Page 310 - The Ashley Book of Knots

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CHAPTER 23: HITCHES TO STAKE AND POST,

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PILE AND BOLLARD

The '"",-'ork was hard an' the wages low,

(Leave 'er, Johnny, leave 'er!)

The grub u'as bad, an' the voy'ge 'U:as slow,

(Leave 'er, Johnny, leave 'er,)

Oh Make 'er fast, tm' Stow yer gear,

(Leave 'er, Johnny, Jeave 'er!)

An' tie 'er up to the bloomin' pier,

It's time for us to leave 'er!

OLD SHANTY

About the only time a sailor "ties" is when, his voyage over, he

"ties up" to the wharf, but, once arrived there, he may even go so

far as to "tie up for the winter." A sailor speaks of "tying a knot in

the devil's tail" when he has completed a difficult job to his own sat-

isfaction. In fact the expression to tie always seems to carry with it

a note of conclusion or finality.

Piles and bollards are the usual furniture of the wharf. Stakes are

commonly associated with tents, fences and guy ropes.

The word post does not at first appear to have much nautical

flavor, but Falconer, in his Dictionary of the Marine ('769), under

Hitches, speaks of posts and does not mention either piles or bollards.

llollards may be either double or single and so may bim. Bitts and

stanchions are generally rectangular in cross section. They are dis-

cussed further in Chapters 20 and 27.

The commonest of all POST HITCHES is undoubtedly the CLOVE -

HITCH. It is the one almost universally used on tent stakes. But the

~ailor himself seldom employs it as a hitch.

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