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KNOTCRAFT 2009:Layout 1 23/10/09 12:17 Page 56

Cat-o-Nine Tails

(Ditty Bag Lanyard)

HAVE YET TO SEE a true cat o-nine-tails from that brutal peri-
I od when men could be flogged for the least infringement of
discipline. There are a few descriptions but these are hard to
decipher. Most cat-o-nine-tails in museums are someone’s inter-
pretation rather than the real thing. The truth is, probably the
‘cat’ was nothing very fancy, but rather just a piece of 3 strand
rope with a couple of knots in it to form the handle, then 3
strands opened out into the yarns, and these yarns laid up or
plaited into lashes, the tails being knotted at the end to stop
them coming undone. It was probably thrown away after use.
The ‘cat’ that I describe here can easily serve as the basis of a
ditty bag lanyard; just use 8 tails. This cat-o-nine-tails is more a
decoration than for real use, but mounted on a board it makes
a fine trophy, perhaps to be awarded symbolically to the last in
a race or to someone who has encouraged improvement in a
team. It starts with a Matthew Walker knot, one of my
favourites. Here it is tied with 9 lines, which can prove quite a
handful, but not impossible using my method, which starts with
a wall knot and grows from there. It will work for 3 or more
strands. Try it out with 3 or 4 lines to start with and work your
skill level up to the 9 slowly.

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