39 Chain Splice
The purpose of the chain splice is to jo in
II
rope pennant to a
normal small link of a chain in such a manner that rope and chain will pass freely through a fai r-lead. The eye of the splice is its
weakest part, its strength being les5 tha n that of the standing part and undoubtedly less than th at of the ch ain to which it is atta ched . It is most often used in conjunction with a mooring chain, w hen the pennant is only ca lled upon to lift the slack of t he chain inboard . The principle of both t he norma l method of l ucking (over one/ under one) and t hat of t he long splice /the laying up of one strand to repl ace another) afe conjoined in its formation. For the purpose of p hotography it has been necessary to make the splice much shorter than would be the case in practise and therefore the lengths, referre d to below are important. Unlay one strand only (ma rke d A) for a dista nce of twenty-five times the circum fere nce of the rope and set aside, reeving the remaining two strands (B and C), still laid together, through th e end link of t he chain, Fig 1. Hau l Band C through the link, back to the standing part and separate them, leaving only sufficient la id rope (two strands) to pass t hrough the link and fo rm the actual eye, Fig 2. Unlay strand A for a fu rther distance of twenty times the circumference of th e rope, Fig 3, replacing it w it h st rand B, laid into the vaca ted lay in the same way as described for t he long splice, until B and A meet as in Fig 4 , when the tail of B should be approximately five times t he circumference of the rope. Cut A. leaving a tail the same length as that of B. These tails are now t ucked away using any of t he methods described for the long splice (Knot 33) to completion as shown in Fig 5 which also shows the rem aining un used tail C. This strand Is cu t to a length suitable for four or five tucks, w hich are inserted over one/under one against the lay, working arou nd the rope. The f inished splice appears as Fig 6.