Captain Richard: Baggywrinkle and the Single Bowline on a Bight

Captain 'Richard' is a large man in his late sixties, who just lost nearly 200 pounds and had another 100 or so to go. He wore big shorts and a small knot around his neck, and he keeps with him his Master's license, eager, in spite of his quarterdeck manner, to introduce himself. He has no doubt of who he is. He worked commercial ships for 40 years, managed a state ferry system , and was the former Captain of the President Truman, built as part of the permanent strategic shipping fleet of the U.S. Merchant Marine. His actual Master's license reads "tonnage: unlimited." (His own tonnage was limited through consistent exercise. )

We started chatting while gazing at the wounded stem of the now dismasted Wawona, one of the last of the great bald-headed schooners that worked the Alaska cod trade, and sister to the recently restored C.A. Thayer in San Francisco. (The Wawona is under presently under attack by pirates, I mean the City parks division, who want her moved or broken up, to, um, make way for the new maritime historical park with the Center for Wooden Boats. Really. )

Captain Richard was clearly no man to be trifled with - one of those guys who could spot the wrong lines and knots used for the spring lines at the dock, cheerful explained the purpose and history of camber and sheer in cargo ships (the lack of which in modern container vessels, with their slab sides, causes serious trouble in unloading) and predicted with absolute accuracy the slight trouble another large historical schooner was going to get into while docking in front of us - down to the fender one of the deckhands was apparently going to forget to drop on the starboard side, all to the sound of an 80 year old ship's paint scraping on the dock. He was well aware - by experience - of the growing ferocity of Pacific storms induced by climate change, and noted that a full-fledged Pacific typhoon is up to ten times the area of an Atlantic Hurricane. He had also personally fought off pirates in the Malacca Straits in the eighties, noting that now it was much worse. His description of the attack was- evocative, enough that I feel compelled not to relate it here. He knew what baggywrinkle is and knows where to use it.

But all this was simply to explain the knot he carried on a piece of small stuff around his neck. This is a particular type of bowline knot, simple but rare enough that it doesn't often make it into the books. He showed how to this make this to me with some care - it's an excellent, useful version of the bowline that distributes it's stress more evenly; and I am very grateful for this. This knot (which I eventually found here as well) and the way it was taught to me, was an ancient direct connection to the history of the sea.

It contrasted to the comment of a retired doctor in his eighties who noted sadly that this is the first generation of seniors whose long knowledge is of little use to the next generation; it is the sense of irrelevance and alienation that will break you. But Captain Richard found a way: walk right up to strangers, hand them his Master's license and a piece of living, working knowledge, which he wears worn around his neck.