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Gould 0738
 
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Default Cleaning lines (ropes to the lubbers!)

Ropes to the lubbers?

Tilt.

IMO, every one of those lines is a "rope" until it is employed as a bow line,
stern line, spring line, breast line, or etc.

It's OK to say "rope" around a boat. :-)

Here's the expanded definition from one of my favorite sources: The Sailor's
Illustrated Dictionary by Thompson Lenfesty and Captain Thompson Lenfest, Jr.

Begins........

rope: n. Cordage over 1-inch in circumference....

Interrupt.......
(my note: It's important not to confuse
circumference with diameter when evaluating that statement).

Resumes......
....When smaller than 1-inch, cordage is usually referred to as line, twine, or
small stuff. Rope is made of strands made up of yarns. Ropes on ships generally
have names accoprcing to thier use, such as boltrope, buoy rope, breast rope,
davit rope, wheel rope, bell rope, and so on. Some of the most specious and
arbitrary writing has arisen over the use of the word "rope" on seagoing
vessels. Some writers flatly declare that when cordage comes aboard a vessel it
is line unless it is specifically named, as with boltrope; but this bit of
mystique was unheard of a hundred years or so ago.

ends.......