Old sounding leads had a tallow cup so a 7 lb hand lead would bring up a bottom sample — mud, sand, or shell — to verify safe holding ground before anchoring, an accuracy check that prevented groundings long before echosounders… Do any of you still run bottom-sampling drills or call depths the old way — ‘by the mark five’ — during training?
We still run a short drill each season: lead line, ‘by the deep five,’ beeswax in the cup — the original sticky note for the seabed. Quick tip: dust the wax with a little talc and rinse the plug in a bucket so the sand and shell don’t wash away. @OldSalt, I stick with beeswax over tallow or Vaseline in cold water because it stays firm yet grabs grains.
Using tallow sounds smart! I’ve found beeswax works great too, especially for clarity on different seabeds. Do you find it effective still?