The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing and Ropework

by Hervey Garrett Smith

Over 150 years ago, the skills needed to operate a merchant sailing vessel were many and varied. While not nearly as much in demand today as they were in the days of the Yankee clippers, these skills nevertheless remain important and necessary to today's yachtsmen and owners of smaller pleasure boats.
In this excellent handbook on basic shipboard skills, marine expert Hervey Garrett Smith offers boating and yachting enthusiasts a complete course in rigging, working, and maintaining a ship. More than 100 illustrations help the reader grasp the fundamentals and fine points of handling a ship while the author describes in detail a sailor's tools, basic knots, and useful hitches as well as the arts of splicing, handsewing, and canvas work.
Other topics equally important to safe, economical, and efficient boat maintenance and management include belaying, coiling, and stowing; towing procedures; how to make a chafing gear; and much more. Easy-to-follow instructions for fashioning decorative knots, ornamental coverings, and nettings, and even how to make a proper bucket round out this engaging and informative guide.
Packed with useful "hands-on" information conveyed in a chatty, humorous style, The Arts of the Sailor is the perfect book to keep aboard ship for study and for ready reference when the need arises. It also makes delightful reading for armchair sailors and the legions of landlubbers with an interest in the sea.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Crafts, Art, Nautical

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1953

Reviews

[B. Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this thinking, from both the title and the cover, that this was an encyclopedia on knots and how to make them. It's not. It's an overview of yachts and what you should have on them, and when and where knots are used. Now, I did get some interesting ideas while looking at the few illustrations, and learning the names of the knots, but overall this was not what I wanted in a book.

This is not a book for people who don't know yachts. By the time we got to baggy-wrinkle, I thought someone was pulling my leg. But no, it's a real thing that reduces sail chafe. Yeah, I don't know what I just said either.

I guess I should've guessed after the first chapter went into length describing different types of ropes, but I kept pushing through. By the halfway point I was skimming.

[Wayne Geiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a sailor. I fancy myself good with ropes and knots. I expected this book to be all about knots and ropework (as the subtitle seems to foretell). It is much more than that and the author's (at times extremely opinionated) prose was both entertaining and educational.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on knots….. I use It as a learning tool and reference

[Devin Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid orientation and overview of necessary sailor skills as well as a good reference for various knot types and uses

[Sespe · Rating 5 out of 5]

read while working on neptun in mazatlan, lots of useful info and snappy sailor humor

[KennyO · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here are the essentials of working with line written for the small boat sailor. [N.B. "Rope" has a narrower definition; "line" is the broader term.] Smith was an opinionated character so if he included it in this book you may be certain that he considers it essential to sailing small boats, i.e. those below about five tons displacement. The illustrations are excellent but the text is occasionally preachy. Still it is my portable subset of The Ashley Book of Knots.