Sam and Gizmo are hanging out at the Crab Pot. It is off-season quiet on Quiaquia, they have the place to themselves.
There are many pieces of cordage on the table, light rope, small stuff, some with knots. Gizmo is examining a short length that has been tied into a loop by a somewhat complex but nicely symmetrical knot. Turning the knot slowly in his hands, he observes, "It has four ends exiting at right angles, all in the same plane, each held in place by two parallel turns. Very tidy. Nice bulk."
"Do you know what it is?" Sam asks.
Gizmo studies the knot some more. "It has elements of an anchor bend – it would minimize any loss of breaking strength. It has a shape like a manrope knot. Might be a decorative knot.... How do you make it?"
Sam picks up a length of line and demonstrates. "Two full turns around my fingers, then, with the other end, two full turns through the first turns – no crossing turns. Then work it tight – slow knot to tie."
"Well now, I don't know the name, but it's probably got one. 'Square knot' is taken, how 'bout 'cube knot'?"
"I wonder if it is 'Wellow's knot'," Sam says.
"A what?"
"I met Captain Wellington when he was working his brig, the Unicorn, on a 'Pirates' movie. We were all in costume. Between takes, Wellow was showing me some knot geometries that he was playing with. He was explaining one that he thought might be original when they shouted 'Standby!' and we all went to our first positions. I don't remember his knot at all, but this knot materialized like a lost memory as I tied it."
"There are thousands of known knots. My knot book has a hundred or so, I don't think it's there... I'll check."
Phil has joined them. "Some are just the same knot used differently," he comments.
"Like a clove hitch and a double half hitch," Sam offers.
"Or a bowline and a sheet bend," Gizmo adds. "Or a reef knot and a cow hitch."
"Huh?" Sam asks. "What's a cow hitch?"
"That's how you hang small stuff on lifelines. Here, hold a piece like a lifeline."
Sam stretches one of the small lines between his hands. Gizmo doubles a line, passes the bight behind and over the "lifeline", and pulls the standing parts through the bight.
"I use that all the time," Sam says, "didn't know it was a knot or had a name."
"Slack the 'lifeline', rearrange the cow hitch, and you've got interlocking bights in the form of a reef knot."
Sam does it. "I'll be darned."
They've lost Phil. He is staring at a colorfully dressed tourist woman who has paused on the beach to look at the yachts moored on the beautiful waters of It We Bay. "Back in a minute, guys," he says, and he's gone.
"What's that about a bowline and a sheet bend being the same?" Sam asks.
"Watch." Gizmo ties the ends of one line into a bowline, leaving the standing part as short as the working end, and then ties the ends of another line into a sheet bend. He tosses the two knots onto the table and asks, "Can you tell which is which?"
Sam examines them and decides that he cannot.
"The geometry of the knots is identical. Both that I've tied form a loop, so I guess they are bowlines. If you cut one of the loops, then it joins two lines, which makes it a bend."
"Son-of-a-gun."
"Do you call a knot by its use or by how you made it?" Giz wonders. "Probably depends."
"There's at least one more in the clove hitch/double half hitch family," says Sam, feeling it's his turn. "A buntline hitch is a double half hitch tied upside down."
"Or made outside in," Giz offers.
Phil returns, accompanied by Leslie, two days into her first Quiaquia vacation.
"I told Leslie I'd show her the ropes," Phil says with a wink.
"I don't know anything about knots," Leslie confesses.
"Sure you do!" Phil answers sliding a chair well back from the table, seating her in it, and kneeling at her feet. She is wearing sandals with laces over her foot and wrapped around her ankle, tied into a vertical bow in front. He raises her foot for all to see as she tucks her skirt between her legs. "What's this one called, Gizmo?'
"Slipped granny," Giz answers.
"Double slipped," Sam adds. He supposes that knot catalogs make that distinction.
"May I?" Phil asks without waiting and reties her sandal with a horizontal bow. "Ever tie it this way?" he asks.
"Uh, some shoes. But I always have to try a couple of times," a slight blush.
"Because you are used to tying the other bow," Phil reassures her. "What's this one called, Sam?"
"Square knot," Sam replies. "A reef knot, double slipped." It's kind of like two boats sailing in the same direction – you adjust the trim of your sails even if you aren't racing.
"And if it is tied without the bow, not slipped?" Phil gives Sam another one.
"Just a plain reef knot. Won't jam, can be tripped under tension. A granny will jam."
"Or slip," Giz cautions. "Depends."
"You're half-way to being a sailor already," Phil smiles up at Leslie. "What do we call this, guys?" Phil traces the path of a lace circling her ankle with his fingers, slowly.
A contemplative silence, then Gizmo ventures, "I guess it'd be a round turn, though it crawls up the spar, so to speak."
"Let's see if you guys know this one," Phil says, resting both hands on Leslie's foot and ankle. "Let's see if I remember how it goes," he adds, smoothing and adjusting the laces around her ankle as if preparing them for such a knot. Then he makes a loose overhand knot in one lace, passes the other lace through the loop, then around itself to form its own overhand, interlocking with the first overhand. He carefully works them into position.
"Well?'
"Beats me," Sam admits.
"Well now, a fisherman's knot joins two ends with overhand knots around the other end's standing part, behind each other," Gizmo says. "A water knot passes both ends opposite directions through the same overhand knot. This is something in between... or beside. I don't know."
"A true lover's knot," Phil declares. "They use it in jewelry."
"Wonder if it has a use aboard?" Gizmo's mind has been given a new seed.
"I suppose there is a slipped version," Sam jokes.
"One more I'd like to show you, Leslie," Phil says as he runs his hand lightly up her calf to her knee and back down again. "This knot has lots of uses. This is how I tied up the thieves that boarded me at midnight, after I took away their knives and subdued them."
Neither Sam nor Giz have heard this adventure but now doesn't seem like the time to ask.
Phil takes a piece of small stuff from the table. "This the longest you've got?" So he picks up a second line and joins them.
"Sheet bend," Gizmo observes.
Then Phil passes an end around Leslie's ankle, crosses that turn and makes another.
"Crossing turn and a half hitch," Sam says. "A clove hitch."
"Backed by an overhand stop knot," Giz notes as Phil continues. "One of my favorites – sets good."
Phil carefully snugs the clove hitch then, putting his leg against the table leg to keep it from moving, he passes the long end around the table leg, halfway back to her bound ankle, and makes another knot.
"Midshipman's knot," Sam says.
"Rolling hitch," Gizmo interprets.
"Or tent hitch," Phil finishes. "This knot adjusts in one direction and locks in the other." He demonstrates by sliding the knot towards her ankle, which pulls her leg straight and lifts her foot. Then he slides the knot back, lowering her foot, and begins untying her.
"Anyway guys, we just came in to say 'hi'. Leslie wants to see that cave at the far end of Princess Beach. So I'll catch you later." As Phil leaves, he scoops all of the small stuff from the table and stuffs it into his pocket.
Sam watches them walk down the beach and wonders, "What does he want with all the line?"
"Huh?" Gizmo's mind is on the knot that he has been holding, Sam's knot. "Wonder if Phil knows to use a double sheet bend if the lines are loose and can flog? ... Wonder if the bowline has a double sheet bend equivalent? ...Well now, it does, for slippery rope. "
"How 'bout just making sure the knot is set?" Sam comments.
"Point taken," Giz answers. "As for this," holding out Sam's knot, "whether you, Wellow, or Sinbad the Sailor invented it, the real invention is finding its uses."