Among seamen, the landsman's all-inclusive term ''KNOT'' must give way to its more specific
and to the terms "BENDS" and "HITCHES." Seamen must know which knot, bend, or hitch will serve best in a particular circumstance. A good knot must hold fast without slipping. A knot in general should be easy to tie and untie.
A bowline is a good knot-one of the best-but is worthless for mooring to a spar. You can't use a clove hitch on a boatswain's chair.
In the small group of knots I describe you will find every knot you need around the decks, together with an idea of the uses.
BENDING TWO LINES TOGETHER
According to a seaman's use of the term, in a knot the line usually is bent to itself. The knot forms an eye or knob or secures a cord or line around an object, such as a package.
A bend is used to join two lines together. The square knot, also called the reef knot, is the best-known knot for bending two lines together.
A landsman trying to tie a square knot comes out with a granny, so called because it is the kind of slippery hitch dear old grandma would tie. For a square knot, both parts of the line must be under the same bight. If one is up and the other down, you have a granny knot, which is of no use to any seaman. A square knot is a good knot, and cannot slip. It can jam on a strain, so it can be very to untie.
The proper procedure for tying a square knot: Take the end in your right hand, say to yourself: "over-under," and pass it over and under the part in your left hand. With your right hand take the end that was in your left, say to yourself this time: "under-over," and pass it under and over the part in your left hand.
A becket bend, considered as good a knot as the square knot, is much easier to untie after a strain. It is good for bending together two lines of different sizes. A double becket bend is always used to bend the gantline (riding up and down line) onto a boastswain's chair. A single carrick bend has no advantage over a square knot or becket bend, and jams hard on even a light strain. A double carrick bend, with ends seized down, comes apart after the heaviest kind of strain, for the simple reason that it never draws up. Towing hawsers are bent together with a double carrick. Don't forget: If the ends aren't seized down, the knot draws up and jams.
Two bowlines, tied is a method of quickly bending two lines together by tying bowlines around each. The sharp turns of the lines, where they cross one another causes the bowlines to part much sooner than if bent with a square knot or becket bend.
KNOTS TO FORM A LOOP OR EYE
The bowline is the standby for putting a loop in the end of a line. It neither slips nor jams, but unties easily. A bowline is the best knot to use for bending a heaving line or messenger to the eye of a hawser, because it's quick to tie and easy to get off.
A bowline on a bight gives two loops instead of one, neither of which slips. It is used to hoist a man, chair-seat fashion, out of a lifeboat or hold. A French bowline has the same purpose as a bowline on a bight. It gives you two loops that can be adjusted to fit. Adjust one of the loops under a man's hips, the other under his armpits, and draw tight with the knot at his chest. Even an unconscious man can ride up safely in a properly secured French bowline, if you take care not to allow the part under the man's arms to catch on any objects.
A running bowline is merely a slipknot or a lasso. A knowledge of this knot is good to know, for you might have to throw a noose around a bollard on the dock sometime. Just tie a small bowline around your line's standing part, slack enough to run freely.
BENDING TO A RING OR SPAR
In securing a line to a hook, ring, or spar, you can employ the method known as hitches.
Hitches A hitch differs from a knot in that it ordinarily is tied to a ring, around a spar or stanchion, or around another line. In other words, it is not tied back on itself to form an eye or to bend two lines together.
The rolling hitch is one of the most useful and most important hitches on deck. Use it for passing a stopper on a boat fall or mooring line when shifting the fall or line from winch or capstan to cleat or bitts. It also may be used to secure a taut line back on itself. If tied properly, it holds as long as there is a strain on the hitch.
When tying, take a turn around the line with the stopper and pull taut, then take another turn. This turn must cross over the first and pass between the first turn and the stopper. The rolling hitch itself is now complete, but it must be stopped off in one of several ways. You may take two or more turns with the lay of the line and then marry the stopper to the line by hand or seize the stopper to the line with marline. Another method is to tie a half hitch directly above the rolling hitch. A third method is to tie a half hitch about 1 foot above the rolling hitch, then take a couple of turns against the lay, and marry or seize the stopper to the line.
The best all-round knot for bending to a ring, spar, or anything else that's round or nearly round, is a clove hitch. This is such a fine knot that the oldtime seamen used to call a man who was worth his salt "all in a clove hitch." A clove hitch won't jam and can never pull out.
A slack clove hitch, as on a boat painter, might work itself out. For that reason, it's a good idea to put a half hitch in the end. A half hitch, by the way, never becomes a whole hitch. Put another one on, and all you have is two half hitches.
The slight defect a clove hitch might have is that it can slide along a slippery spar when the strain is along the spar. The knot that can't slide this way is the stopper hitch. This knot is especially useful for bending a boat painter to a larger line whose end is unavailable. It jams tight on a hard strain. I have seen just about every knot pull or slip, it just depends on which knuckle head tied it.
