Vegetable Materials for Cordage, fyc. 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 j 

 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."f Other 

 advantages of coir cables, consist in their floating hke wood ; never 

 rotting in consequence of being soaked in salt water ; not exhahng 

 those unpleasant and unwholesome odors which are perceived from 

 hempen cables wlien wet, and in their being comparatively light and 

 easily managed. But in fresh water, hempen cordage is more dura- 

 ble. 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 

 degree, that the standing rigging was covered with wax cloth and 

 hempen yarn. "J A commercial friend confirms the statement of 

 this keen and observant female traveller, and says, that when the 

 operation is neatly performed, the cordage intended for the standing 

 rigging is deprived of its elasticity, (technically, "the stretch taken 



■'* Letters annexed to Heyne's Tracts on India, p. 15, 4to. London, 1814. The 

 author, whose name is not given, says he resided twenty years in India. 



t Voyage from Calcutta to the Mergui Archipelago ; introduction, p. vi. Lon- 

 don, 1792. X Residence in India, p. 86. Edinburgh, 1812. 



