Marline spike used for mending fishing nets

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

52336

Title

Marline spike used for mending fishing nets

Description

Steel marline (or marlin) spike weighing three to four pounds. Round in shape with point at one end and with two flat sides to splice the rope.

Accession number

NH1/3/94

Copyright

The City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries

This unassuming object was an essential tool in a rope maker's kit. Used to splice ropes and untie knots, this marlinspike is from Newhaven and would have been used many thousands of times over the course of a fishing season. Ropework was a fundamental part of the fishing industry, and took great skill to master.

Quality ropework ensured boats could be moored safely, and sails raised and lowered efficiently. Creels would have been lowered into and lifted out of the water, and nets drifted and dragged from sea to boat. The workmanship would have been visible to all on board the ship, and on land.

Marlinspikes came in many shapes and sizes, with this example being made of steel, around 28cm long but nearly 2kg in weight. Marlinspikes were often reproduced in wood by sailors, representative of the vital role they played in life at sea.

A marline was two strands of light cord or rope, often tarred, and used to bind the end of a larger rope, preventing fraying.

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