sent less surface to the wind. One course may be sent up as the other goes down, by unbending the buntlines from the foot of the old sail, passing them down between the head of the sail and the yard, bending them to the foot of the new sail, and making the new sail up to be sent aloft by them, as before directed. Run the new sail up to the yard abaft the old one, and send the old one down by the leechlines and the head-earings, bent to the topmast studdingsail halyards, or some other convenient rope. One topsail may be sent up by the topsail halyards, got ready for bending, and brought to the yard, while the old one is sent down by the buntlines. WORK UPON CHAPTER VII RIGGING.-ROPE, KNOTS, SPLICES, BENDS, Kinds of rope. Spunyarn. Worming. Parcelling. Service. Short splice. THOSE ropes in a ship which are stationary are called standing rigging, as shrouds, stays, backstays, &c. Those which reeve through blocks or sheave-holes, and are hauled and let go, are called the running rigging, as braces, halyards, buntlines, clewlines, &c. A rope is composed of threads of hemp, or other stuff. These threads are called yarns. A number of these yarns twisted together form a strand, and three or more strands twisted together form the rope. The ropes in ordinary use on board a vessel are composed of three strands, laid RIGHT HANDED, (1.) or, as it is called, with the sun. Occasionally a piece of large rope will be This is found laid up in four strands, also with the sun. generally used for standing rigging, tacks, sheets, &c., and is sometimes called shroud-laid. A CABLE-LAID ROPE (2.) is composed of nine strands, and is made by first laying them into three ropes of three strands each, with the sun, and then laying the three ropes up together into one, left-handed, or against the sun. Thus, cable-laid rope is like three small common ropes laid up into one large one. Formerly, the ordinary three-stranded right-hand rope was called hawser-laid, and the latter cablelaid, and they will be found so distinguished in the books; but among sea-faring men now, the terms hawser-laid and cable-laid are applied indiscriminately to nine-strand rope, and the three stranded, being the usual and ordinary kind of rope, has no particular name, or is called right-hand rope. Right-hand rope must be coiled with the sun, and cablelaid rope against the sun. SPUNYARN is made by twisting together two or more yarns taken from old standing rigging, and is called twoyarn or three-yarn spunyarn, according to the number of yarns of which it is composed. Junk, or old rigging, is first unlaid into strands, and then into yarns, and the best of these yarns made up into spunyarn, which is used for worming, serving, seizing, &c. Every merchant vessel carries a spunyarn-winch, for the manufacturing of this stuff, and in making it, the wheel is turned against the sun, which lays the stuff up with the sun. WORMING a rope, is filling up the divisions between the strands, by passing spunyarn along them, to render the surface smooth for parcelling and serving. PARCELLING a rope is wrapping narrow strips of canvas about it, well tarred, in order to secure it from being injured by rain-water lodging between the parts of the service when The parcelling is put on with the lay of the rope. SERVICE is the laying on of spunyarn, or other small stuff, in turns round the rope, close together, and hove taut by the use of a serving-board for small rope, and serving worn. mallet for large rope. Small ropes are sometimes served without being wormed, as the crevices between the strands are not large enough to make the surface very uneven ; but a large rope is always wormed and parcelled before being served. The service is put on against the lay of the rope. SPLICING, is putting the ends of ropes together by opening the strands and placing them into one another, or by putting the strands of the ends of a rope between those of the bight. A SHORT SPLICE. (3.) Unlay the strands for a convenient length; then take an end in each hand, place them one within the other, and draw them close. Hold the end of one rope and the three strands which come from the opposite rope fast in the left hand, or, if the rope be large, stop them down to it with a rope-yarn. Take the middle strand, which is free, pass it over the strand which is first next to it, and through under the second, and out between the second and third from it, and haul it taut. Pass each of the six strands in the same manner; first those on one side, and then those on the other. The same operation may be repeated with each strand, passing each over the third from it, and under the fourth, and through; or, as is more usual, after the ends have been stuck once, untwist each strand, divide the yarns, pass one half as above described, and cut off the other half. This tapers the splice. A LONG SPLICE. (4.) Unlay the ends of two ropes to a distance three or four times greater than for a short splice, and place them within one another as for a short splice. Unlay one strand for a considerable distance, and fill up the interval which it leaves with the opposite strand from the other rope, and twist the ends of these two together. Then do the same with two more strands. The two remaining strands are twisted together in the place where they were first crossed. Open the two last named strands, divide in two, take an overhand knot with the opposite halves, and lead the ends over the next strand and through the second, as the whole strands were passed for the short splice. Cut off the other two halves. Do the same with the others that are placed together, dividing, knotting, and passing them in the same manner. Before cutting off any of the half-strands, the rope should be got well upon a stretch. Sometimes the whole strands are knotted, then divided, and the half-strands passed as above described. AN EYE SPLICE. (5.) Unlay the end of a rope for a |