An 18th-Century Captain’s Feat & How It Can Make Y-o-u Stronger by Mark Hatmaker

 

We set the stage with a story told by a young junior purser, William Hickey, as he shipped aboard the East India Company vessel the Plassey bound for Madras.

Captain Waddel, then about 40 years of age, naturally grave, with an appearance of shyness or reserve, possessed one of the mildest and most equal tempers that ever man was blessed with, nor did I during a voyage out and home which I made in his ship, ever once see him angry or hear him utter a single oath or hasty expression. He loved to set the young people at some gambol or other, and was constantly promoting it. He was himself wonderfully active and strong, among various proofs of which, he did one feat that amazed the whole ship’s company, and which was I never knew any other person come at all near. It was this:-- Standing upon the Quarter deck, under the main shroud he laid hold of the first ratline with his right hand, then sprung to the second with his left and so on alternating, right and left, up to the last, close to the Futtock shrouds. The exertion in accomplishing this must have been prodigious, nor was there another man in the ship, and we had many fine, active fellows on board, that could get beyond the third rat line, and only two that reached even the third.—Memoirs of William Hickey

Let’s look at this feat a bit more closely.

Ratlines are the transverse “rope ladders” on a square-rigged ship that allowed sailors to go aloft and adjust canvas, tune shrouds and rigging, et cetera.

The transverse “steps” of the ratline could be anywhere from 12” to 15” inches apart. The distance varied, sometimes slack, sometimes taut as the amount of sail put up and force of wind plays a large part as to how “tuned” rigging is on a sailing vessel.

The Futtock is a squared off narrow platform at the top of a mast, to which additional shrouding is rigged—these additional shrouds are the futtock shrouds. They are typically at the very top of a mast.

The futtock was also known as a “lubber’s hole” as it was considered bad form when aloft to need to seek refuge on something semi-solid, only the cowardly or inexperienced sought the lubber’s hole and one would catch hell for it.

The semi-standard height of masts on a merchant vessel at the time of Mr. Hickey’s experience was 179 feet.

So, to put this in perspective, Captain Waddel climbed beneath the ratline hand-over-hand on “rungs” anywhere from 12”-15” inches apart to the futtocks shrouds—which lie just below top-mast so if we shave off five feet we get a hand-over-hand travel of 174 feet.

If we assume he started from standing on the quarter deck and reached upward for the start of the climb—we’ll shave off, oh, another six feet.

If we minus out the total of 11’ we get an uphill climb of 168’ feet.

But consider this….

Later Hickey states that he descended hand-over hand, so this is a round trip 336’.

And…a sailing vessel is pitching, rolling and yawing—this is no comparatively steady ropes course by any stretch of the imagination.

And…perhaps most importantly, we can not rule out the difference between fixed rungs and swaying rungs that have give.

This means that Captain Waddel [and other Captains and Mates who used such “show-off” feats to garner respect] could not use momentum to make the upward travel.

Rope gives, pull-up bars do not.

Captain Waddel’s feat was one of pure “out of the hole” strength and muscular stamina to perform such a long-travel.

All assumptions that one could rely on kips, swings, shimmies, and wiggles to travel, well, an attempt at kipped dynos on an uphill land-based ratline will quickly disabuse you of that idea.

This hearkens to our Seven Old School Combat Conditioning No-No’s, #4 to be precise.

I shall repeat it here, although I heartily encourage a read or podcast listen of that material right after consuming this. I have hyperlinked them like a Gentleman.

Seven Old School Combat Conditioning No-No’s Essay

Seven Old School Combat Conditioning No-No’s Podcast

Combat Conditioning No-No Four: Momentum is Not Strength

·        The clean, the jerk, the kettlebell swing, the kipping pull-up etc. were all also classed in the Feat category.

·        Using these Feats as Primary training was alien to Old School thought.

·        Pure Strength, be it bodyweight or additional loads was built by avoiding momentum at all costs.

So, if we look to Old School thought and the Captain Waddels of the world, short of buying and installing ratlines in our outdoor gyms what can we do to snag a bit of this strength?

First and foremost—Kill Momentum.

Do not treat any resistance exercise, be it a clean and jerk, a cheated curl, a push-up, and in our case here, a pull-up as something that requires the entire body to cheat through the movement.

Rather than seeing the pull-up bar as something to be kipped on, swung on, struggle on as a fixed point.

Turn your attention simply to the hand[s] gripping it, turn off all momentum and ask yourself during each movement if this could be replicated on a swaying, pitching, rolling, yawing unfixed rung?

Are you using muscular strength to accomplish the feat or are you in some way “moving around the bar” using the bar itself.

If the answer is strength, you’re on the right course.

Of course, mere up and down pull-ups ain’t gonna cut it either. The back and biceps move along more than vertical planes.

It is for this reason the standard pull-up was devalued by Old Schoolers and a raft of alternatives were used to engage the full sweep of useful muscle.

It is around this “Full Sweep” idea and with an eye on Captain Waddel-like feats that The Unleaded Back Battery is constructed.

For information on The Back Battery and all Old School Unleaded Conditioning.

Why merely read about it, when you can live it? Consider joining The Black Box Brotherhood

The Black Box Combat & Conditioning Training Warehouse

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast