Click here to see installation photographs of the exhibition. Boatswain's Call, Christian Tramp, 1990. Photos by Gary Boynton.
Workers decorate the maritime workplace and produce useful and decorative objects for personal use.
Perhaps more than any other image, knotwork identifies a place or object as nautical. Because of its ephemeral nature, however, knotwork itself is not often preserved. Because it is occupationally-based, the full range of the tradition is not well known outside the workplace. Working items such as bell ropes commonly are used until worn out and then discarded. Display pieces such as knotboards are more appreciated and preserved by maritime workers but are not as well known to wider audiences.