ABSTRACT
Laid rope as an industry is recorded in Egyptian drawings about 6,000 years before the present, and is shown being used by ships as well as for landlubber purposes. It was probably used by sailors many years before ca. 4000 bc, and is an essential tool today on modern ships, where it is almost always called "line". Rope was initially only made from natural fibers such as manila, hemp, or sisal. Synthetic fibers were added to the industry in the 1950s with the invention of nylon, polypropylene, and Kevlar. The marlinspike is a most useful tool when working with line. It is shaped much like the bill of a marlin or sailfish, a tapered cone originally made of wood or bone. Many lines used by seagoing scientists or engineers will have eye splices with a thimble inserted to spread the load, such as would be used on a lifting bridle for a trawl-resistant acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) housing.
