On Fri, Apr 27, 2007 at 01:16:54PM -0500, John Hasler wrote: > A cable does not always imply metal. In nautical usage it can refer to a > large rope.
I'll split that hair further. A cable is a rope lay. It could be any size. Normal rope is right hand lay. A cable is made up of three right-hand ropes themselfs laid up left hand. It looks like a left-hand lay rope if you don't know what to look for. The reason for cable-lay is: 1) when rope was 'walked' there was a limit to the size of a rope so if you wanted to make a larger rope you made a cable; 2) its stretches more than rope, useful when it was used for anchors before chain was big enough, and for mooring lines. Note on terminolgy. Rope is rope on a spool, but when its put in use in a specific role it becomes a line. Cable is cable. Cable is also a distance (the length of a typical piece of cable-laid rope): 1 nautical mile is 6000 ft = 1000 fathoms. A cable is 1/10 nm = 100 fathoms = 600 feet. When anchoring with a 1:10 scope its adequate for anchoring in 60 feet of water. Then again, on anything but small boats, most anchor rodes are chain, and (to turn full circle), mooring lines are often wire cable. Of course, that can be wireless to: "Thrusters to station-keeping Sulu". :)) Doug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
