A.J. Griffiths: Observations on Some Points of Seamanship, 1824.

[page 167]

Dead Eyes -- Turning in the

This is another thing which is too often known only by rote, and not at all infrequently executed wrong. The turning in the dead eyes depends on the lay of the rope, but if you ask the question, "how they do it," the answer will generally be, those on the starboard side one way, and the larboard side the contrary. To shew the evil of this error, let a man have to turn a dead eye in, in the rigging loft, with the knots denoting which pair of shrouds it is, torn off. His parrot like knowledge is of no avail, and to make it so, he must examine the eyes of the other shrouds, to discover which pair is at work upon, and if the mark should be off a second pair!! what will he then do? Nor does the evil end here. The shrouds and the backstays are generally different laid rope, the one with the sun, the other against it; and in multitudes of cases I have seen the backstays turned in wrong, because not knowing the principle on which it was to be done, they were turned in according to the side they were of.

In turning in the dead eyes, do it contrary to the lay of the rope, that is, take a turn of the rope. This makes it more pliant, and in large shrouds or stays, facilitates the operation. [This is wrong - corrected in 2nd edition]

Anslem John Griffiths: Observations on Some Points of Seamanship; with Practical Hints on Naval Oeconomy, &c &c.
J.J. Hadley, Cheltenham, 1824 (1st). -8vo, 15.5x8.5 cm, xii, 290 pp.

Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius

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