Page 195 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK OF KNOTS

WATERMAN'S, FISHER'S, FISHERMAN'S, FISHERMAN'S EYE, FISHER-

MAN'S Loop, LOVE, TRUE-LoVE, or TRUE-LoVER'S KNOT (~1038),

which is an angler's loop and rather a cumbrous one; but it is a very

well-known knot, mainly, I think, because of the manner in which

it is tied.

,00 ~ 1009. The Loop KNOT, also called OVERHAND Loop, is the simplest

as well as the commonest of loops. It is used in the home and the

shop when tying up parcels and on the farm and in general carting

for hooking the ends of lashings. It is not suitable, however, for rope,

being difficult to untie.

1010. The BOWLINE, BOWLING, or BOLIN KNOT, sometimes called

BOWLING'S KNOT. The name is derived from bow line, a rope that

holds the weather leech of a square sail forward and prevents the

sail from being taken aback. As the line or rope that provided the

knot is no longer in use, the BOWLINE KNOT is nowadays very apt to

101 0

be termed merely the "BOWLINE," the word knot being dropped.

It is sometimes called STANDING BOWLINE in contradistinction to

RUNNING BOWLINE (NOOSE ~III7).

Captain John Smith says of the knot: "The Boling Knot is so

firmely made and fastened by the bridles into the creengles of the

sailes, they will breake, or the saile split before it will slip." But no

knot is safe that is not properly drawn up, which will explain prob-

ably the following contradictory statement from Alston's Sellman-

ship of 187 I: "With a heavy strain a bowline knot often capsizes."

, 0 I} However, it is a fact that no knot is safe except under reasonable
1012
rO I I conditions. Properly tied in ordinary rope, there is little or no dan-

ger of a BOWLINE KNOT'S capsizing before the breaking point of the

rope itself is reached. It is so good a knot that the sailor seldom uses

any other Loop KNOT aboard ship.

A BOWLINE is frequently used as a hitch when tying a boat painter

to a ring. On a whaler it is tied around a man's waist to make a

"monkey rope," which is required if he is to be lowered overside

for any purpose. When mooring, BOWLINES are tied in hawsers and

tossed over bollards. Two interlocked BOWLINES are a common form
1015

4 of HAWSER BEND. It is often said at sea that "the divi! would make

a good sailor, if he could only tie a bowline and look aloft."

To tie the knot: Grasp the end of a rope in the right hand and the

standing part in the left hand. Cross the end of the rope over the

standing part, and with a turn of the right wrist put a single hitch

around the rope end. Without shifting the grip of the right hand,

pass the end of the rope to the left under the standing part, then

down through the hitch that was first formed.

1011. The STANDING BOWLINE. This name properly belongs to a
I 0 1 6

BOWLINE KNOT that has been seized, as on a boatswain's chair.

1012. If a BOWLINE is to be towed through the water a second

HALF HITCH may be added. Wet knots are apt to jam, and the extra

hitch lessens this tendency.

1013. The DOUBLE or ROUND TURN BOWLINE is put into stiff or

slippery rope and is the same knot formation as the DOUBLE BECKET

HITCH. It holds the BOWLINE together in such a way as to lessen the

danger of its capsizing, which is liable to occur when a SINGLE Bow-

LINE is carelessly drawn up.

1014. The HAWSER BOWLINE is a "trick" way of forming the knot.

10'1 A turn is formed in the standing part of the rope, and the end is

brought around a post and tucked as shown. The swing of a boat

will haul the knot taut.

1015. Alston, who complained of the unreliability of the BoWLINE

[ 186 ]