Page 149 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

Knots at Sea 139

weak, temporary knots had no longer any place while stronger splices and
more secure knots entered the picture.
The perfecting of tying methods is another aspect to be considered. As
information about this is irretrievably lost, we must turn to contemporary
analogies. When the number of times a knot must be tied increases, a seeking
for an optimalisation of its tying method results. This is strongly affected
by the medium in which the knot must be realised. The Bowline provides a
point in case. The most frequent method which professional rope-users can be
observed using is called the fingertip method [30]. It is commonly employed
by sailors, fishermen and yachtsmen. It is rarely used on shore, where one
mostly observes the rabbit method [9]. A small study of a Bowline diagram
will naturally cause this method to be found. One first forms a little loop and
takes the working end up through it, around the back of the stend and down
into the loop again. It is naive, but it works. Of course, this needn't have been
the case before knotting manuals entered the scene, as knots were then handed
down orally. Improvement of tying method was also the case for the Sheet
Bend, a knot which is structurally related to the Bowline. Ashley provides
acknowledgment of discrepancies in tying methods between land-dwellers and
Mariners for the latter [1].
As we have seen, differing from life on land, rope problems at sea do
not only occur in all-round utility problems. With developments in sail and
(running as well as standing) rigging, a quantitative increase and a qualitative
change in their nature occurred. This caused the dependency upon knots and
rope to alter. Already in the simplest of ships there is a confined environment
pervaded with the presence of rope. Under sail, such environments become
absolute and cannot be escaped. The concentration of rope problems on ships
was, perhaps, just as high as in certain locations on land; but on the whole
the marine dependency upon rope was much greater and all the more visible.
In life at sea, anticipation is a key word. This forced the Mariner to reflect
on the use and improvement of his tools. As rope is a non-replenishable and
expensive commodity at sea, this caused rope-working techniques to become
affected by the introduction of.discipline. Mariners became more tradition-
alised in their knot tying, because experience was often gained the hard way,
that is by loss of life; which was an expensive way of proceeding and simply had
to be avoided. During countless generations the propagation of steadily accu-
mulating knot-experience had been a practical part of an aspiring Mariner's
training, gradually shaping parts of the Mariner's cultural identity.
Even though a ship at sea represents a micro-society in itself, Mariners
have not always been a separate social group within the societies from which
they originated. Initially social differentiation caused Mariners to become
distinguishable as a clear-cut social subset. However, professional Mariners
were not merely an amorphous social group, but they had their own further