Blood knot. Travel Tips

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Blood knot. Travel Tips

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From simple knot "bloody knot" differs in that its running end, being introduced into the loop, is once again wrapped around the root of the cable. This almost doubles the size of the node.

The ancient inhabitants of Peru - the Incas - used similar knots with a different number of hoses in the knot letter they invented. By tying knots on ropes of a certain color and with the number of hoses inside each knot from one to nine, they kept count up to a five-figure number.

There are two ways to knit such knots. If the number of hoses does not exceed three, they are made by the running end of the cable inside the loop (Fig. 2, a), and if it is more, then the hoses are made around the root of the cable and the running end is passed inside (Fig. 2, b).

Rice. 2. "Bloody" knot: a - the first knitting method; b - the second way of knitting

From the distant times of the sailing fleet, such multiple simple knots were called "bloody" by sailors from different countries. In the register of punishments for sailors of the military fleets of the past, there is a beating, forgotten today, with molts and whips, which were called "cats". They were a whip woven from a hemp cable, which had from seven to thirteen braids, but more often - nine. Each of the pigtails ended in a knot, on which there were from two to nine hoses. "Cats" were divided into simple and thieves. The latter were more difficult. They were flogged for theft.

When punished with a "cat", the offending sailor was tied by the hands to a lattice hatch, which was placed vertically on the quarterdeck, or to the barrel of a cannon. As a rule, at the same time, the entire crew of the ship was lined up along both sides, and the boatswain (or his assistant), to the beat of a drum, struck blows with a “cat” on the bare back of the punished. The number of hits was in the dozens. Depending on the offense, the sailor could receive from one to twelve dozen as a punishment. Usually, after the third blow, blood appeared on the offender's back, as the knots, tightly tightened at the ends of the "cat" pigtails, cut through the skin (hence the name of the knot). After the first dozen blows, the bloody pigtails of the "cat" stuck together into one bundle and the blows became unbearable, the sailors lost consciousness and died in a state of shock. In order not to lose well-trained sailors in this way in peacetime, the British Admiralty in the middle of the XNUMXth century issued a sanctimonious order: after the first dozen blows, the boatswain's assistant was obliged to separate the pigtails of the "cat" stuck together with blood. This procedure was called "combing the cat." It was repeated after every dozen strokes. But even the most hardy sailors could not withstand six dozen blows, lost consciousness from pain and died.

In modern English, the idiomatic expression "To scratch the cat" has been preserved, which, recalling the barbaric punishment on ships, now has the meaning "to alleviate suffering."

Nowadays, the "bloody" knot has lost its purpose and finds another use both in everyday life and in various professions, for example, in tailoring and bookbinding to thicken the end of the thread.

Author: Skryagin L.N.

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