Page 102 - The Ashley Book of Knots

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CHAPTER 4: KNOB KNOTS. SINGLE-STRAND

LANYARD KNOTS

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Jib Horses are knotted with an OVERHAND KNOT at the distance of

every Yard. DAVID STEEL: Seamansht'p and Rt'ggt'ng, 1794

There was, once upon a time, a sailor who had a sweetheart. The

girl was beautiful, and the sailor was handsome-so the girl thought.

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But her father disliked all sailors, this one in particular, which may .' ,
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have been because he had another husband already picked out for her, • ~
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a certain haberdasher's clerk, who had really very little to recommend

him save that he managed to keep both feet on solid earth most of the

time. That, as everybody knows, is too much to expect of a sailor.

But the girl found the haberdasher's clerk even less prepossessing

than her father found our hero.

\Vhen the father saw which way the wind was blowing he pleaded

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with the girl, then he threatened and even stormed for a bit; but it

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was to no avail, and the ship of True Love was practically on the • c.. ")

rocks.

But after a while the storm quieted down, as storms will. Al-

though the father remained obdurate, which means stubborn, the

girl too was stubborn, which means that she was her father's daughter.

But the haberdasher's clerk, although almost entirely devoid of

charm, was endowed with a certain native cleverness, and it was not

long before he thought of a plan which he communicated to the

father. Thereupon the father appeared to relent, and soon after he

suggested to his daughter that the selection of a husband should be

decided in fair competition.

Amid general rejoicing it was agreed that the suitor who could tie

the greater number of knots, while the father counted fifty, should

marry the girl.

Now the father had argued to himself in somewhat this fashion:

"Surely this haberdasher's clerk who does little from morning till

night, save knot ribbons and tie up parcels, should have no trouble

in besting this tarry-fingered son of a sea cook." But the girl needed

no one to tell her that her Jack would win, by a long sea mile. •