Its Connection with Allied Productions in the United States; Its Discovery, Growth and in Particular Its Adaption to the Manufacture of Cordage
The average person in a day’s work will have exposed to his inspection a dozen articles of common every-day use that have a very picturesque and interesting history if inquired into. Walk down the water front of any seaport town and watch the shipping; take notice of the immense cables that secure the large vessels to the piers, the life lines, the boat falls, lead lines, and if a sailing vessel is in the harbor, note the maze of ropes of various sizes that constitute her standing and running gear. Have you ever watched a vessel belonging to the United Fruit Company discharging an immense cargo of bananas, and if you have, did it ever occur to you that the banana, a favorite fruit in all families in this country, was a first cousin to the immense hawsers that tied the ship up at the dock? Nevertheless, it is a fact, this relationship in the original state. The story of rope and cordage in general is one of decided interest to all and especially to one of a seafaring turn of mind; consequently one of interest to every naval officer. This is especially so in view of the fact that the manufacture of rope from abaca or Manila hemp is the result of an inquisitive turn of mind of an American naval officer, and as the result of this inquiry an enormous industry has sprung up that has become finally an integral and essential element in all sea-going endeavor, whether commercial or naval. In the days of a generation ago, the era of the sail, it was incumbent upon every one attached to a vessel, from the “skipper” down, to know rope, not in the extreme sense that at a glance one could tell the grade or grades of fiber by which fabricated, but familiar enough to be able to tell by feel and look whether this or that coil was the one that would perform a certain piece of work the best. The use of steam did not eliminate rope from the sea by any means; it only curtailed its usage in certain particulars, but with the use of steam came mechanical appliances, steam winches for instance, instead of the old hand capstan, and even on modern sailing vessels many have “donkey engine” winches to hoist their sails; in other words, the old intimate touch and personal contact with rope has been eliminated by these devices until today rope on board ship has become more an article of equipment than a vital element.
Abaca or Manila hemp is a fiber growth peculiar to the Philippine Islands, and while repeated attempts have been made to introduce the plant into India, Borneo, Java, the West Indies, and other parts of the tropical world, the result has been the same in each and every instance—failure. In attempting to ascertain through the medium of old records when abaca or Manila hemp was first looked upon as having a potential commercial use, it is found that one Antonio Pigafetta, a companion of Magallanes in the discovery of the Philippines, quotes a fairly accurate description of plant and plant life in the Philippines, although he makes no mention of anything that can be identified with abaca. It is not until 1686 that we find an authoritative mention of abaca as having a possible commercial value, and that in a record given by an Englishman, Dampier, who lived in Mindanao, and who describes the plant “Banana Textoria” as a plant both edible and fiber producing. How much experimenting Dampier did, is not known, but undoubtedly he planted a seed of suggestion for its further possible usages. It was not until 1820 that any records show that the possibilities of this plant for commercial purposes were again taken up seriously, and then by Lieutenant John White of the United States Navy, who took a quantity of abaca back to Salem, Massachusetts.
Of course rope is older than any authentic records of events, beyond even the range of tradition. The North American Indians were expert rope makers and utilized the fiber of cotton, yucca, and agave (maguey or sisal). According to records from very reliable sources, not only were the ancient civilized nations accomplished rope makers, but savage tribes in all parts of the world for unknown thousands of years have been able to make cords and ropes from a great variety of materials, and the beauty of their workmanship in many instances is little short of marvelous. There are cuts and illustrations in existence (some, I believe, in the Boston Museum) showing the Egyptian method of rope making in the time of Pharaoh, and which were taken from the tomb of Thebes, the material used being leather strings for larger rope and palm fiber and papyrus for the smaller. Herodotus tells us that Xerxes, during his invasion of Greece, 480 B. C., crossed his army over the Hellespont upon two bridges of boats, which were held together and the plank roadway supported by two enormous cables stretched from shore to shore, a distance of seven-eighths of a mile. It is said that these ropes were twenty-eight inches in circumference, two of each set being made of flax and papyrus. Coming down to something approaching the present and involving our own country, it is found that Boston in order to meet the needs of its shipbuilding and fishing industries, induced John Harrison, a ropemaker of Salisbury( England, to settle in Boston and set up his business in that village, where for years he (Harrison) had a monopoly of the local trade under paternal protection of the authorities. In 1794 there were fourteen ropewalks in and around Boston, and in 1810 there were 173 ropewalks scattered over the country from Maine to Kentucky, but rope up to that time was made of fiber other than abaca (Manila hemp).
