Page 416 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots
P. 416
410 History and Science of Knots
The True Love Knot at Sea
As knots were commonly associated with sailors, it is not remarkable that
the True Love Knot phenomenon should be found in this pragmatic ropework-
ers' world. The question about the True Love Knot's identity seems to have
occasionally occupied them too, as a number of knots appear in their lore under
that name. As a rule they are based on two interlocking Overhand Knots, but
also knots with two loops are to be found [1,#798,#1038,#1414,#2301,#2421],
[11, #149].
Fig. 6. Some True Love Knots of sailors
There is also a Masthead Knot called Treble Love Knot in the English
knotting literature [36], but it is uncertain which structure is meant. There
exists a quaint (non-Mariner) magazine from 1834 in which there is the fol-
lowing story about a knot, which may have given rise to the foregoing name
[381.
There is a knot made by seamen, known by the name of True
Lover's Knot, and it is difficult without inquiring into the uses
to which it is applied, to understand in what manner it could have
obtained this romantic name. On board ship, it is frequently neces-
sary to raise water by means of a bucket or other vessel, and if this
vessel should happen to be without a handle, it would require some
ingenuity to find out the means of lowering it into the water: to
gain this point, the seamen have invented the knot represented in
the engraving. This being the purpose to which the knot is applied,
we have now to discover in what manner it has acquired its name.
To do this, let us suppose our sailor to be on shore, and paying a