Rope and fiber explainer · Finding F30
Rope is a consumable, not a fixture. The modeled hauling system wears out and replaces 567.2 tonnes of finished rope every year — the equivalent of completely rigging 17.45 first-rate warships annually, one every 2.98 weeks, for the whole build.
The consumable
The hauling configuration fixes how much rope is under tension at once. The service-life lever then decides how often all of it has to be made again.
872.7 km
of finished rope made each year
Model_04!B93
567.2 t
annual mass of that rope
Model_04!B94
11,344.6 t
over the twenty-year build
Model_04!B95
Two comparators
The model carries both, and says plainly which one to rely on. One rests on a pinned source; the other rests on assumptions, including one whose primary attribution is unverified.
Sourced comparator
One complete rigging every 2.98 weeks, every week of every year of the build.
At roughly 50 kilometres of rope per first-rate warship including rigging, the annual output is equivalent to completely rigging 17.45 such ships. The per-ship rope requirement is a pinned source, which is what makes this the comparator to rely on.
Model_04!B96 · B97 · Inputs_03!B39
Assumption-based comparator
And 389 ropewalk workers at Chatham productivity.
The same output set against a hand-era royal ropeyard. Both figures rest on assumptions rather than pinned sources: the yard's estimated output, and its 1798 workforce, registered as SRC-ROPE-CHATHAM with its primary attribution explicitly unverified and a citation task open. Reported for scale and badged accordingly.
Model_04!B98 · B99 · Inputs_03!B38 · B36
Upstream
Rope does not begin at the ropewalk. Making 567.2 tonnes a year requires fiber, and fiber requires cropland, farmers, retting works, and transport.
667.3 t
prepared fiber a year
Model_04!B100
2,224.4 t
raw plant harvest a year
Model_04!B101
1,601.6 ha
dedicated fiber cropland
Model_04!B102
1,068
fiber farmers
Model_04!B103
458
retting, beating and combing workers
Model_04!B104
1,915
active people in the rope department
Model_04!B105
Fifty fiber-transport workers move material between the farms, the retting works and the rope plant. Once roster coverage and off-site households are applied, the rope plant carries 677 rostered workers and the fiber chain adds 1,952 rostered off-site workers, with a project-dedicated off-site population of 9,760. These burdens are already carried in the integrated workforce and population ledgers. This page reports a chain that is priced, not a new one.
Assumption depth
The depth is uneven across the chain, and the page states it rather than letting the last number inherit the confidence of the first.
The rope-in-service figure derives from the hauling configuration. The rope tonnage is the robust finding.
The cropland and farmer figures sit at the far end of eight assumptions applied in series: service life, production waste, rope mass per meter, fiber-to-rope yield, fiber extraction fraction, usable yield per hectare, land overhead, and hectares per farmer. Each is set generous to the conventional account, but a figure eight assumptions deep should not be read at the same confidence as one that is two. The fiber estate is a sized consequence of the tonnage, not an independent measurement.
Replacement test
Rope service life is adjustable in the model, and the break-even life is calculated. A proposal that extends it must supply the evidence: service life under the modeled load cycles, a stronger cordage, a different rigging arrangement, or a lower duty on each line.
Changing the method does not delete the function. Any replacement still has to hold the load, be manufactured at the required rate, and carry its own fiber, land, labor, water and transport burdens through the same ledger.
Rope in active service is Model_04!B88, driven by the sled-team count and the per-team rope and lashing allowances. Staged spares add 15% at B89. Daily consumption is that stock divided by the service-life lever at B90; daily production adds manufacturing waste at B91. The annual mass is B94 and the build-long total is B95, which follows the build-duration lever.
The per-ship rope requirement at Inputs_03!B39 is badged SOURCED, so the comparison at Model_04!B96 rests on pinned evidence. The Chatham pair at B98 and B99 depends on Inputs_03!B38 and B36, both badged ASSUMPTION; the 1798 workforce attribution is registered as SRC-ROPE-CHATHAM with an open citation task. The paper leads with the sourced comparator for that reason.
The rope plant sits in the on-site construction roster and the fiber chain in the off-site production population, so their labor is already inside the integrated M3 totals. The material finding — the tonnage itself and the supply system it implies — is reported as a diagnostic and is not added again to the population total.
