round the outside is a groove cut to admit a rope called a stay; there are other hearts called collar-hearts, which are open at the lower ends, opposite to which the lanyard is passed. This heart has a double score cut round the outside, and two grooves cut on each side for the seizings to lay in, which keeps the collar in the scores of the heart. Hearts intended for bobstays should be made of lignum vitæ; those made of ash being liable to split.
59.—A BELAYING-PIN RACK
Is a piece of wood with a number of holes through it, in which belaying-pins are stuck; on the back part are several scores for the shrouds to lie in to which it is seized.
60.—A EUPHROE
Is a long piece of wood, having a number of holes, through which the legs of the crowfoot is rove,—a score is cut round it to admit of a strap. This is used for the ridge of an awning.
61.—A HORN CLEAT.
Horn cleats are used for different purposes; some are made to seize on to the shrouds; they are called lashing cleats; others are made to nail on to different parts of the bulwarks. They are of different shape and size, and used to belay various ropes to, in all parts of the ship.
62.—A B-CLEAT
Is a piece of wood scored out inside, something like the letter B, and rounded off outside; they are used for leading a rope through, or for keeping it in its place on the masts, bowsprit, &c.
63.—A STRAP FOR A BLOCK.
Straps are fitted in various ways, according to the use they are intended for, and according to the size of the block.
A common strap is fitted in the following manner:—
First, cut the rope once-and-a-half the round of the block, then get it on a stretch,—worm, parcel, and serve as near the end as possible, not to interfere with splicing; then splice the ends together with a short splice, and finish serving snug up to the splice. Stretch it and cut the ends off, or you may serve over the ends, and it will appear as in the Plate. If there is a number of those straps required, it would be best to get the rope on a stretch, and serve off the required number before cutting.
64.—A TAIL BLOCK
Is strapped with an eye-splice, snug round the block; the ends are stuck but once; then scraped down, and served over with spun-yarn. Clap on a stout whipping about six inches from the splice; open the ends out, twist them into foxes, and plait them together, as mentioned for gaskets; or, the strands may be opened out and marled down salvagee fashion; tapering it a little towards the end of the tail.
Note.—Blocks used for jiggers, have a double tail made in the same manner.
65.—A PURCHASE BLOCK
Is double strapped, having two scores in the shell for that purpose; the strap is wormed, parceled, and served, (sometimes only wormed and parceled,) and spliced together. It is then doubled so as to bring the splice at the bottom of the block. The seizing is put on the same as any other; the only difference is, that it is crossed both ways, through the double parts of the strap.
These block-straps are so large and stiff, that it requires a purchase to set them securely in the scores of the block, and bring them into their proper place.
66.—A TOP BLOCK
Is a single iron-bound hook-block, with (generally) a brass sheave; it hooks to an eye-bolt in the cap. The top-pendants are rove through the top-blocks when swaying up topmasts.
67.—A CAT BLOCK.
The cat block is three-fold, iron-bound, with a large iron hook attached to it, for the purpose of hooking the ring of the anchor when catting it.
On the forward side of the shell of this block are two small eye-bolts, for the purpose of fitting a small rope, called the back-rope bridle, used in hooking the cat.
68.—A SNATCH BLOCK
Is generally iron-bound, with a swivel hook; an iron clasp is fitted on the iron band, or strap, with a hinge to go over the snatch, and toggles on the opposite side, as you see in the Plate. The bight of a hawser or large rope is placed in this block, when warping the ship, &c.
Note.—There has been of late years several different improvements made on these blocks.
Blocks of this description, and of a large size, are generally termed “viol, or rouse-about blocks.”
69.—A NUN BUOY.
Buoys are used when a ship is riding at anchor, to denote the position of the anchor. They are a kind of a cask, large in the middle, and small at both ends; hooped close with iron hoops, and strapped with rope well served. A buoy-strap is cut nine times the length of the buoy; this is sufficient to make the slings and hoops; the slings have an eye spliced in each end, the hoops are rove through these eyes, spliced together, and fitted on the buoy, as you see in the Plate.
70.—TO BEND A BUOY-ROPE.
The buoy rope is made fast with a clove-hitch round the arms of the anchor, close up to the crown, and the end part stopped along the shank, with one or two stops.
Some are fitted with a running eye, and when used this way the running eye is rove round one arm, a hitch taken over the other, and seized in the cross.
| Single Whip. | Whip and Runner. | Gun-tackle Purchase. | Luff-tackle Purchase. | A Top Burton. | A Long Tackle. | Runner and Tackle. | A Lashing-cleat. |
| A Three-fold Purchase. | A Jacob’s Ladder. | A Nun-buoy. | Pudding a Ring. | ||||
| Buoy-rope Bend. | |||||||
| Catting an Anchor. | Can Hooks. | Barrel Slings. | Hogshead Slings. | ||||
| Horn-cleat. | A B-Cleat. | A Block Strap. | Tail-block. | ||||
| A Single Block. | A Purchase-block. | A Top-block. | A Cat-block. | A Snatch-block. | |||
In large ships they are fitted with pendants and slip buoy-ropes; the pendants have a large thimble spliced in one end, large enough to receive a stout hawser, in case you should want to purchase the anchor by the buoy-rope. The size for the slip buoy-rope is one-third the size of the proper buoy-rope.
