The next thing to make is a pair of clews. These are composed of what are termed at sea knittles, which are two or three yarns laid up together, by a jack or by hand, against the twist of the yarn. But good cod-line or anything else sufficiently stout, will answer the purpose equally well. The following is the proper way to make clews, although it is now sometimes dispensed with:—
Take twelve knittles about 5 ft. in length and double them. Then form an eye in the middle, which must be served with fine twine. This is done by winding the twine round and round as tightly as possible for a sufficient distance to form the eye; then seize or bind the knittles together for about an inch below the eye, as in [Fig. 2].
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Now take a piece of twine, about half the size of the knittles, and place it between the knittles, so that twelve come up and twelve go down ([Fig. 3]); next bring both ends of the small twine, which is called filling, back again between the knittles, only altering them, making the upper ones point down and the lower ones point up; then leave out the two outside knittles and continue the circuit, leaving two knittles out each time until you come down to the last two, when knot the filling together and cut off the ends ([Fig. 4]). The ends of the knittles are then passed through the eyelet-holes in the canvas and fastened with two half-hitches. For the Navy now a great many clews are made without the platting arrangement we have described, and are left quite plain from the seizing below the eye down to the eyelet-hole. But the description we have given is of the old-fashioned style, and to our mind it looks much neater and more ornamental.
