2006, May to
September.
Some doubts are floating
about over the actual use of ‘le
nœud de capelage’ aka the Jury
Rig Mast knot as
this knot is construed in some quarters as ‘only of
ornamental value’.
My ‘what I think I know’ -I do not dare to write ‘knowledge’ - is contrary to that opinion.
In the past I have encountered
"oral" traces of the actual use of this sort of knot in very
small
fishing embarkations to erect and
steady a short mast.
It seems that this "type of
knots" (there are some variations) were/are used indeed in
small
embarkations to set the mast at each "sortie en mer", at each going out
to sea for fishing.
To wit : on a
‘doris’/dory the mast can be set up or put down by a
man alone, even in
high sea.
( Beware: put mast up only when
doris is
'loaded'
and not
before : pulling on the oars it is
when the doris is empty)
The ease of setting or lowering
the small mast seems to have made that sortof knot viable
for a daily use and
not only
for "emergency repair", but no writing or photography, not
even
an
old postcard, of attested historical value ever came my way.
(added 2006
September 12th :
I have found some indirect corroboration in Le Musée de
la
Pêche in Concarneau, I will make a special feature about
that.
This is the way they do this knot)
In my mind map
uncritical, as
in unexamined, outright, a priori rejection is as bad as
uncritical
acceptance.
Discarding 'oral '
would put
us back to the time of the first incipient tribe as for most of
humanity
existence it has only be "oral ". Even today in the
world as a whole that is certainly
the
prevalent way, in term of number of people concerned at least
if not in term
of ‘volume’
of information transmitted.
I am ready to believe that the
"risk" of being taken for a ride is as high in written (be it ink
or
electrons) transmission, as it is in " oral ".
Not only do I believe
that but I
even go as far as to think
it though I do not know
it ;-)
One of those ‘what I know
but cannot prove’ sort of things.
Saying that oral lore
is
a useless collection of ‘contes de bonne femmes’ /
old women tales
seems to me a sterile stand.
After all much the
same could
be levied at ABoK
which many a time is only "registering"
oral lore
either directly handed down or having been previously printed but still
coming
essentially from oral transmission and still
‘tainted’ by this original sin.
Original sin being
a fallacy, that is faulty thinking, even if a commodity.
GRAVES in Greek
Myths extensively shown that culturally established
myths always
possess
deep roots plunging in objective reality.
A very recent example
about
the wisdom of not discarding ‘les contes de bonne
femmes’
without a thorough investigation :
There is at the moment a new
effort made by biologists to reappraise what they have
previously
discarded
as fairy tales coming from stupidly ignorant reporters.
They are discovering that they
were wrong to have relegated it in the junk realm and are
finding
"realities" that could very well be the roots of those fairy tales
: griffon/gryphon that
they now recognized as
strikingly similar
to a
protoceratops skeleton ; the Cyclops that
could be inspired by
the
skull of a prehistoric elephant, ...
Of course myth
creation and
maintenance rest on many other elements than a simple "germ
for the
idea".
For the seed to germinate and grow to full height the soil must
be right and the care given
to it too.
I am not losing from
sight
that there seems to exist a sad endemic tendency in the
knotting
literature to be a bit quick and dirty about reference, bibliography
and chaining of the
historical evidence. All that with much confusion
or not
enough precaution to differentiate
collecting data, from analyzing it and
interpreting it.
Abrupt assertion being 'in
lieu' of proof is not a rarity, not to speak of much of
one's
inspiration having been 'lifted' in another author's book without
really acknowledging the
fact.
So that in the end what could
be erroneously thought of as ‘multiple’ sources
corroborating each other resolve into one unique source
reproduced many
time.
The opposition
between the 2
interpretations : ornamental only versus utilitarian (also)
led
me to
try and
investigate the matter.
An aside : I am not sure
that ornamental
and utilitarian are not in fact intersecting sets rather
than separate
sets
LITTERATURE
My finding in books I
have
personally had in hand ('references' as differentiated from
'bibliography') :
Marc P.
BERTHIER L’art
Des Nœuds published in la
collection VOILES
GALLIMARD Le savoir marin (
Sails Gallimard, Mariner knowledge ) shows
only an
illustration
with these accompanying words
:
" Il est tout
à
fait utile lors d’un démâtage . (je
n’irai pas jusqu’à dire que
c’est pour le
plaisir de le faire qu’Eric TABARLY a
laissé un mât dans l’Océan
Atlantique et un
dans l’Océan Pacifique, mais en
tout cas, lui sait le faire) "
"It is most useful
when having
lost a mast. (I will not go as far as saying that it is just
for the
pleasure of making it that Eric TABARLY left a mast in the Atlantic
Ocean and
one in the Pacific Ocean, but in any case, he knows how to do
it.)
