Alternate ring hitching, also known as Kackling or Keckling, is a type of ringbolt hitching formed with a series of alternate left and right hitches made around a ring. Covering a ring in hitching can prevent damage if the ring is likely to chafe or strike against something, such as a mooring line or mast.
As a means of dampening sound in row boats when a covert night operation was being undertaken, oar handles were wrapped in keckling knots to prevent wood rubbing on wood.
Famous quotes containing the words alternate, ring and/or hitching:
“Strange, that some of us, with quick alternate vision, see beyond our infatuations, and even while we rave on the heights, behold the wide plain where our persistent self pauses and awaits us.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“I started out very quiet and I beat Turgenev. Then I trained hard and I beat de Maupassant. I’ve fought two draws with Stendhal, and I think I had an edge in the last one. But nobody’s going to get me in any ring with Tolstoy unless I’m crazy or I keep getting better.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not they back to the compass; accept the first hint of the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes all things look ghastly.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)