Landlubber seeks help from experienced captain of topgallants - which knot would be best to generate a hammock net?

[Marcus.K.]

Mates,

 

lets assume I am a landlubber getting the task to create the net for hammock netting - and we on our proud ship, we want to do it "beautiful".

My task is to use the hammock cranes with 4 eyes in each vertical post .. and of course there is a rope on top and on bottom of each side of the hammock crane in those outermost eyes.

This is a Hammock Crane as used in the American Navy until about 1812-13.

Four eyses in each post ..

 

Our Captain ordered to have a zig-zag-shaped net - like this:

The thick verstical lines with eyes are the hammock cranes

the two horizontal lines are the limiting lines along the ship on top and bottom.

Yellow are the zig-zag-lines generating the net.

Green indicate knots to fix the zig-zag-"ing" lines ..

It is easy to find those green "spot" as they are just the mid in between two posts - and then again their mid. A position easy to define as we just have to fold a rope 2 times to specifie that quarters.

The knots itself may be done by the horizontal line - or by the yellow net - or by an extra short line?

 

Ignorant Landlubber as I am: I wonder: which kind of knot with which rope would the boatswain accept?

 

Master of the Ropes,

             Keeper of the Knots,

                             may I seek your wisdom?

[popeye2sea]

Here are a couple of ways to make a netting.  These are from The Ashley Book of Knots.

3780 or 3781 and 3782 are probably the easiest. The use of a spool or dowel to control the spacing is also very helpful.

 

Regards,

 

Henry

[Marcus.K.]

Thanks Henry, that looks like perfect knots for connecting to the stronger top and bottom rope - and for the "crossing" of the thinner zig-zag ropes. Great input! Much appreciated!!!

 

I struggle a bit to understand, how the thin ropes would be treated at the eyes of the hammock stanchions.. A knot like the one shown here would not seem very simple.

 

I was thinking that the thin ropes would be streched from thick bottom to thick top rope. Although thinking about it I realize that the "crossings" should be fixed with each other to avoid that the net would get in disorder - and "opens" too much somewhere.. So I guess your proposal are pretty good for the "pane" of each field between stanchions.

 

If anyone has an idea for the eyes of the cranes ..?

[wefalck]

Well, I assumed that just the same knot as fishermen used for their nets were used. While square/lozenges seems to fairly straightforward to make (fishermen do this free-hand while chatting away on quays, much like women do their knitting), the often seen hexagonal patterns seem to require some sort of framing.

 

[popeye2sea]

Each strand of the netting material is doubled on the top rope.  The top rope will be stretched between the stanchions.  The side ends of the netting are simply the last leg of the doubled netting that will run vertically from top to bottom. I actually don't know how to end the mesh on the bottom rope.  I will try to look it up in Ashley's book and let you know.

 

Regards,

 

Henry