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Crew hauling a line
Document Type: Photo/Image
Geographic Location:
ID Number: Hauling_Line
Keywords: Life at Sea, Shanties
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Description:
To be able to handle heavy weights, or straining lines without winches, many crew members had to pull together. Raising and reefing or shortening sails, trimming or hauling in control lines ( sheets) reef a sail, or hauling in some other of the hundreds of lines aboard a large sailing ship were all done by hand. A shanty sometimes helped coordinate the pulling.
Here in a photograph that may have been posed, one sailor looks at the camera rather than at his work. He has a sheath knife and as does the sailor whose back is to the camera. A knife and other tools worn at the small of the back were not likely to foul in the rigging when climbing.
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