On Fri, 2007-04-27 at 20:28 -0400, Douglas Allan Tutty wrote: > On Fri, Apr 27, 2007 at 01:16:54PM -0500, John Hasler wrote: > > > A cable does not always imply metal. In nautical usage it can refer to a > > large rope. > > I'll split that hair further. A cable is a rope lay. It could be any > size. Normal rope is right hand lay. A cable is made up of three > right-hand ropes themselfs laid up left hand. It looks like a left-hand > lay rope if you don't know what to look for. The reason for cable-lay > is: 1) when rope was 'walked' there was a limit to the size of a rope so > if you wanted to make a larger rope you made a cable; 2) its stretches > more than rope, useful when it was used for anchors before chain was big > enough, and for mooring lines. Note on terminolgy. Rope is rope on a > spool, but when its put in use in a specific role it becomes a line. > Cable is cable. Cable is also a distance (the length of a typical piece > of cable-laid rope): 1 nautical mile is 6000 ft = 1000 fathoms. A cable > is 1/10 nm = 100 fathoms = 600 feet. When anchoring with a 1:10 scope > its adequate for anchoring in 60 feet of water. > > Then again, on anything but small boats, most anchor rodes are chain, > and (to turn full circle), mooring lines are often wire cable. > > Of course, that can be wireless to: "Thrusters to station-keeping > Sulu". Accordingly, some earth bound nautical research vessels also use thrusters for station keeping. They base position using GPS and making changes by the second. I was on a Cruise ship that got caught up in the fringe of a hurricane, they used the thrusters to help the ship stay on course, as well as all the main screws and rudders. They still made 29 knots against the winds... the pressure on the fore windscreen was HUGE. I wanted to feel the wind in front of it, I was required to tether to the railing. My face actually felt "burnt" from the wind. It was an awesome experience. I was told the head wind was better than 50 knots, we were heading near directly into it. You do the math. -- greg, greg@gregfolkert.net Novell's Directory Services is a competitive product to Microsoft's Active Directory in much the same way that the Saturn V is a competitive product to those dinky little model rockets that kids light off down at the playfield. -- Thane Walkup
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