Last week, after having served a number of footropes, Bosun School students moved on to wire splicing. Specifically, splicing an eye into the end of a wire rope.
There are a number of uses aboard a ship for a wire rope eye. Aboard Picton Castle, we have wire sheet pennants for many of our fore and aft sails, our brace pennants are made of wire, there are wire guys connected to the davits, and the clewlines on some of the heavier sails have wire rope components. So, it’s very useful for a mariner to be able to splice wire.
The splice the Bosun School students were working on is the Liverpool eye splice. This is a splice that goes with the lay. Students started by setting up the wire in a vice to hold it steady, tying the ends to the classroom ceiling so they were held straight up and seizing the two pieces of wire together to form the eye. Then, with the use of a large marlinspike, strands of the rope were separated and other strands woven in to form the splice. When it was finished, ends were cut off.
Captain Moreland says that someone with experience and lots of practice should be able to do ten of these per day. Our Bosun School students are working on their second or third wire splices in as many days, so more practice to come.