The famous Ecole de
voile des
Glénans in Brittany in Le
Cours Des
Glénans
( 1990 printing ) neither describe nor
depict it.
In this school they teach you not to go into harm way and
lose a mast and anyway
they have the guardian angels of the SNSM (Société Nationale de
Sauvetage en
Mer / Sea
Rescue National Society : volunteers mariners of
enormous courage)
One publication Guide
des Nœuds et du Matelotage by Le Chasse
Marée
(Douarnenez – Brittany) gives
the knot as of
actual use, but this is done a bit ex abrupto,
without
reference.
Le Chasse Marée was
in the past reputed for the quality of its research, though it
seems
that in some quarters opinion has changed about the present days
publication.
Some of their publications are
the sole historical remnants of what was our fishing
activities
and
methods in the 19th and early 20th.
Publications in
English
language show this sort of knot but without precise and
detailed
attestation of its actual use
R.C
ANDERSON The
rigging of ships in the day of the spritsailtopmast,
1600-1720
( IMO it is the ABoK on rigging , a mine for model ship builders -
Danish-Dutch-English-
French are addressed - so who want a "repair" in a
perfect model, unless making a diorama
of a distressed ship.)
Percy
BLANFORD in Practical
Knots And Ropework : 3 full pages for the topic ( 1
of t
ext, 2 of drawings)...temporary mast 3 or 4 loops to which
stays or
supporting ropes can
be attached...the greater the load, the greater
will be the grip on the mast... some other knots
of similar
formation
are primarily ornamental and not as effective for practical
application.....
This seems to be clearly in
favour of actual utilitarian use, and even personal experience
to
be
able to write " …not as effective…. "
G. BIDDLECOMBE though writing on The Art of rigging has nothing do express.
W. BRADY The Kedge-Anchor note 315 give the details for : " To rig a jury-mast"
"Take a spare spar,
the
largest on board, a main-topmast for instance, and launch the
head
over the
night-head, the heel resting against the stump of the old mast
; put on
the cross-trees
and bolsters, fit the rigging and stays from
hawsers, and hooks a couple of
tackles
from the jury-mast head
- which
take to the sides and haul taut ; hook another
which take well
aft;
lash the heel of the stump to prevent slipping, and
raise the
mast
with
the after purchase, tending the stays and
pendant-tackles
; when up,
reeve the lanyards,
set up the rigging and stays.
Cleet and
lash
the
heel securely. Ship the cap, send up
a top-gallant-mast for
a topmast, fit a topsail yard for a lower yard,
and a
topgallant
yard
for a
topsail yard, and so on.
Sound really
‘practical’
R.H DANA jr like NARES have not broached the subject.
Cyrus L DAY
just give
"recipe"
on the mast head knot or jury knot and mention the
shamrock knot
or Japanese masthead knot with this comment : ' it is
primarily a decorative
knot';
There is no "qualifier" given
to the Jury knot.
Note :
d_l* ( aka Dan_Lehman
) with
which I was having a running a discussion about this knot
and its
use(s), he was playing with ease and talent the part of the skeptic
doubter, added :
[begin quote]
To be
specific,
you must mean in _AofK&S_; in a small
pamphlet _K&S_ (1953), p.30,
Day says (admits) "Whether [it] has actually been used... , I cannot
say." !! His last(?) book,
_Quipus & Witches' Knots_ (1967),
seems to be a good one for knots history, and maybe
has the last
reflections of a student of knotting who reflected pretty well. (I
don't have this
book.)
[end quote]
Hervey
Garrett SMITH
, in The
Art Of The Sailor wrote about a jury rig, but another
sort.
There is nothing in The
Marlinespike sailor.
(Added Sept 2006
)
Chas L. SPENCER, Knots,
Splices and Fancy Work, 3 full pages ( 147 to 150)
for
Jury Knot Mast " The basis of these is the Jury Knot. There
are a number of
variants…. ".
He presented them with 4 and 5
loops to make mats.
p 165 : a 3 loops Jury knots "
The Jury knot is useful when a jury mast is to be rigged, as
the loops
form a means of attaching the necessary support to the mast. The center
k
( Fig 331) is slipped over the masthead and the weight
brought on the
stays tighten it and holds
it in position on the mast…
"
The wording used leaves no
doubt about actual use at sea.
He clearly separated the
ornamental from the utilitarian.
Could it be the use of this
knot as a pattern for a mat that led to the ‘ it is only an
ornamental
knot’ stand ?