While history does not say so in so many words, it is believed that the small importation of abaca (Manila hemp) made by Lieutenant John White of the United States Navy started the ball rolling in the matter of converting abaca into fiber and the fiber into rope. The dates and records of events surely all point this way, considering that no record is in evidence to the effect that abaca (Manila hemp) had ever been used for rope (except possibly by hand for the local use of and by the natives of the Philippine Islands) prior to the small quantity carried to Salem by Lieutenant White. Moreover the records show that up to 1825 no abaca had ever been exported. We know that in 1825 practically nothing that could be called an industry along these lines existed in the Philippines; none was ever taken away until 1820, and then four years later a call comes for 276 tons in the United States. It certainly all points toward someone doing some extensive experimenting with the samples of Lieutenant John White, U. S. Navy, that proved valuable and resulted in the present extensive use of abaca (Manila hemp) almost to the exclusion of all other fiber for many of the kinds and sizes of rope now in use.
From the small exportation of 276 tons in 1825, its production, utilization, and exportation has increased at such an astonishing rate that in addition to the large quantities now used locally in the manufacture of rope; 830,000 bales or 115,370 tons were shipped out of the Philippine Islands in 1924 and practically all of this for the purpose of being converted into rope of various sizes and kinds. Please bear in mind that Dampier referred to this plant as “Banana Textoria,” a natural mistake, but nevertheless a decided error in classification. Three plants exist there, that to the casual observer are almost identical. The common banana or musa sapientum, the plantin (musa pacadisiaca), and the abaca (musa textiles) all produce fiber but that of the abaca alone has any commercial value; the fruit of the abaca and the banana are similar in appearance, the banana, however, being edible, the abaca having no edible value. Then again the application of the term “hemp” to abaca is erroneous, as the fiber from the abaca is a structural fiber obtained from the leaf sheath, while the hemp is a bast fiber. True hemp is more closely associated with jute than with abaca, but the misapplication of the term has been in use for so long the name “Manila hemp” is now generally accepted as being the fiber of the abaca plant. While the cultivation and production of abaca (Manila hemp) has increased by prodigious leaps and bounds, the same antiquated methods of extracting and cleaning the fiber exist today as were in use one hundred years ago, this owing chiefly to the fact that there is no competitive field of supply. It is only in the last three or four years that any attempt has been made to adopt improved methods to supplant the slow, crude, hand methods, and as yet satisfactory machinery has not been developed, consequently lack of efficiency and waste methods have kept the price of abaca (Manila hemp) higher than would have been the case if a large field of competition existed.
In the very beginning of the use of abaca for manufacture of cordage, little or no thought was given to the selection and grading of fiber, Manila hemp being Manila hemp and rope being rope; but with the rapid increase of machinery and diversified uses of cordage it was found that rope ceased to be merely rope, and demands began to pour in on manufacturers of cordage for a special rope for this and a special rope for that; one call being for a rope that would withstand a tremendous strain, another wanting flexibility as the principal feature, another a spring line with a large elastic limit. In order to accomplish these ends and meet the ever increasing demand for special items of cordage, it became necessary to begin selecting and comparing strand fiber from various parts of the plant and also the product of different soils; in fact this item of investigation became so important that a fiber division was established under the Bureau of Agriculture, Philippine Islands, in 1915 for the purpose of conducting intelligently this research work, having in view the development of standard gradings of Manila hemp fiber, with a complete description of each grading, what best adapted for, strength, flexibility, color, and length of fiber, in order that buyers could gauge their purchases to suit their requirements. In this field the fibre division has done most excellent work in developing fiber up to its present standard, keeping up that standard, and constantly on the outlook for ways and means of producing a better fiber. This division now not only sets the standard grades of fiber with the attending requirements and specifications to be lived up to, but controls all inspections of same thus insuring the buyer receiving the grades he has paid for. At present there are thirty-one official gradings of abaca (Manila hemp) fiber ranging from A A—W, and the characteristics of each grade intelligently described and based on the following essentials: tensile strength, color, cleaning, length of fiber, texture of fiber.
