Making hearts

摘要

Just about all sixteenth- through eighteenth-century sailing ships used hearts to tension stays and various other large diameter ropes. A heart is just another form of deadeye and, as such, they were used in situations where standard deadeyes would not be strong enough to handle the job at hand. The reason for the added strength of a pair of hearts over a pair of deadeyes is simple: a deadeye usually had three holes for lanyards, which resulted in six strands of lanyard handling the tension. A pair of hearts, on the other hand, can handle a dozen or more wraps of a lanyard. The more strands of lanyard holding the stay, the larger the stay that can be held. Note that a block was not used for this job because a block was perhaps a hundred times less strong than either a deadeye or a heart and would fail almost instantly.