30 Vegetable Materials for Cordage, ^c, 



of it when imported into the United States, h from six to eight feet. 

 From many inquiries at the proper sources of information, on the 

 qualities of this cordage, I am authorized to say, that it is stronger, 

 more durable, and more elastic than that made from common hemp. 



The elasticity of the Manilla hemp cordage is one of its greatest 

 recommendations, and on this account is highly prized by our sea- 

 men. On one occasion a few years since, a New York packet ship 

 in the harbor of Liverpool, during a heavy blow, dragged two an- 

 chors, and was driving fast towards a pier against which she would 

 have been dashed with great violence, had not the captain ordered a 

 hawser of Manilla hemp to be carried on shore, and made fast. 

 :.This being done, the progress of the ship was arrested, but it was 

 not until the hawser had been stretched to one half its original diam- 

 eter, that she was brought up. The master of a Philadelphia pack- 

 et, who witnessed the scene with great anxiety, determined immedi- 

 ately on his return home, to order a hawser of the same material.* 



3. Woody fibre inside of the coco-nut husk. — The short, woody, 

 and apparently intractable, husky fibres, lining the inside of the 

 husk of the coco-nut, constitute the material which Hindoo inge- 

 nuity has long since converted into excellent cordage. They are 

 first soaked in water, until they become soft, (and to effect this. Dr. 

 Buchanan says six months are required,) then beaten to separate the 

 woody substance connecting them, which falls away like saw-dust, 

 leaving" only the strings. A commercial friend states, that these are 

 spun by hand into yarns of a foot or more in length, and broudit in 

 bulk from the Maldive, Laccadive, .and other islands on the Ma^bar 

 coast, to Calcutta, and there made up by the native workmen. There 

 are two statements on the subject of the stage of maturity of the 

 coco-nut, proper for the preparation of the coir fibre. Dr. Bu- 

 chanan says,f that the rope made from the strings of the husk when 

 the nuts are ripe, is very bad, and that the green nuts yield the best 

 material. People, he says, of the low caste of WilUarue, collect 

 those that have been cut for juice, or thrown down by monkies ; but 

 another author asserts, diat the fibres "can only be procured from 



* He has recently informed me, that had the hawser of the New York packet 

 been made of hemp, it would have parted. The Manilla cordage like that of coir, 

 recovers its elasticity, after being stretched, until considerably worn. 



t Vol. II, p. 50. London, 1807. 



