Preface
WHEN a boy, as a part of my training on shipboard, I unlaid the strands of old hemp rope, and separated the yarns. Then after knotting the ropeyarns together, the spinning jenny was secured on the top gallant forecastle, where I tugged at the bit of rope which was the motive power for revolving the spinning wheel. An able seaman rubbed the twirling ropeyarns with a piece of old canvas, thereby making spunyarn enough for the voyage. The remembrance of the oaths, cuffs and kicks from a cruel boatswain, on finding some of the ropeyarns poorly knotted, makes me offer in fear and trembling this literary “Bunch of Rope Yarns.” Still I hope that my reader may find some of the yarns knotted in seamanlike fashion.
STANTON H. KING
Sailors’ Haven, Mission for Seamen,Charlestown, Mass.