B. TOSS does not show it in The Rigging Handbook
VERRILL ,
and
VERRILL-McCANN (
p 136-137) gave 2 TYPES for the Jury Mast
Knot, one for topmast -2 bigths- and one for lower mast -3
bights-.
(with a fishy drawing) say " the JMK though they may
have had
actual
use
may be classed as fancy work" .
Very, very uncertain on both
count they felt IMO and expressed more opinion that fact.
The sentence certainly sound a
bit Manuel Du Gabier - like ( plagiarism ? coincidence
? corroboration ?) :
"The idea in them is that when
one is rigging a jury mast with a hawser one does not wish
to cut, the
mast goes through the centre of the knot, the two side bights form back
stays ( in French it is hauban not back stays as
hauban= shroud
& back stay = pataras in French not at all
the same
'part'
In the quite official
(published in 1875 by Minister orders) Manuel Du Gabier
there is no
doubt that this official French Navy Manual
put it as
something that it was compulsory to
have mastered to get a " gabier"
brevet.
Le Manuel Du Gabier
gives this sort of knot among many others !
p
13, Fig 25 Noeud de
capelage with this use :
" Le noeud de
capelage
s'emploie pour soutenir un mâtereau en haubans et en
étais,
avec une aussière ou un faux-bras que l'on
ne veut pas couper. Les deux bouts
forment l'étais ; les
deux doubles, les haubans.
Si l'aussière n'avait pas une longueur suffisante on ferait
le noeud de manièreque
bouts fussent assez long former
étais et l'on crocherait palans ou caliornes dans
deux
doubles pour faire les haubans
This is 19th maritime
French
and not easy to translate without losing its 'flavour'.
I am going to try with the
help of my 2 specialized dictionaries one 18th ,one 20th revised
in the
21st
"The 'rigging knot'
is used to
support a small mast with shrouds and stays, using a hawser
or
preventer stay (or preventer brace or a false-arm ) which one does not
want to cut.
The two ends form the stays;
the loops (the two double), the shrouds.
Should the hawser not have a
sufficient length, the knot would be made so that the ends are
long
enough to form the stays, and two pendant tackles (or caliornes) would
be 'hooked' in
the two double, to make the shrouds"
Having reached this point I decided to investigate further if not deeper.
I then set to interrogate
by postal
mail (2006, May 16th) stating what I had up to this point
and giving
them a drawing, le Service Historique de la Marine (SHM = French
National
Marine Historical Services ), plus some other bodies that I thought
could be of help.
- Marine Nationale :
CHERBOURG
( Normandy) / BREST (Brittany) / ROCHEFORT
(Atlantic coast) / TOULON (
Mediterranean)
- Le Chasse-Marée ( litteraly The Tide-Chaser ) in Douarnenez (Brittany)
- Le Musée Maritime de Douarnenez ( Douarnenez Maritime Museum)
- Le Musée de la Marine à Paris
- La Société Française de l’Histoire de la Marine / Marine History French Society
SHM Cherbourg, SHM Brest, SHM Toulon, were polite enough to answer.
SHM Cherbourg ( Normandy ) answer :
"
To answer
to your
letter in
ref I am pleased to inform you that the book by Jaffrin, G
;
Goubert, Y ;
Philippe, M , "
Guide
Des Noeuds Et Du Matelotage ",
Le
Chasse-Marée /
Armen 2002, p48, archived in my service under N°
85314, give the
noeud de capelage
double and triple and confirm that they are used to repair mast
after
sustaining damage.
Nevertheless my
service is not
able to give you the details about which of the noeuds de
capelage are
used and which ship has used them..... "
SHM Brest ( Brittany ) answer:
"
By mail
received on
2006,
May 17th, you asked me about 2 different types of knots.
Regretfully I must
inform you
that Le Service Historique de la Défense-
Département
Marine ( Defence Historical Service - Navy
depart ) in Brest does not hold documents
that will permit you to
further your research.
I advise that you
make contact
with Les Editions du Chasse-Marée ( Abri du Marin.
BP 159 ,
29171 Douarnenez Cedex) that may detained information of interest to
you......"
SHM Toulon ( South of
France ) in
the 3 or 4 days after getting my letter :
Responded with the most silly
military answer possible : they sent me the
"réglement
intérieur" the Internal Regulations of
the Service saying they are not there only to keep
the archives in good
order and open the
library !
SHM Rochefort ( middle of Atlantic coast) have not come back.
I never got an answer from the Marine History French Society.
Same silent treatment from Le Musée de la Marine in Paris.
Douarnenez Museum or
le
Chasse-Marée silence were less of a surprise.
