Spring is in the air: it must be because another flaming knot book has arrived at my work station. The YM library is bulging with knot books. The roller-racking system groans as one wheels the shelves across the floor for access. There they are: scores of the damn things. Not a season passes but another knot book is published. Over the years the disembodied hands tying the reef knots, bowlines, and sheepshanks 1 and 2 have been adorned in different sleeves. But the knots remain the same.
Noah used a round turn and two half hitches to moor the Ark, Odysseus used rolling hitches to hold the sweeps in place, and Drake used a bowline on the bight to hang flat-earthers from the yard-arm.
Who wants another bloody knot book?