Page 127 - The Ashley Book of Knots
P. 127
THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS
677. DOUBLE WALL KNOT (3) is the most distinguished of the three
given. After the basic WALL KNOT has been tied each end is brought
around the knot and thrust up beside the stem through its own bight.
678. The Fb'LL or DOUBLE MATTHEW WALKER KNOT. Lever in
1808 speaks of "MATrHEw WALKER'S KNOT" and describes the knot
which Alston in I 860 calls the "DOUBLE MATTHEW WALKER KNOT."
A refinement of the original knot had in the meantime taken over
the original name, which is now generally modified to "a MAITHEW
WALKER."
(,11
Lever's familiar expression, "MATTHEW WALKER'S KNOT," sug-
gests that he may have known the inventor, who was possibly a
master rigger in one of the British naval dockyards. Many myths
have grown up ai'ound Matthew Walker, "the onl man ever to
have a knot named for him." Dr. Frederic Lucas, 0 the American
Museum of Natural History, once told me the following story of
the origin of the knot, which he had heard off the Chinch:} Islands
while loading guano in 1869.
A sailor, having been sentenced to death by a judge who in earlier
615 life had been a sailor himself, was reprieved by the judge because of
their common fellowship of the sea. The judge offered the sailor
a full pardon if he could show him a knot that he, the judge, could
neither tie nor untie.
The sailor called for ten fathoms of rope and, having retired to
the privacy of his cell, unlaid the rope halfway, put in a MATTHEW
WALKER KNOT, and then laid up the rope again to the end.
So Matthew Walker secured his pardon, and the world gained an
excellent knot.
To tie the DOUBLE MATTHEW WALKER: Hold the rope in the left
hand. Arrange the strands as pictured. Take the backmost one, make
a large left turn with it around the stem of the knot, and bring the
end up through its own bight. Take the strand that is in front of
the one just moved, make a left turn on top of the previous strand
and bring the end up through both the bights. Take the third strand
and lead it in the same way, bringing the end up through all three
bights. The Manual of Seamanship says that the DOUBLE MAITHEW
WALKER is used on topmast rigging lanyards, bunt beckets, and the
b79 beckets of tubs and buckets.
679. Beckets are employed here and there about ships for suspend·
ing and securing objects. A common becket has either a stopper or a
button at one end, and an eye at the other. It is sometimes called a
"STRAP AND BUTTON." Falconer describes this becket in 1769 ..
680 680. The DOUBLE or FULL MATTHEW WALKER may be tied on the
cork board by pinning out on the diagram shown here.
681. The MATTHEW WALKER proper is occasionally called SINGLL
MATTHEW WALKER by the uninitiated. It is a much trimmer knot
than ,#678 and it has almost entirel superseded the double knot on
shipboard. It is the most important not used aboard ship. Todd anrl
Whall, in their Seamanship, go so far as to state: "Amongst knot!
proper the MATI'HEW WALKER is almost the only one which it .;
absolutely necessary for the seaman to know." The word knot .
used here in its narrowest sense, meaning a MULTI-STRAND KNOB,
even so this is high praise for the MATTHEW WALKER KNOT.
Alongside is shown the lubber's or greenhorn's way of tying the
knot. First make a DOUBLE MATTHEW WALKER (7'1{678), and then
withdraw each strand in turn, one tuck only.
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