Page 220 - The Ashley Book of Knots

KNOTS TIED IN THE BIGHT

1161. If there is a considerable length of material to be expended

in the SHEEPSHANK, a number of turns may be taken. To make this

coil doubly secure, place a CLOVE HITCH at each end. I have seen this

knot used in color halyards that are to be hung well above deck. 16,

1162. The "parlor method" of tying the SHEEPSHANK is one of the

sailor's standard tricks. The knot is tied almost . instantaneously from

three hitches which are arranged one on top of another as shown

here. Each side bight of the center hitch is grasped through an outer

hitch, and extended for a short distance. Then the bights are cast off

in mid-air, the grasp being shifted to the two ends of the rope.

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If small stuff is used, this knot is tied, inchworm-fashion, by pull-

ing out (he loops with thumbs and forefingers, and as the loops are

extended the ends of the cord are grasped at either side, with the ring

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and little fingers. The trick is practiced until only one continuous

movement is evident. The finished knot is shown as 11: 1154.

1163. The SHEEPSHANK WITH A SWORD KNOT has also been called

NAVY SHEEPSHANK, and occasionally MAN-O'-WAR SHEEPSHANK.

Four hitches are made which should overlap each other in pairs. The

bights from each pair are pulled through the center of the opposite

pair and are tightly drawn together. It is well to jerk them a few

times to make them tighter. In this form the knot is quite irregular

and unprepossessing. Now take the ends in hand and jerk them apart. , ,

The knot should now appear as in the lower drawing of 11: 1164 but

it may require a little prodding to make it quite regular.

1164. The same knot may be made in a less spectacular way. Note

that two adjoining bights are crossed and that each of the single

bights at the center is rove through the two opposite hitches. This

is HANDCUFF KNOT 11: I 157 with the two loops half hitched.

The whole series of SHEEPSHANKS are practical knots; I once tried

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them a \ when hauling a heavy skiff across a wide beach. On account

of the sand there was only about fifty feet in which to work the car

to advantage, so the boat had to be hauled in short hitches. I put a

different SHEEPSHANK in the rope each time the car was backed up

and had no trouble with any of them; they neither jammed nor

slipped.

1165. Make four hitches and overlap the two center hitches. Then

tuck each of the center bights in alternate over-and-under sequence,

to the side. If the two outer hitches are made a little smaller than

the two inner ones, the knot will require little or no adjustment.

1166. "Two HEARTS THAT BEAT AS ONE." Sailors ring all the

changes on this knot, using any number of hitches. But beyond five

the SHEEPSHANK soon loses distinction.

1166

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