FIG. 6. FIG. 7. FIG. 8. FIG. 9.
While speaking still of the ends of ropes, let us stop and learn to “fasten them off” properly to prevent their untwisting or fraying out. The painter or main-sheet of your boat, Bridget’s clothes-line, your little sister’s jump-rope, and indeed any rope whose end is not (like the Irishman’s) cut off altogether, may need such treatment. The simplest method is to “serve” or wind the end with small twine. A Single-wall ([Fig. 6]), or a Double-wall ([Fig. 7]), is better. But better still is the Boatswain’s-whipping, formed by making an inverted single-wall and then splicing the ends back over the rope itself ([Fig. 8] and [Fig. 9]).
The most elegant of all such, however, is the Stopper-knot, seen complete in [Fig. 14].
Place the end a as in [Fig. 10], holding it with the thumb at d; pass b around under it, c around under b and through the bight of a, and pull tight; this forms a Single-wall ([Fig. 11]). Now lay a over d, b over e, c over b and through the bight of a, and draw tight ([Fig 12]).
Next pass b down around f and up through the bight g, and do the same with a and c, forming [Fig. 13].
FIG. 10. FIG. 11.