322 Captain Hall’s Remarks on the Utility of Chain- Cables. 
pie experience, however, has shewn that so far from the chain 
having the supposed tendency, it has it incomparably less than 
the other. That is to say, two hempen cables drawn across one 
another, especially when wet (which they must be in a ship’s 
hause), will chafe and wear each other through sooner than a 
hempen cable similarly exposed to the rubbing of a chain. The 
reason is, that the links of the chain being smooth, do not act 
with so much friction. In point of fact, the chain has not so- 
great a disposition to move, for its great weight makes it to lie 
more steadily across the other. 
This valuable principle, which was quite unlooked for in the 
early stages of the invention, has been in some instances ab- 
surdly counteracted by the over-caution of well-intentioned igno- 
rance. It is the universal practice, in using hempen cables, to 
round them, that is, to wind round them, at those places exposed 
to friction, a thick coating of small rope, which adds about one- 
third to the size of the cable,-— a clumsy, but indispensable pre- 
caution. The friction, therefore, of the two cables, is wasted 
on the rounding, while the cable itself is protected. Such pre- 
caution is clearly not wanted in the case of a chain ; but people 
who act by what is called the “ rule of thumb,” and who do 
not inquire into the reason of any thing, think it necessary when 
they come to moor with one of each kind, to round the iron-ca- 
ble as well as the hemp ; the effect of which is, to convert the 
smooth and harmless chain into a file of the most biting qua- 
lity ; and whenever a chain so armed comes to lie across a hemp- 
cable, the destruction of the last is most rapid. 
At first, it must be admitted that the iron-cable is difficult to 
handle, but a little practice renders it wonderfully manageable. 
It is shackled to the anchor in a tenth part of the time spent 
in cc bending” a cable, and, if required, is unshackled in an in- 
stant. In this respect, too, it possesses a property of great prac- 
tical utility ; it takes no injury by being perpetually attached to 
the anchor, — whereas it is ruinous to a hempen-cable to be long 
bent or fixed to the anchor, and exposed to the weather. Thus, 
without trouble, or any risk of injury to the cable, a ship can 
be kept at all times in a state of readiness for anchoring,-— an 
advantage which practical men well know how to appreciate, and 
the neglect of which has led to many a shipwreck. 
