Jack Painter wrote:

snip

Jack Erbes, you should know better! That's what you get for calling yourself
Navy when you were a spook, lol. Admirable work but a sailor it was not.
Cable is not the lack of a better word. Cable IS wire rope, and HAWSER is
another word used nautically. But rope is NOT.

A tow LINE, mooring LINES, towing HAWSER. Flaked lines, flemmed lines, line
locker. No rope.


Hmmm... You bubbleheads always think you know everything. :)

My knowledge on the subject goes back to NTC San Diego, 1964, Company
386. Standing at a chest-high pipe stanchion located abaft the beam of
the USS Recruit was a classroom for recruits. It was there that I
absorbed the basics of marlinspike seamanship from a somewhat weathered,
but entertaining, Chief Boatswain's Mate.

I clearly remember the Chief saying that we had to know and remember
that wire was called rope and that the stuff that $#@ing civilians and
Marines called rope was called line. I mentally cataloged that and,
sure enough, it got me a correct answer on the written exam we took a
few days later.

So I learned two things. One was that wire was rope and the second was
that the Chief is never wrong.

So at your prodding I decided that my knowledge could be affirmed by the
NAVEDTRA MILITARY REQUIREMENTS, BASIC (BMR) training manual. I quickly
found that online and went to Chapter 7 (Basic Seamanship):

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../12018_ch7.pdf

On page 7-12 under the topic of marlinspike Seamanship I found the
following elucidating statements:

"Rope is a general term and can include both fiber and wire rope.

In the Navy, Sailors generally refer to fiber rope as line, and wire
rope is referred to as rope, wire rope, or wire."

So even though I was clearly right once, by current standards nobody is
wrong.

And I also know how that came to be. Numerous revisions have occurred
since the Navy became an All Volunteer Force (which it already had been
except in time of war). Since 1975 or so it has busily engaged itself
in making itself a more pleasant and less challenging place to be.
Wondering what the date on the online manual was, I went back to the
Introduction and found it dates to 1999.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...c/12018_fm.pdf

And I also found this scalding reminder of the differences between the
Navy I joined in 1964 and the I retired from in 1990:

"Although the words "he," "him," and "his" are used sparingly in this
manual to enhance communication, they are not intended to be gender
driven nor to affront or discriminate against anyone reading this text."

I'm sure that eventually the manual will also include a statement that:

"An inability on the part of the anyone reading this text to correctly
recall specific details of information and terminology in subsequent
testing is not to be taken as an inference of mental or physical
inferiority. If the reader is traumatized by not being able to meet
required standards for evaluation of intelligence and ability, a waiver
of the standards can be obtained from the Command Career Counselor."

Oh yeah, one other small correction, the correct term is "flemished",
not flemmed.

I got pretty good on marlinspike seamanship at boot camp, I got really
good at it when I owned a Columbia 22 for two years in Hawaii. I was a
sailor!

Cheers,

Jack (A former sailor currently aground without a boat.)

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jacker at midmaine dot com