Everything about rope direction of lay

[Dubz]

I am in contact with the author of: https://www.sobco.com/ship_model/article..._rope.html, he just wrote me the following:


"I reference the Burney note in my Obsessing article but I have seen references to left handed rope earlier than 1871 - maybe as early as 1849 - see Murphy Spars & Rigging p 61

also Chapmen "Treatise on Ropemaking" 1869 - p 66

but, so far, no earlier

I fully agree, the norm for Hawser rope was right-handed with, at most, a few special cases of left handed"


A Treatise on Rope Making, 1869, Robert Chapman, S.66


"RULE.
Description of hemp and size of yarn for the various rope made.

Example.

Cables and cablets, Petersburgh .. .. 20-thread.
Hawsers and shrouds, Riga 25 ditto.
Bolt-rope, 3| upwards ditto 30 ditto.
Ditto 3 downwards ditto 40 ditto. •
Breechmg ditto 25 ditto.
White ropes ditto 25 ditto.

N.B.—The breechings are laid left-handed or contra way Bolt-rope and breechings are made from Italian hemp."


I can't find the mentioning of left handed rope in "Spars and Rigging: From Nautical Routine, 1849, John McLeod Murphy, W. N. Jeffers, S.61" though. 

cheers

Dirk