A snap solution to the sailors’ knife-fights
sir – Donald King (Letters, April 12) argues that banning the points on kitchen knives would reduce stabbings. It is a historical fact that when prudent captains of squarerigged sailing ships signed on their crews, they had the ship’s carpenter snap off the point of each sailor’s knife in a vice, to prevent serious injury in any fight during the voyage.
For splicing and ropework, sailors traditionally used the Green River knife, which was designed for trapping and needed a point to skin an animal.
The later cobblers’ knife was modelled on the sailors’ blade (minus point) as it was shorter and easier to use in confined spaces. Peter J Newton Chellaston, Derbyshire sir – Recently, about to board a cruise liner, I was reprimanded over the Tannoy for “concealing” within my luggage a “lethal weapon” in the shape of a small beer-bottle opener, comprising the usual bits and pieces as well as a knife blade, all no longer than two inches. At dinner that evening, however, I noticed my place at table was adorned with no fewer than three six-inch pointed and serrated knives, none of which I presume could possibly have been used for anything but eating.
Lethal knives were the order of the day at meals during the voyage, far more appropriate for ill deeds than a bottle opener – which, I may add, was confiscated at the time and not returned at “end of term”. Maurice Palfrey Barnstaple, Devon sir – If knives are produced without points, how am I going to undo screws? Richard Robathan Shrewton, Wiltshire