Museum, if you put apart the
very interesting harbour museum with ships afloat is a
small affair and
not up to the high quality standard set by Le Musée de la
Pêche de
Concarneau and it was undergoing cosmetics works in
April 2006.
Le Chasse marée is
no longer what it was in the past.
It has been in financial dire
straits since a number of years (in spite of a quite costly
publication they were unable to cover the cost or researching and
publishing and have
been "bought" by a professional publisher :
Glénat.
Still Le Chasse
Marée was in the past reputed for being thorough in its
research when
doing a feature.
Some of their publications are
the sole historical remnants of what was our fishing
activities and
methods in the
19th and early 20nth.
Usually historians
and
archivists - even military ones follow the same training courses
-
are
"fussy" persons about sources in general so if SHM keep this
publication it must be
after "evaluation" of its value. Or so I hope!
I had entertained
hopes that a
ship log would provide details of repairs done after
sustaining damage
in a long exploratory navigation.
The contacts with Service
Historique de la Marine did not bring proof of actual use
and did not
further my knowledge any.
Still it must be kept in mind that : absence of proof is not proof of absence. !
I then set to contact
a person
knowledgeable in maritime matters : John Harland
(see his books and his
posts on the Net )
John Harland was very swift in
answering and quite friendly :
[begin quote]....
This is an interesting question, and one might imagine examples
exist
in 18th-19th Century logbooks. However,
supposing there are for
instances which
refer to this sort of circumstance, I fear they
probably would confine themselves to a
broad statement like " Morning:
Rigged jury fore topmast". The only place I can
imagine
that one might
find confirmation that the Jury Rig Mast Knot, was actually
used for
this purpose, would be in the personal journal of a boatswain, or
similar
person who was interested in the technical details. The type of
oral reference to
which you refer is also a possible source.
[end quote]
John made a reference to Le Chasse
Marée
too and
said he
would put the question
to Marine History Information Exchange Group
MARHST-L@post-queensu.ca ,
he mentionned Des Pawson
and
his
museum.
John was kind enough
to go to
the trouble to send me a scan of a page from ABoK
saying I had not
mentioned
this source.
It was so evident’ a thing to do that I forgot quoting ABoK.
Which remind me that I
still
have to write about the ABoK
Page 412 / #2563 :
" ……The
first to be shown is the sailor’s MASTHEAD or JURY MAST KNOT,
which is employed practically as a temporary strap to which stays are
led, when
erecting a jury mast or derrick.
Three hitches are
made…. "
Sound quite affirmative about actual use too.
Formulation used
leaves
absolutely no doubt about the " practical " and actual and
utilitarian
( vs ornamental ) use of this knot.
July 1st it was when
I asked
FCB ( Frank Charles
Brown) aka Bowline (do not miss
his quite
astonishing knotted menagerie, a booklet to own if only for curiosity -
Frank
is putting the final touches to his second volume)
Frank came with this first
response :
[begin quote]
…Only
found one
book in my collection with illustration that shows knot
actually being
located on a mast/spar --- Eric Fry "Knots and Ropework".
I have not
read anything about the actual use in limited number of books relating
to sea
stories---
I did spend an
interesting
half hour with a Russian
Bosun comparing methods of tying
Bowline and
he was demonstrating Jury knot to ship visitors-- so assume the knot
is/was
taught in that navy. [end
quote]
which he completed some days later with
[begin quote] Posed
the question re Jury
Mast a to two colleagues.Thursday is MQ day,
gathering of old boat
people on old boat. Neil… is also naval historian,
and told
of the
knot being used to load cannon balls.
Make the construction
of
suitable size, sit the ball in the middle and pass hauling line
through
loops.
Maybe tail could act
as control guy from below?? This would make
sense why knot
could be part of seamen's standard stock of
knots.
Possible use for jury
mast could be just an bonus use. C'est
logique?
[end
quote]
My note : MQ is May
Queen, (picture
is FCB's) a wonderful " old sails " lady
on the
Tasmanian waters.
This reference to
cannon ball
intrigued me to no end, with a sense of déjà vu /
" previously seen " till I returned from Brittany last 2006 Sept 9th
and foraged
in my library and behold : Chas
L. SPENCER : Knots,
Splices And Fancy Work
(1944 reprint of his 1934 book) :
see
page 167 : a sling
for round shot.
Wished then that I had remembered it when I made my own experiment.
On the very beginning
of last
August I tried (with a 'not so tiny" granite boulder ,
one of several
I brought back from Brittany years ago, this one being the
smallest
of
the lot with weight 19.2 kg - a bit over 42 pounds-) using le noeud de
capelage
( jury rig ) with this make
believe cannon ball.
It worked.
No problem with slippage
inside the knot itself.
