The Seaman's Friend / Containing a treatise on practical seamanship, with plates, a dictionary of sea terms, customs and usages of the merchant service

by Richard Henry Dana

A Timber Hitch. (25.) Take the end of a rope round a spar, lead it under and over the standing part, and pass two or more round-turns round its own part.

A Rolling Hitch.—Pass the end of a rope round a spar. Take it round a second time, nearer to the standing part. Then carry it across the standing part, over and round the spar, and up through the bight. A strap or a tail-block is fastened to a rope by this hitch.

A bend, sometimes called a rolling hitch, is made by two round-turns round a spar and two half-hitches round the standing part; but the name is commonly applied to the former hitch.

A Blackwall Hitch. (26.) Form a bight by putting the end of a rope across and under the standing part. Put the bight over the hook of a tackle, letting the hook go through it, the centre of the bight resting against the back of the hook, and the end jammed in the bight of the hook, by the standing part of the rope.

A Cat's Paw. (27.) Make a large bight in a rope, and spread it open, putting one hand at one part of the bight and the other at the other, and letting the standing part and end come together. Turn the bight over from you, three times, and a small bight will be formed in each hand. Bring the two small bights together, and put the hook of a tackle through them both.

A Sheet Bend. (28.) Pass the end of a rope up through the bight of another, round both parts of the other, and under its own part.

A Fisherman's Bend. (29.) Used for bending studdingsail halyards to the yard. Take two turns round the yard with the end. Hitch it round the standing part and both the turns. Then hitch it round the standing part alone.

A Carrick Bend. (30.) Form a bight by putting the end of a rope over its standing part. Take the end of a second rope and pass it under the standing part of the first, over the end, and up through the bight, over its own standing part, and down through the bight again.

A Bowline Bend.—This is the most usual mode of bending warps, and other long ropes or cables, together. Take a bowline in the end of one rope, pass the end of the other through the bight, and take a bowline with it upon its own standing part. Long lines are sometimes bent together with half-hitches on their own standing parts, instead of bowlines, and the ends seized strongly down.

A Sheep-shank. (31.) Make two long bights in a rope, which shall overlay one another. Take a half-hitch over the end of each bight with the standing part which is next to it.