Monkey's Fist Details
Uses: The Monkey's Fist (ABOK # 2200 - 3, p 354) is used both as a decorative knot and to weight the end of a heaving line (see caution below).
Tying it: The Monkey's Fist is usually tied around separated fingers. For the demonstration, a U-shaped piece of metal strip was used instead and three turns of rope were used in each direction. After each set of complete turns, change direction by passing the end through the middle. For each direction count carefully: it is very easy to miscount and have more strands on one side than the other.
Finishing it: The animation shows an overhand knot being inserted into the center. This makes a slightly fuller knot. After the overhand knot is in place the whole knot is tightened starting near the buried overhand knot and finishing with the other end of the rope.
Alternative Finish: Ashley describes a version (left) where both ends remain outside the fist and are spliced together so that the Fist is part of an eye splice. The other end is then terminated in another eye splice. This allows the weighted Monkey's Fist to be attached to any heaving line just by interlocking the second eye splice into the heaving line's eye splice.
Splitting the Coil: Before throwing a heaving line, split the coil into two parts (picture on right). Throw the smaller half as a neat coil so that it carries the distance. The rope pays out partly from the coil you throw and partly from the coil in your hand. In the picture below, AB Freddie Paz is standing on the upper level of the Foredeck ready to throw the line.
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Danger with Weights: The Monkey's Fist is commonly described as being tied around a small weight to make the heaving line easier to throw a long way. In the picture above left, the crew had tied it around a small rubber ball. Heavier weights can be a danger. Dock hands have been known to cut heavily weighted Monkey's Fists off the end of heaving lines - and I sympathize with them. (Grog's father, E.B. Grogono, served as a ship's doctor on a submarine depot ship in World War II. He watched professional dock hands cut off Monkey's Fists and his account remains in my mind). Imagine looking up against a bright sky to and catch a rope coil and being hit instead by a heavy missile.
