CHAPTER 2BLOCK AND TACKLECHAPTER LEARNING OBJECTIVESUpon completion of this chapter, you should be able to do the following:lDescribe the advantage of block and tackle afloat and ashoreBlocks—pulleys to a landlubber—are simplemachines that have many uses aboard ship, as well asonshore. Remember how your mouth hung open as youwatched movers taking a piano out of a fourth storywindow? The guy on the end of the tackle eased thepiano safely to the sidewalk with a mysteriousarrangement of blocks and ropes. Or, you’ve been in thecountry and watched the farmer use a block and tackleto put hay in a barn. Since old Dobbin or the tractor didthe hauling, there was no need for a fancy arrangementof ropes and blocks. Incidentally, you’ll often hear therope or tackle called the fall, block and tack, or blockand fall.In the Navy you’ll rig a block and tackle to makesome of your work easier. Learn the names of the partsof a block. Figure 2-1 will give you a good start on this.Look at the single block and see some of the ways youcan use it. If you lash a single block to a fixed object-anoverhead, a yardarm, or a bulkhead-you give yourselfthe advantage of being able to pull from a convenientdirection. For example, in figure 2-2 you haul up a flaghoist, but you really pull down. You can do this byhaving a single sheaved block made fast to the yardarm.This makes it possible for you to stand in a convenientplace near the flag bag and do the job. Otherwise youwould have to go aloft, dragging the flag hoist behindyou.Figure 2-1.-Look it over.Figure 2-2.-A flag hoist.2-1
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