Page 15 - Frank Rosenow "Seagoing Knots"

Geoffrey Budworth, during ten years afloat with the River Police in the
tidal waters of the Thames in the Port of London, found six knots suffi¬
cient for “everything imaginable.” They were:

the bowline
the clove hitch
the sheet bend
round turn and two half hitches
the killick hitch
lighterman’s back mooring hitch

Of these, the lighterman’s back mooring hitch (Ashley knot 1795) is
not usually practiced in yachting gauge cordage, and the killick hitch saw
its primary use on the Thames in securing decomposing bodies.
The complexity of knots that do exist we owe to the great commercial
and naval sailing era that Uncle Emil saw the end of. To him, the knots in
his study were not specimens tied to a board but examples of knots which
had staved off disaster before an Atlantic gale, and many more such feats.

To respect and remember a knot, you have to experience its worth in
service. One of my best-loved knots, the rolling hitch, gained this status by
saving Moth from being thrown against a harbor wall at Heraklion, Crete.
A trabaccoli man took our line at a critical moment and had it secured to a
hawser in a twinkle.
To have a knot practically demonstrated is in itself a boon. You can pho¬
tograph or draw it for someone else’s benefit but sleight of hand is best
shown and best remembered when passing from one hand to another.
I have been fortunate in learning most of my knots this way, from many
hands, and will try to present them in the light they were revealed to me.
The knots are not as numerous as those of Uncle Emil, but my aim is to

pass on those that have proved themselves in my own seafaring. Of those I
can speak (and draw) with conviction.
Like good friends, all these knots have their quirks which one needs to
be acquainted with, but which, when applied with due regard to the quirks,
are utterly reliable.
I have rejected knots like the carrick bend and the sheepshank, which,
though in every book of knots, are unwieldy and rarely of use in recre¬
ational sailing.
To show the geometry of a knot, I have drawn it in different stages of
being formed. On a page, the sequence is from left to right, usually starting

top left. Where a knot is illustrated by a single drawing, it is usually shown
very loosely tied, so that the geometry is plain to see. In using them, one
must remember that after a knot has been tied it needs to be worked into
shape. A lopsided, collapsing knot is ugly and dangerous. Aim for a rea-

INTRODUCTION