Vegetable Materials for Cordage, &c. 31 
the fruit in its greatest maturity.”* The circumstance of the color of 
the cordage being precisely that of the inside of the husk of the ripe 
nut, would seem to sanction this last opinion. It is singular, that the 
accurate and observant Mr. Marsden should be entirely silent on this 
point. With respect to the superiority of a coir cable to that of hemp, 
in salt water, there is but one sentiment among those who have used 
both. The experienced navigator Forrest says, that the “coir cable 
gives so much play to a ship riding at anchor, that with a cable of one 
hundred and twenty fathoms, the ship retires or gives way sometimes 
half of its length, when opposed to a heavy sea, and instantly shoots 
ahead again: the coir cable, after being wire-drawn, recovering its 
size and spring. It is usual for valuable ships leaving the Ganges in 
August and September, against the south west monsoon, to have a 
coir cable fresh made, under the eye of the chief officer, for a 
stand-by, Hempen cables are strong and stubborn, and ships often 
founder that ride by them, because nothing stretches or gives way ; 
the coir yields and recovers.” He says further, that “it is prefera- 
ble for small cordage for running rigging, as it passes much freer 
through the blocks than hempen rope, which if wet, becomes hard 
and does not run free, owing to the tar casing it, by the heat of the 
climate, and the rope is stubborn, especially after a rain.”+ Other 
advantages of coir cables, consist in their floating like wood; never 
rotting in consequence of being soaked in salt water; not exhaling 
Ose unpleasant and unwholesome odors which are perceived from 
hempen cables when wet, and in their being comparatively light and 
ouniy Managed, But in fresh water, hempen cordage is more dura- 
le. Mrs. Graham states, that ‘the rigging of a country ship of eight 
hundred tons, in which she made a voyage from India to Ceylon, 
Consisted entirely of coir rope, and that fresh water rots it to such a 
“stee, that the standing rigging was covered with wax cloth and 
— yarn.”{ A commercial friend confirms the statement of 
cia and observant female traveller, and says, ne od 
rig is neatly performed, the cordage intended for the standing 
8 1s deprived of its elasticity, (technically, ‘the stretch taken 
= 
see 1, nexed to Heyne’s Tracts on India, p. 15, 4to. London, 1814. The 
t ose name is not given, says he resided twenty years in India. 
don ae from Calcutta to the Mergui Archipelago ; introduction, p. vi. Lon- 
t Residence in India, p.86. Edinburgh, 1812. 
