(Note that the orig. article is off by a decade --"40 years ago"--
for operations in the relevant 1926..29 (for Rosendahl) period.
40 years back from the 1976 article would be 1936 and thus close to the time mentioned at the beginning of the article: "The U.S. Navy's last rigid airship was dismantled in 1941".
?! The article is about Joe Collins & Rosendahl,
who assumed command of the Los Angeles 1926,
fifty years prior 1976 --typo, perhaps. (Let's note
that Rosendahl was a new commander to others;
how much he might've altered the training can be
cast into doubt; others had been doing the work
sans the supposed Rosendahl knot for years.)
One must ask :: why is there not a single peep of this
knot besides the re-printed article?
...
Why did this keenly interested in knots and esp. THIS knot
Joe Collins not have something to say about the USNavy's
use or losing of the knot --surely he'd have contacts there,
and wonder at that. (And why didn't he return to other
duties/ and teach this knot he found so great?!)
Collins did mention that he was disappointed to not see it in any literature that he surveyed, and so I would presume that is why he wanted to be interviewed. After such a length of time, I doubt very many in the Navy would have been any help to him anyway.
1) Per the note send by Lee Payne in granting permission
for reprint by the newsletter, there seems to be no "interview"
but rather a recounting --to wit:
The story was told to me [Lee Payne]
by my brother, who was sailing as second mate
aboard the President Madison. Joe Collins was
the helmsman on his watch. The fact remains
that this is an outstanding knot that is not listed
in any of the books on the subject. Perhaps
some of your readers will recognize it."
To me, this says that the article was based on one
co-editor's recall of conversation had well prior.
(This could help explain the error in where training
occurred --Bob's recall, not Joe's. Zeppelin operations
were stationed at Lakehurst, well established fact.)
2) As for "after such a length of time" :: I'm assuming
that his supposed glowing impression of the knot was
with him prior and continued immediately after retirement
from the USN and working in a related field. He ought to
have been telling about how he promulgated this wonder
knot in his further teaching (or how he tried, but someone
in upper ranks of USN rained on his parade).
I will add that judging by the tying method presented in the 1976 Boating article,
[same as given here in OP]
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a lot of Collins' students quietly rolled their eyes at a bend that they thought was way too hard to remember.
"... too hard to remember" --these MANY folks who
had to be able to tie it in the dark and all???!
.:. Again, there's simply inadequate support that
the USN ever had this knot --esp. for zeppelins.
Yes, SS369, I found it rather surprising how many
videos of old films of even The Los Angeles Landing
there are. I also was surprised to read, in the 2nd half
of the KM article by Giles, of these airships working with
"a wire" --not even "cable", but "wire" . I'll assume though
that this was the main line of attachment to the mooring
tower; a video clearly shows too-wiggly-for-wire lines dropped
by the LA, hitting the ground w/a puff of dirt, and then
grabbed by some fellows --one of whom soon gives it
a heave-ho and it seems to fly stage-right & then before
the filming camera!? Still, these large lines don't look
ready to be knotted.
--dl*
====
