Know the Ropes

While we are on a nautical theme with the jolly Jack Tars there is a question that comes up from time to time about the number of ropes on a sailing ship.

If we look up at a typical three master we could reasonably ask our land-locked colleagues that same question. They would, in all probability, respond with an answer akin to, “Bloody thousands!”

They would be in error.

There are five ropes on a sailing ship.

They are:

The “Man-Rope”

This is what would be the ‘hand-rail’ of the accommodation ladder. This is the ladder that comes down the side of a ship so that access can be made to board the ship. It is often known as a ‘gangway’.

The “Foot-Rope”

Which is stirruped below the yard from mast to yardarm.

The ‘yardarm’ is the wooden pole attached to the mast from which the sails are deployed or reefed (furled). Underneath each yardarm there is a rope that is looped at short intervals (stirruped) so that sailors may stand on it to see to the sails. That is the ‘foot-rope’.

The “Bolt-Rope”

Is at the edge of the sail. It is a reinforcing rope that is the equivalent of a hem on a shirt.

The “Bucket-Rope”

The handle of the bucket.

The “Bell-Rope”

The ‘handle’ that is used to ring the ship’s bell.

Some sailors refer to the “Tow-Rope” but that is actually a hawser, it is not a ‘rope’.

Apart from these five there is nothing on board a ship that is referred to as a rope.

Lifts, bunt-lines, clew-lines, braces, hawsers, warps, bends, sheets, ratlines and fenders are just some of the names that are given to ‘ropes’ on board a sailing ship but there are, in reality, only those five.

 That will give you a clew.