Janos, about 10 years ago, I built H. Hahns "Hannah", a New England fishing schooner from the mid 1700's. She used only cleats (no belaying pins). In my research i found references to the British moving to belaying pins for their naval ships in the early 1700's with the merchant and fishing vessels adapting the practice mid-1700's and later. My model is rigged with sails and was puzzled with what to do with all the lines needed to control the sails. From what I found, they doubled up the lines of cleats based upon usage. And no, I cannot provide the source of the information - to long ago and to old to remember.