We've visited the museum at Chatham before, and looked around the submarine and warships that they have there. (Canals link: the battery bank in the submarine is particularly impressive.) This time we wanted to look at the Victorian rope works, which is equally impressive, all the more so for the demonstration of rope making. The works are over 1000 feet long, so that ropes of that length can be made, as specified by the Admiralty based on the depth of water in the locations that they wanted to moor. It was also surprising how many vernacular expressions come from things to do with rope. A couple come from the use of a cat of nine tails for punishment in the Navy. "Letting the cat out of the bag" related to getting ready to beat someone, while "not enough room to swing a cat" referred to the lower decks being too cramped to carry out a punishment. Lots of other stuff there too, like a large collection of historic lifeboats showing how they have developed over the years.
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