Able Seaman's weapon

[Kennebec_Captain]

There was a thread here a while back. We decided to get rid of our monkey fists and replace with sand-filled canvas ones. They work better.

Heaving Line - With or Without Monkey's Fist?

Working on getting into the industry and have been reading various books. I was recently reading Tugs, Towboats, and Towing and it stated the dangers of a monkey’s fist on a heaving line. It then went on about wetting the line, making coils, etc. Is the monkey’s fist a necessity for a heaving line, or does the usage of it vary between ships?