author
Captain Jutsum
1868–1916
A practical seaman and teacher of navigation, he is best remembered for a compact ropework guide that stayed useful long after its first publication. His writing focuses on clear instruction, making knots, bends, and splices approachable for sailors and hands-on readers alike.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1868 or 1869 and known as Captain Jutsum, James Netherclift Jutsum was a British nautical instructor associated with Cardiff. Records from the Masonic Great War Project say he opened the Cardiff Nautical Academy on January 1, 1897, after earlier work at the Fenchurch Nautical Academy in London.
He is chiefly known for Knots, Bends, Splices: With Tables of Strengths of Ropes, etc. and Wire Rigging, a practical manual published in the early 1910s and later reissued in other forms as Brown's Knots and Splices. Project Gutenberg and library catalog records show the book enduring as a straightforward reference on ropework, seamanship, and rigging.
Very little biographical detail appears to be firmly documented online beyond his nautical career and publication history. Available records indicate he died in 1916, and his reputation today rests on the usefulness and staying power of a small, workmanlike book written for people who needed dependable instruction at sea.