I gave it some half dozen
sharp up and down jerky moves.
It did not fall but I would
not recommend it to put on board a full ammunition count
for a first
line vessel.
Very time consuming -have to
'arrange' it carefully- plus the pendulum motion -
that
I did not dare to try - that would have been inevitable going from
the quay to the
deck would have been really a risky endeavour.
I do not see naval minds going
for that sort of thing in a run of the mill manner.
Not practical enough for that
but I would sure have love to think of it when I got
some of my
boulders up a steep slope in my arms like a baby.
I wonder if the
British
Admiralty, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish,Spanish,
Naval Forces
have "traces" of such knots in their documents.
Option is still open, please
feel free to contribute.
May be some
professional
rigger or some naval/maritime historian has factual
documentation about
the topic.
Or some Naval Museum
in the
USA ? ( I am told -d_l* ?- that
Brion Toss does
not teach this knot in his class )
I seem to have exhausted all my potential lode bearing deposits.
May be on the
Terre-Neuve /
Newfoundland side they have some "traces" of the
'us et coutumes des
marins Bretons' ( Breton sailors's usages and customs) who
was fishing
there in small traditional small dories (up to 20 dories taken after
the
American piled up on board of a morutier terre-neuvas / cod-fishing
or banker,
which was 'hell on the sea' by any accounts ) till before
WWII but I have no idea
who to contact. (Bretons fished on the banks
of Terre-Neuve and off Island but
while they were made welcome on
Terre-Neuve they were never accepted by
the Islander and never
were granted the authorization to make port there. So much
for the
famous "solidarity of the men of the Sea", I wonder if they maintained
this
interdiction in case of disrepair or illness. I would not be
really surprised!)
May be some
"ethnology" museum
have trace of similar knotting used in small
embarkations here and
there in the big outer world ?
Though knots and cordages are
not really the prime interest in the collecting,
analysing and
interpretation of artefacts.
Another possibility is
testing
the "plausibility" of it by erecting (ground) a post a
3 or 4 metres
long ,10 or 12 centimetres of diameter (a young pine) playing
the
mast
part. Then
putting a sheet on it to be the sail and see if it hold (no one
being
in the way of an accident waiting to happen of course )
CONCLUSION :
Summing up I would say that in favour of actual use of this sort of knot we have :
- Persistent oral lore
has it
that in time passed they used some such knots but this
is all "empty
words" for the unconvinced and there is no hard documentation if
one
does want to rely on 'oral transmission' though it is not really worse
than. the
'written' form.
- Marc
P.
BERTHIER L’art
Des Nœuds published in la collection
VOILES
GALLIMARD Le savoir marin ( Sails Gallimard, Mariner knowledge
)
writing about a great sailor of immense seamanship Eric TABARLY having
used
it twice in modern days in competition sailing after ‘un
démâtage’ / breaking its mast .
- Guide
des
Nœuds et du Matelotage by Le Chasse
Marée, of some reputation ,
repeatedly quoted
by Service
Historique de la Marine ( France)
- Ashley Book Of Knots
- Percy BLANFORD in Practical Knots And Ropework
- W. BRADY The Kedge-Anchor
- Chas
L.
SPENCER, Knots,
Splices and Fancy Work, who took great care to
separate
ornamental ( mats ) from utilitarian (mast)
Last but not least The
OFFICIAL Manuel
du Gabier published in1875 by Order
of the Minister to
help
ordinary seamen to become 'gabier'' or rather 'matelot-gabier
breveté' as is the exact appellation (Topman with 'a
brevet' for having passed with
success a practical and formal exam
given by Officers) : I have no doubt whatsoever
that this official French Navy Manual put it as something that it was
compulsory to
have mastered to get a " gabier" brevet, and it was
certainly not a place to get an
‘ornamental’ knot.
No doubt in my mind :
Le noeud de capelage is a
practical tool indeed, which also
has ‘aesthetics’
appeal for some.
Could it be that the
use of
this sort of knot to do mats plus the ‘looks sort of
alike’
of shamrock knot or Japanese masthead knot that
established the legend of the
ornamental use only ?
I would like to
have a Japanese Igkt member investigate the Mast knot of his
country.
May be contact the embassy of japan in paris
via
l’attaché culturel about that.
Who know maybe I
will get a
useful answer.
Who knows?
I have NEVER, NEVER got an answer from not even one of the
more than
a
dozen Japanese I have contacted (using English and French) in repeated
fashion.
So much for the famed Japanese politeness. Another legend I
suppose.
Not even an answer when i wanted to buy a Knot for a shamisen!
So I do not hold my breath over this other Japanese knot!
