lines not ropes!

[Mahi]

As long as I can remember and way back before I couldn't .....I have always called a rope on board a vessel a line or a warp/spring/halyard/sheet/ bits and pieces etc etc......but never a rope.

Now they all do look like pieces of rope I do admit from the landlubber chair I sit on now. But it just sounds odd to hear someone call it a rope when discussing nautical matters.

But then again I often ask/yell at s'one to 'pass a line' and if they are not nautically inclined they look at me funny!

I see another thread now where there is lots of talk of ropes....*&%^...I suppose it doesn't really matter but it got me wondering why a rope becomes a line when it is on board/attached to a vessel. Is it simply tradition or is there a peculiar meaning behind it all???

This goes right back into my dim and distant memory banks of a salty old b'sun cogger teaching us the roigths and wrongs of rigging and stuff....

hmmm just got me thunking...

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[snowleopard]

can't say i bother too much about the 'right' word. i generally refer to them as 'string'.

those who make a big deal about knowing the correct term can be a real pain. there is a person in our area who reads sailing novels from our local library and 'corrects' what he sees as errors by the authors. if i ever find him he's toast.

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[jimi]

Feel I must correct this post

I cannot say I bother too much about the 'right' word. I generally refer to them as 'strings'.

Those who make a big deal about knowing the correct term can be a real pain. There is a person in my local area who borrows sailing novels from the local library and corrects what he sees as errors by the author or authoress or authors or authoresses or publishers cos the author may have got it rite and it was changed by an idiotorial decision just like all you peeps who think you know nuffink its all the outhers fault and never the greedy editor they ought to be hunted down and shot like the foxes they are. If I ever find him or her or them he, she or them are toast.

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[Ships_Cat]

Anyone on board our boat and who uses an incorrect or non nautical term gets strung up on the hangman's rope, er line, er warp, er string, er hell!

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.

 

[Talbot]

The only title "rope" that I know about for shipboard use is when used in securing the boat alongside. Then the correct word for the "rope" at the boa and stern is Head rope and Stern rope, you then can have breast ropes followed by springs. AFAIK, the only other use is for a bit of string that is in the stores before it is made up into some form of running rigging or other yoho stuff.

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[tugboat]

It really all goes back to sailing ships which were literally smothered in rope. Each one that did a different job was given a different name, and whatever ship a sailor joined the rope of a particular name was always secured in exactly the same position on the ship. It had to be that way so that in the dark or in a storm or whatever the sailor knew instinctively where to go and what to do. Confusion had to be avoided. Similarly the word 'larboard' was changed to 'port' to remove a confusion. Commercial ships, fishing vessels, sail training vessels (and yachts too) are potentially dangerous places still today, therefore the tradition continues in order to make it safer. But hey, on your boat you are the skipper, do whatever suits you. I prefer to use proper terminology as much as possible so that those who sail with me know what I'm talking about. But I'm not gonna fall out with anyone over it.

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[PuffTheMagicDragon]

I can usually turn a deaf ear to someone who refers to anything that is not hanging from the bell as a 'rope'. IF they want, or are interested, then I'll explain the proper term.
It's the idiots who talk about "It doesn't drive very well in reverse" who get me upset!

<hr width=100% size=1>Wally

 

[Mahi]

Yup tugboat - totally agree with you there.

I was thinking more about why the term is stern 'line' or bow 'line' or whatever, rather than stern 'rope' or bow 'rope' and so on just an academic thing I suppose.

Not having thought about it much in years of being at sea, until I starting reading this forum. That's because on any vessel I've sailed we have always used proper terminology for the very reasons you mentioned. In the past I worked in sail training and thoroughly enjoyed inducting novices to the terminology(ha!). That is part of what I like about being at sea.

But as you say - I guess you could call them apples and pears and knicker elastic too - so long as you were consistent![lol]

Kip Bligh Jnr the 3rd....out


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[macd]

Yeah, funny that. If someone threatens to string you up, you know exactly what they mean. "Line 'em up", on the other hand, has several meanings, some welcome, some slightly more ominous.

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[BIG_PLANS]

Ships have mooring ropes not lines, they are stored in a rope store, they have man ropes, etc. In 7 years at sea in the merchant navy I have never heard anyone call mooring ropes, line. Having said that, you have live lines, guys, falls, halliards, painters, shrouds etc. But I think they all start off as rope, until you make it into something else! And have you ever heard of someone splicing a line, rather than splicing rope?



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[mirabriani]

How about "spinning a line"?

Briani

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[kilkerr1]

My vote's for 'string' too, I tend to use it all the time: "Pass me that bit o' string, love, the blue one..." - drives HWMO crazy...

/forums/images/icons/wink.gif

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[richardandtracy]

Me, I really like an 'Indoor Driving Seat'. Mostly because it's WYSIWYG and blatantly obvious to even the most determindly obtuse.

Regards

Richard.


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[tugboat]

I think the term 'line' generally refers to smaller sizes of cordage, e.g. heaving line, codline,etc. As yachts are using smaller sizes of cordage to do the job that would be done by big stuff on a larger vessel, thus we get the change from bow-rope' to 'bow-line' (perhaps). Just to show what a wonderfully confusing world we sailors live in, I used to tow oilrigs with a wire 72mm in diameter. The wire (when connected) was usually just called the 'tow' but lots of peeps referred to it as the 'towline' /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif.

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[Mahi]

a size thing...?

Interesting – so maybe it is all to do with size...?!

I spent a few years earning a crust at sea, but not on anything much more than 2000 GT, so quite small compared to big ships. Conversely, I only ever heard the various ropes for attaching ship to shore called mooring 'lines', but yes, I got sore fingers splicing 'rope’ rather than line! But when the rope was in commission and particularly when related to mooring it got that 'L' word attached to it. Funnily enough though, wire was called 'wire rope’. One 'old man' I remember, was a grumpy, pedantic old crust and would certainly have shredded us for not saying it right (on His ship).

I feel like I have been living in a parallel universe now (here goes wrinkley s smiley -> :-s like tugboat's; – I can only do smiley smilies properly /forums/images/icons/smile.gif!!).





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