As an illustration of the different grades, the standard tensile strength requirements are given as follows:
Grade | Breaking strain per gram meter |
A | 49,300 |
B | 48,900 |
C | 50,550 |
D | 52,000 |
E | 50,250 |
S1 | 52,700 |
S2 | 52,860 |
S3 | 52,875 |
F | 52,415 |
G | 47,057 |
H | 47,029 |
I | 46,351 |
J | 45,553 |
K | 41,012 |
L | 35,912 |
M | 40,350 |
DZ | 33,873 |
DM | 30,472 |
There are other grades known as specials, indicated as double letter grades AA., BB, CC, DD, EE, but these grades are produced only in very small quantities, pure white in color, extremely fine in texture and owing to the great care taken in cleaning, selecting and sometimes bleaching, they are placed on the market at a very high price, prohibitive to the cordage industry, and are unsuitable anyway as they have a lower breaking strain. The use of these grades is almost solely for tagal braid, cloth fabrications, and hats, almost the entire output going to Japan. In fact the grades A, B, C, and D are practically no longer used in cordage on account of their requirements, it taking over twice the labor to strip and clean these grades as the S or streaky grades and lower; consequently a correspondingly higher price is asked, which in turn has affected the demand. As the producer obtains as much profit on the lower grades as on the higher with one half the labor, the production of these higher grades is falling off annually. Again there are the very low grades O—W, that are used only by manufacturers making the very cheapest ropes; these grades being almost purely what would be called in the United States “shoddy.” In fact cordage utilization is confined mostly to the grades E to DM.
In talking with persons who in their daily work are in constant contact with rope, it is surprising how few (and naval officers are no exception) know anything about the basic raw material of Manila rope, the general understanding being that one grade of abaca (Manila hemp) is the product of one particular soil or district, and another grade from some other tree or plant grown under different conditions; whereas every plant, no matter where grown, strips from four to eight different grades. As an illustration, let us take three or four grades and see where they do come from. S3 is a standard grade, produced entirely from the outside sheaths, and these sheaths being weather exposed are naturally dark in color. S2, produced from sheaths next to those on the outside of the abaca stalk, and having more protection from the weather, is less dark in color. Thus from the extreme outside all the way through to the core are found the varying grades of abaca with their individual characteristics. The very fine or prime and extra fine or the As, Bs, and Cs are found on the interior sheaths immediately surrounding the core, and are pure white in color, soft in texture, but without the tensile strength or length of fibre of that extracted from the outside sheaths.
As in all plant life, the quality of the plant itself depends on the quality of soil in which grown, whether rich or poor. Consequently, the fiber extracted from the plant varies accordingly. Based upon this feature the abaca plants and the fiber extracted have gradually become known by the section from which produced, some sections producing medium grades, some poor, and some excellent. The product of the province of Davao, Mindanao, enjoys the well-earned reputation of producing the best fiber in the Philippines and is frequently quoted as Davao Premium grade, bringing a slightly higher price in the market, grade for grade, on account of the demand for this quality.
An abaca plant matures in from twenty months to two and one-half years and a reset should be made on an average of every fifteen years, some varieties as often as twelve and others as infrequently as twenty years. In other words, an abaca tree is planted and from this root several shoots spring up of which one usually develops much more rapidly than the rest. This main shoot matures and is ready for cutting in from eighteen months to two and one-half years, depending on the fertility of the soil. After this first cutting it is a process of repeating, once in about every six months a shoot being ready for cutting until the life of the plant is exhausted. In this connection it must be understood that generally speaking abaca is abaca, as a rose bush is a rose bush, but as there are many varieties of roses, so there are in the abaca plant family. As many as two dozen are recognized by the planters; however, only a few of these varieties are found in any one plantation, and the number of good fiber producing varieties is small; for instance, in Davao with ten known varieties only three are utilized for fiber purposes.
