Posted by Mike Field on March 27, 2008 at 03:21:25 from 203.129.38.69 user mikefield.
In Reply to: Re: Famour AR readers (was Rowling... ) posted by Jock on March 27, 2008 at 23:06:11:
Here's the mousing on a simple bill-hook --
Sister-hooks need the same sort of seizing applied around the parallel parts at the top, to stop them opening up and letting go of the line, grommet, or whatever they're holding. This picture (that Andy linked to earlier from my website) shows why this is necessary --
In Jock's example, the sister-hooks holding the jib-sheets of single-hander Robert McMullen's vessel (whose name I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten -- Perseus perhaps?) flew apart as the sail flogged, and one of the pair caught in his eye and very nearly dragged him overboard. The account of this gruesome experience appears in his book "Down Channel," first published in 1869.
AR would certainly have read "Down Channel," and while McMullen's experience was perhaps a bit too dire for AR to include it directly in any of his books, Nancy's warning about mousing the sister-hooks could well have been inspired by it.
However, this begs the question of where, on any of the dinghies in AR's books, sister-hooks would be located. If indeed there were any and Nancy's quote wasn't just a form of "showing off" to the rookies, then the only use I can think of for them would be to attach the yard to the traveller (which is normally itself a hook anyway, and can therefore accept a simple eye.) This would have meant that the sister-hooks were stropped to the yard, which to me would be overkill for any boat this size, when a simple wrought iron eye permanently bolted to the yard (or a lizard stropped to it -- more questions!) -- would have been a more likely proposition.