Yes, the constrictor knot comes to mind, for example. I am surprised there isn't any discussion of the weakening of the line caused by the knot - in fact, the 1

Yes, the constrictor knot comes to mind, for example. I am surprised there isn't any discussion of the weakening of the line caused by the knot - in fact, the 10 knots requiring 1,000 times the force makes me wonder why that doesn't cause the line to fail (though I suppose the initial amount needed is very small). I am also a little nonplussed by their dismissal of sailors' knowledge as mere 'tradition', which seems like saying that the builders of Notre Dame didn't really understand their engineering, but were just part of a tradition of building...