The Nautical Encyclopedia

Patterson’s Illustrated Nautical Encyclopedia — Howard Patterson, 1891

⚓ The Superstition Locker ⚓

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Home ⚓ Letter F ⚓ Four-fold Purchase

Four-fold Purchase

Sea Terms

A purchase having two blocks, each containing four sheaves.

← Four-fold Block All “F” entries Four-point Bearing →

2026 Editor's Note: A fourfold purchase — eight parts of line, enormous advantage, glacial speed — is the same trade-off every physics student meets; riggers still reeve them for heavy lifts. See block and tackle. (Ed: BR 2026-07-04)

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The Nautical Encyclopedia (1891) is in the public domain; this digital edition © 2026 PhotoOpAI.