In the Middle Ages (from the thirte

In the Middle Ages (from the thirteenth century to the eighteenth century), from the British Isles to the Mediterranean, rope was made using a "rope walk" method. This allowed for long ropes of up to 300 yards long or longer to be made. Short ropes are useless on tall ships, which require ropes to be long, relatively uniform in diameter, and strong. Short ropes would require splicing to make them long. The strongest form of splicing is the short splice, which doubles the diameter of the rope at the area of the splice. This would cause problems in the rigging hardware such as buckles and pulleys.