Not P but Moby-Dick (71)

[Mark Kohut]

Standard rope gauges were determined by the number of folds made in the
rope walk. Standard sailing ship rigging usually varied from 1–1/4 inch dia
to 10 inches in diameter, the latter used for towing another ship, tie up
to docks, and far less often for anchors, chain being preferred for anchors.
2



On Thu, Feb 15, 2024 at 3:31 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> From Chapter 89:
>
> First: What is a Fast-Fish? Alive or dead a fish is technically fast, when
> it is connected with an occupied ship or boat, by any medium at all
> controllable by the occupant or occupants,—a mast, an oar, a nine-inch
> cable, a telegraph wire, or a strand of cobweb, it is all the same.
>
> Here, the "nine-inch" refers to the girth of the rope, is that correct?
>
> Previous translations interpreted it as the length, which seems obviously
> wrong to me.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>