Posted by The Murrelets on November 11, 1998 at 17:34:47:
In Reply to: Re: Ropes, Lines and Nautical Terminology posted by Tim on November 11, 1998 at 10:22:37:
Yes, as per my original, as soon as it leaves the manufacturers spool, "rope" becomes "line" in nautical parlance. And once put to work in a specific job, it goes by the specific name associated with the job. There is a very good reason for this, as experienced seamen will tell you...at 03:00, on the foredeck in 45 knots of wind and rain blasting down on you as you work to release the spare halliard to do a headsail change, it's no good yelling at your mastman to "slack that rope"...there will be about sixteen of them there beside him/her on the mast, and he/she better know exactly which one you are talking about, and right now, otherwise you will all be in deep trouble. This situation was many times more difficult in the days of fighting sail because of the much greater number of lines in use to control the sails, and most of our traditional nautical terminology actually hails from those days. The vocabulary has been increased by modern racing sailors who have found the need to give specific names to more modern bits of rig, recently invented, that help make boats go faster.
I will see if I can find a copy of old E.F. Knight. I generally use the "Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea" as reference...in this circumstance it talks about "rope" as the material, discusses construction, types, etc.
I suspect the answer to our conundrum as to why AR appears to go outside nautical terminolgy in these references to "rope" is as per Terence's observation that he was trying to avoid confusing duffers, as he otherwise appears to have been a competent yachtsman. Having opened this can of worms,I will now have to check and see exactly where/when the word comes up and report further!!