Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 03, 2000 at 08:27:23 from 202.96.54.1:
In Reply to: Re: SY Swallow and SY Amazon - rig. Peter Hyland don't read this posted by andy bolger on November 02, 2000 at 00:53:30:
A mouse - noun - is raised (verb) on a stay by first making a pudding of small stuff, then serving it over with needle hitching. This is advanced sailing ship seamanship, and not pertinent. You can find the operation in Ashley's Book of Knots. It is an extinct operation, which would have been routine aboard HMS Victory, but never on Swallow, Amazon or Scarab, or aboard Goblin, or even Wild Cat or Sea Bear.
A hook, or a pair of sister hooks, is moused - verb - with twine, or with seizing wire, or even, as Conor O'Brien recommended, in the case of sister hooks only, a rubber band. This is what Nancy is talking about. The purpose of mousing a hook is to close it, so that the thing hooked to it cannot unhook itself.
In the case of a single hook, this is done by winding a few turns of twine or wire between the bill of the hook and the neck and making a hitch.
In the case of sister hooks, such as Scarab had, which are a pair of hooks, loose on a thimble, facing each other, so that when they are closed together there is no gap left, you proceed as follows. Having hooked that which is to be hooked into both hooks, you bind the necks of the two sister hooks together with twine or indeed a rubber band, so that they cannot come apart. The hooked item is now secure.
These are rare operations, since the snap shackle was invented between the writing of the books and the present age, but they may still be found aboard boats of an older type.
Both terms have been current for centuries - certainly since Drake.
All clear now? Then fetch me the key to the keelson and a quart of green oil for the starboard lamp!