Word: roped
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...build an entire trireme. The actual building process, which took two years and about $700,000, hewed closely to original techniques, using Oregon pine (Mediterranean pines no longer grow tall and straight enough), 22,000 oak dowels and 17,000 handmade nails. A major deviation: the builders substituted steel rope for the hypozomata, the two lengths of twisted flax rope that ran from stem to stern to help hold the trireme together. Says Coates of the ancient mariners: "Oh, they were very, very good indeed. The design was driven to the limit. It was built for speed...
...their dogs' natural aggressiveness by keeping them tied up with collars of baling wire or running them on treadmills until they are exhausted. The pit bull's jaws -- which can exert as much force as 1,800 lbs. per sq. in. -- are strengthened by swinging the dog on a rope, its teeth clamped to a tire. This, she says, makes the animal a "lethal weapon. They hang on until their prey is dead." Such techniques, says Franklin Loew, dean of the Tufts University veterinary school, turn the dogs into "time bombs on legs." Many are used for high- stakes...
Wilbur won the toss and went first: "He lay down on the lower wing with his hips in the padded wingwarping cradle, while Orville made a last-minute adjustment to the motor. When everything was ready, Wilbur tried to release the rope fastening the machine to the rail, but the thrust of the propellers was so great he could not get it loose and two of the men had to forcibly push the Flyer backward a few inches until the rope slipped free. Orville ran beside the machine, balancing it with one hand. In the other hand he held...
They reached Dakar at the end of a rope after their engine had failed. A berth was offered them aft of an American destroyer. Michel said, "It's your country, Janis. Go talk to them." Whatever Janis did, it succeeded. "For the next week we had five sailors working on our engine. They filled our icebox with steak and ice cream. And all around us was this harbor of poverty. It was horrible, and it was heaven. I'll never forget...
Work for Begun consisted of knotting the rope into cargo nets, a job chosen mainly for its monotony. "The norm was eight nets a day, and those who met the norm might get one or two rubles a month to spend on sugar or fat from the prison store." Begun says he never made more than one net a day. "To do no work at all is extremely provocative, and punishment is severe. To do a single net is another matter. I did only one a day as a matter of principle...