sheepshank

[Ian McColgin]

The sheepshank has not use in animal husbandry. It may be thought to bear a rather fanciful resemblence to the shank cut of meat from a sheep. It is surely a simple coincidence that to the older scots "sheepshank" meant something of little or no importance.

I am happy to claim credit for using the sheepshank daily during the summer of 1966 to keep some permanent dock lines always secure at the piling and at the dock from hanging in the polluted water when we took our charter parties out to annoy the blues. So far as I know, I'm alone in using the knot routinely.