<b>Lines and Ropes</b>
Lines and ropes are used on ships for different purposes and made of different materials. The most important areas of application are as mooring lines and tow ropes. A distinction is also made between ropes and lines for standing rigging and for moving rigging, depending on the intended use. Standing rigging is the term used to describe the rigging of ships (usually on sailing ships) that is firmly attached to both ends of the deck or in the rigging (e.g. to stiffen masts such as shrouds, staging, guys, but also stretch ropes). The name is explained by the fact that these are usually not moved during maneuvers. The running rigging is the rope that is usually sheared and moved by blocks (e.g. flag lines, halyards and sheets, but also mooring, towing and anchor lines).
Rope is the generic term for all laid and braided ropes made of natural and synthetic fibers. A special group of ropes is the Hercules rope, which has a core made of wire rope.
Harnessed ropes are based on twisting together alternating left and right twisted strands of rope. Thus, with the most common ropes, three cardeles are twisted to the right, which in turn are composed of a large number of yarns to the left. The yarns are again made up of individual threads in a clockwise direction, which in turn are made up of individual fibers twisted to the left.
There are three types of braided rope:
1. As a squareline: eight cardels are braided together. Half of these are turned to the left and half to the right, resulting in an approximately square rope cross-section. This type of braiding has the advantage that such ropes are very flexible and easy to handle (often used as mooring lines in maritime shipping).
2. As a hollow braid: this line consists only of load-bearing fibers and is therefore very light and easy to splice.
3. As a core-sheath braid: the load-bearing part of the line is surrounded by a sheath that protects the core from abrasion and weathering.
Lines and Ropes
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