Heaving line bend
The heaving line bend is a knot dubiously presented as supposedly bending a smaller line (a messenger line — of which a heaving line will be the first of possibly multiple, being light enough to be projected) to a larger line to be brought across some span. This particular knot gained its name and was put forwards to assume this role after a mistake in illustration. Hjalmar Ohrvall found the knot in a museum on a Japanese shamisen (a banjo-like, 3-stringed instrument); in his 1916, enlarged edition of Om Knutar, his daughter mis-drew the knot with a crossing at the top of the hitched-to bight of the larger material. Presumably, Ashley et al. saw only the mistaken image and assumed the function of the knot. Whether it has ever seen actual nautical use is unconfirmed — the knot is of a rather insecure/instable nature for pulling a line through heavy seas. It is knot number 1463 in The Ashley Book of Knots,[1] and appeared in the 1916 Swedish knot manual Om Knutar.[2]
| Heaving line bend | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Names | Heaving line bend, messenger-line bend |
| Category | Bend |
| Related | Sheet bend, Racking bend |
| Typical use | To attach a lightweight line to a heavier line |
| ABoK | #1463 |
See also
- List of knots – Wikipedia list article
- List of bend knots
References
- Ashley, Clifford W. (1944). The Ashley Book of Knots. Doubleday.
- Budworth, Geoffrey (2000). The complete book of sailing knots : stoppers, bindings and shortenings, single, double and triple loops, bends, hitches, other useful knots. New York, NY: Lyons Press. p. 92. ISBN 1585740675. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
