Frequently asked questions

The identity of Matthew Walker, who has a knot named after him, is a ‘mystery of the sea’.

One plausible account has it that he was a rigger working on Tyneside in the mid-18th century, but other versions are more the stuff of legend. One of the most pleasing of these tells of a sailor named Matthew Walker, who was sentenced to death by a judge who had once been a seaman. After pronouncing sentence, the judge said that he would set Matthew Walker free if he could produce a knot that the judge could neither tie nor untie.

Matthew Walker returned to his cell, and, with the ten fathoms [20 metres] of rope provided, tried to come up with a way of avoiding his appointment with a very familiar slipknot. He unlaid [unravelled] half the rope, put in the very first ‘Matthew Walker’ knot and relaid the rope to the end.

The judge proved unequal to the challenge and, as good as his word, set Walker free. The knot's everyday use, as a lanyard or stopper knot, is less romantic. One encyclopaedia of knots lists 25 variants on the Matthew Walker, and there are as many variations on his story.