71.—TO PUDDING THE RING OF AN ANCHOR.
The ring of the anchor is well tarred, and parceled with tarred canvass; then a number of lengths of old rope are cut three times the diameter of the ring; these are laid on the ring, and stopped by a temporary seizing in the middle; they are then placed fair by hand round the rings, as you see in the Plate.
When one or two turns of rattling-stuff is taken round all parts, and a heaver put through it, it is hove well round, which stretches all parts snug round the ring. After it is all hove on neatly, put on the seizings, four in number. (See Plate.)
72.—A JACOB’S LADDER.
These ladders are used in many different parts of a ship of war; they are used for stern ladders, rigging ladders, and on the swinging booms in harbor, &c. There are several different ways of making them; some are made salvagee fashion, and covered; others are made of four-stranded rope, and have the rounds put through between the strands of the rope. But the most general way of making these ladders, is to take some small rope, (about two-inch stuff,) and make two straps the length you intend to make the ladder, and splice them together with a short-long-splice. The straps being made, get them on a stretch both together, and see if they bear an equal strain; if not, shorten one strap, so as to make both alike. Take a piece of chalk and mark off where you intend the rounds to go, about fifteen inches apart.
The rounds are pieces of round wood, about two inches in diameter, of the length required, with a score on each end, for the rope to lay in. Put the rounds in between both parts of the rope, exactly at the chalk mark; having got them all placed, commence and seize them in, by putting on a snug seizing of marline on each side of the round; you may parcel, leather, or serve in the nips, just as may be preferred.
73.—CAN HOOKS
Are broad flat iron hooks, in the eyes of which thimbles are inserted. What is termed a pair of can hooks, is a piece of rope four or five feet long, or long enough to span a cask from chime to chime. When fitted, one of these hooks are spliced into the end of this rope; it is then got on a stretch, wormed, parceled and served, and a thimble is sometimes seized in the bight, to hook on to, when lifting a cask.
Note.—Some are fitted with chain, with a large iron ring in the middle.
74.—HOGSHEAD SLINGS
Are pieces of rope about five fathoms long, and from five to six inches in circumference, with a large thimble spliced in one end, and the other end well whipped. They are used to sling large casks, being more secure than can hooks. They are put on in this manner:—pass the bight over one end of the cask, reeve the end through the thimble, and haul it well taut; then take the end round the other end of the cask, and take two half-hitches round the standing part, and it is done. (See Plate.)
75.—BARREL SLINGS
Are generally made of three inch rope, and of sufficient length to go round the barrel. They are similar to a long strap, spliced together with a short splice; it is passed round the barrel and one bight rove through the other.
They are sometimes made long enough to sling two or three barrels at a time.
76.—A SINGLE WHIP.
A single whip is the smallest and most simple purchase in use. It is made by reeving a rope through a single block, as you see in the Plate.
77.—A GUN-TACKLE PURCHASE
Is made by reeving a rope through a single block, then through another single block, and make the end fast to the one it was first rove through, or splice it into the bottom of the block for neatness. (See Plate.)
78.—A LUFF-TACKLE PURCHASE
Consists of a double and single block; the rope is rove through one of the sheave holes of the double block, then through the single one, through the double one again, and the end made fast to the single block, with a becket bend, to a becket in the bottom of the block. (See Plate.)
79.—A TOP BURTON
Is rove in the same manner as a luff-tackle purchase; the only difference is, that the upper block of the burton is a fiddle block, while that of the luff is a double one. (See Plate.)
80.—WHIP AND RUNNER.
If a rope is rove through a single block, it is called a whip, as before mentioned; and if the fall of this whip be spliced round the block of another whip, it becomes whip on whip, or whip and runner. (See Plate.)
81.—A RUNNER AND TACKLE
Is the same purchase as a luff-tackle applied to a runner. A runner is a large rope rove through a single block, with a hook spliced in one end. (See Plate.)
82.—A TWO-FOLD PURCHASE
Consists of two double blocks; the fall is first rove through one sheave of the upper block, then through one of the lower ones; through the upper one again, then through the lower one, and make the end fast to the upper block.
83.—A THREE-FOLD PURCHASE.
A three-fold purchase is rove in this way, the blocks having one more sheave, only that you commence to reeve the fall in the middle sheave first,—instead of one of the side ones, which brings a cross in the fall. The reason of its being rove in this manner, is, that the heaviest strain comes first on the fall part, and if it was rove in the side sheave, it would have a tendency to cant the block in the strap, split the shell of the block, and cut the fall; but when it is in the middle sheave it draws all down square alike.
84.—NAMES OF ROPES.
The different kinds of ropes are designated as follows:—
Hawser-laid and cable-laid rope is all the same; it is composed of nine strands, each strand having an equal number of yarns. These nine strands are laid into three, by twisting three small ones into one large one; then the three large ones are laid up, or twisted together left-handed, which makes the nine strands; this is a hawser-laid, or cabled, rope.
A common or plain rope is composed of three strands, of an equal number of yarns twisted together.
Shroud-laid rope is made in the same manner, only that it consists of four strands instead of three, and a small strand which runs through the middle, termed the heart of the rope. When plain-laid rope is laid up left-handed, it is called back-laid rope. There is also four stranded hawser-laid rope, which is used for stays, &c., &c.
A Ship Ready for Launching.