Captain Hall’s Remarks on the Utility of Chain-Cables. 323 
The least expensive method of mooring a ship is with two 
chains, and the time is probably not far distant when this will 
be done universally. On the South American station, where the 
weather was generally fine, a bower-chain to seaward, and the 
stream-chain towards the shore, was found sufficient, and in this 
case the wear and tear was nothing. Sir Thomas Hardy, to whom 
the Navy, and, indeed, the profession generally, are indebted for 
so many useful inventions, contrived a simple method of mooring 
with two chains, so that the hawse was never fouled, however 
many times the ship swung round. This consisted in unshack- 
ling the stream-chain from its own part, and again shackling it 
to one of the swivel-rings, which occur at intervals on the bower- 
chain. Thus the ship rode, as it were, at moorings, the portion 
of the bower-chain above the water’s edge becoming a bridle ; an 
explanation which will be understood by every practical man. 
The same officer has also contrived a double bridle for riding a 
ship by the middle of a cable, or between two bower-cables ; and 
it is probable that all His Majesty’s ships will eventually be sup- 
plied with these valuable additions to the chain. It may be said 
that these things are perfectly obvious, and that little credit 
therefore belongs to the discoverer; but the same is equally 
true of the chain -cable itself, sufficiently obvious now it is 
pointed out. But it is the peculiar province of genius to turn 
those principles to account which ordinary men are trampling 
under foot. Simplicity, indeed, — which is the most common cha- 
racteristic of such adaptations, — applies peculiarly to all those of 
the officer in question, and to none more than to his stopper for 
the chain-cable, a contrivance not generally known, but meriting 
a particular description. 
On the under side of the beam, which forms the foremost part 
of the hatchway, where the chain-cable comes up, is fixed a 
strong crane-necked hook of iron, nearly as thick as a man’s 
wrist, and about as large as the circle which a man can form 
with his arms when his hands are joined together. One 
end of this curve is attached to the beam, but is allowed to be 
moved round the bolt freely in a horizontal plane. The cable 
is supposed to come up the corner of the hatchway, so that the 
crane-necked stopper being placed also near the angle, is made 
to embrace the chain ; and a strong tackle being then hooked to 
