Marlinspike. [mar-lin-spyk] noun: the tool utilized by a sailor to manipulate rope for splicing ropes and working out touch knots.

Marlinspike seamanship is a catch-phrase for a level of proficiency a sailor has achieved in knowing their knots, splices, and uses of various lines, traditionally on a sailing vessel.  By utilizing these techniques, skilled sailors are able to transcend the operational use of their lines, and generate beautiful knotwork that can be both functional and art.

With a strong sailing background, marlinspike seamanship was a craft in which I have dabbled in on and off for many years now.  While nowhere near the level of proficiency of experts in the craft like Des Pawson, I’ve crafted a variety of items like door mats/block mats, and smaller knick knack crafts.  As an art, I’ve found that this type of use of rope is in many ways similar to that of crochet: the marlinspike is akin to a crochet hook, and you only have one running piece of line while you’re creating the item.  Unlike crochet, however, many of these ropework patters are planned out from start to finish before you even start, as they are worked from the end of the rope, in a way more like weaving as the rope is threaded over and under and around itself.

As a craft which as been around in its’ traditional form for centuries, there are any number of resources available to the budding seaman, from the lore of weathered sailors on vessels in a marina, to countless websites available in the craft.  There are also a good number of well written books that are worth checking our or purchasing as well.  Two that I highly recommend are written by Harvey Garrett Smith: The Marlinspike Sailor and The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Spicing and Ropework.  In Sailor, Smith provides plenty of detailed, full-page diagrams for complicated knots, splices, and patterns, and easily outlines the movements of the sometimes plethora of lines that are required to turn a jumbled mass of hemp into a beautiful finished product.  In Arts, Smith weaves a tale of how practical elements of knotwork on a sailing vessel because the decorative elements we see today, interspersing the story with diagrams, tips, and patterns for making some of the items he refers to.

Not commonly thought of in the fiber arts community, marlinspike seamanship is an age-old tradition with many parallels in history to it’s more domestic peers of knit, crochet, and weaving.  Certainly a facet of crafting worth exploring for it’s own beauty.