Page 152 - J. C. Turner "History and Science of Knots"

142 History and Science of Knots

displaying dynamic techniques by means of static images, which would be pre-
destined to fail. Hence the people that read these books were essentially not
interested in the dynamics of knots, but only needed to know that such things
as knots existed and occasionally had names. It is obvious that this knowledge
entered respectable seamanship manuals because it existed, as words spoken
among mariners. For a long time Mariners were virtually the only ones to
display functional knots. In an overall perspective this manner of propagating
technological knowledge added to an awareness of knotting discipline, i.e. to a
reinforcement of the cultural identity of the Mariner, but it also confirms that
otherwise apparently trivial objects or operations have an interest and extent
that are by no means commensurate with the estimation in which they are
ordinarily held. Not much changes it seems. However, the present day solu-
tion to these problems is more refined. Nowadays, rope problems on merchant
and naval ships are reduced to the putting-in of an infrequent splice in wire
or multibraid rope and on smaller vessels occasionally making fast around a
bollard. Whatever is left of nautical rope problems has been solved on shore
by specialists before it is delivered on board. At sea, the intensive use of rope
by fishermen, seems to remain the sole exception.

Fishermen's Knots

As there are many ways to catch a fish, the topic of fishing knots is a large one
[3], [34]. However, I shall restrict myself to a very modest part of the North
Atlantic fishery scene's interesting history, and say something about knots in
the industrialisation of the exploitation of its fish resources. A process which
commenced as early as the 1430s when British cod fishermen were lured over to
the rich banks off Iceland and possibly even visited Greenland. Nowadays huge
trawler fleets of the nations bounding the North Atlantic basin are pressing
its ecosystem to depletion. Between these two extremes a wide range of other
fish-catching methods is being practised. Here I will only consider longlining
and aspects of gillnetting as fish-catching methods with ancient roots, and
conclude with a few words on trawling as a contemporary development. I
shall focus on the functional role of knots in both.
In contradistinction to the recording of Sailors' Knots in the seamanship
literature this field is characterised by a remarkable lack of recording. Unlike
early naval literary sources discussing knots, there are very few fisherman
seamanship manuals which do so [23], [32]. Fishermen's Knots are, however,
specialised tools of an ancient trade. Even though prehistoric finds are biased
due to chemical preservation, the oldest of knotted archaeological artifacts are
related to fishing [15]. Another aspect in which fishermen differ from sailors
is their ship-life work patterns. To fishermen boats are just things which take
them out to the fishing ground. The real work is the fishing. Hence the