It is believed that a sufficient description of the abaca (Manila hemp) plant together with its characteristics and construction has been given to enable the reader to visualize hemp in the natural state, and if that has been accomplished then we are ready to harvest a small crop. As previously stated, at least 80 per cent of the hemp produced is extracted by very crude methods, and step by step the harvesting is as follows: The planter or his supervisor indicates the mature plants that are ready for cutting; after the mature crop has been marked, the cutters take the field each armed with a sharp-bladed knife called a “bolo.” The stalk is cut at about six centimeters from the ground and on a slant, as, if cut horizontally, water will collect on the stump causing rot and injury to the root and remaining shoots. The work of fiber extraction should commence forty-eight hours after the cutting of the stalk and while full of sap or natural moisture and easily worked. The stalk being heavy and the crude fiber extracting apparatus light and easily transported, it is customary to move the latter from place to place and do the stripping at the place of the cutting. There are two distinct operations in the extraction of fiber; first, the removal of the ribbon-like strips of fiber from the leaf sheath, and second, the separation of the individual fibers by the pulling of these ribbons under a knife. The laborer sits on the ground with a stalk of abaca across his knees and inserts under the bark of one of the leaf sheaths a small sharp piece of bone called a “locnit” and pulls off a fibrous strip or ribbon, five- eighths centimeters wide and as long as the stalk; each sheath will yield two to four such strips, and when these fiber strips have been taken off, the remaining fleshy material is removed and each consecutive sheath is thus worked down to the central core. These strips or ribbons are then given grading as to color which saves considerable time later on. It will be found that six and sometimes eight grades of strips can be made, ranging in color from a dark red to pure white. But two general grades are, however, ordinarily made from these strips, the fiber of which is separately stripped, cleaned, and handled. The fiber is now ready for the stripping apparatus known as a “panjuijan” which consists of a log set in horizontal position just clear of the ground, and on the top of which is fastened a block of smooth hard wood. Over this block is placed a “bolo” or knife having a blade from thirty to thirty-five centimeters long and a handle of about the same length, to which is attached a strip of rattan connecting with a bamboo spring above. Another rattan passes from the handle to a foot treadle. The bamboo spring holds the knife to the block, its pressure being easily regulated by- lengthening or shortening the rattan, and by means of the foot treadle the operator raises the knife as he wishes to insert or remove a ribbon of fiber.
In stripping the operator holds in one hand one of the fiber ribbons and also a short round piece of wood. The strip is inserted under the knife blade and drawn through with a quick steady pull. The ribbon is then removed and reversed, the clean end being wound three or four times around the stock and the process repeated. The knife blade removes all of the pulp or fleshy material, leaving in the hands of the operator a small bunch of clean, wet, individual fibers.
The strength and color of the fiber, two of the most important qualities, are determined largely by the care taken in this cleaning. The work of the fiber stripper is exhaustive, and to strip eight or nine kilos is a good day’s work. A stalk of abaca weighing from 100 to 115 kilos will strip but two to two and one-half kilos of fiber. After stripping comes the drying, sorting, official grading by representatives of the fiber division, baling, marketing, and distributing to the four corners of the earth to be converted mostly into cordage.
Of course some other fibers are used to some extent in the manufacture of certain ropes, such as flax, in signal halyard stuff, sisal, jute, and buri, and some manufacturers mix various cheap fibers with Manila hemp to keep down cost of production, but generally speaking the best Manila rope is made only from one or more of the standard grades of abaca. No substitute is as yet in sight for abaca (Manila hemp) in the manufacture of a good grade of cordage, sisal being the nearest approach, and as yet after much experimenting in manner and method of planting, cultivation, and cleaning it at best produces a liber infinitely inferior to abaca.
Considering fiber as a whole there is probably more extensive research work going on at present in this field today than at any time in the history of the industry, due probably to lack of competition in two of the most extensively used fibers, abaca or Manila hemp in the manufacture of cordage, and jute for the manufacture of twine, bagging, burlap, and linoleums. The abaca (Manila hemp) is produced solely in the Philippines and the jute in India. This absence of competition tends to cause satisfaction with already existing methods of production, no matter how crude and wasteful, a steady increase in price and lessened production of the higher grades. To offset this, private industry has awakened to the necessity of finding a substitute to broaden the field of competition.
Note: 1 inch = 2.34 cm. 1 Kilo = 2,2046 tbs. 1 Bale of hemp = 2 piculs of 139.43995 tbs. each.