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| A collection of Naval/Maritime
expressions and words which have come about over the years. No doubt
other groups will attempt to lay claim to some of them, however, as the
seafaring is one of the other "oldest professions" there can be no doubt
of the validity of these nautical terms.
Besides, it is well known that sailors never cheat and rarely lie! |
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Tide Over |
| From the days of sail and with special reference to the English Channel where outward bound ships could make very little progress against the incoming tidal stream and the prevailing south west wind. In such conditions they would frequently tide over or anchor for those hours when the tide was against them. Hence to rest up and let the difficulties sort themselves out. |
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Loose End |
| Rope ends which have become unraveled are called loose ends. It was a never ending job in a sailing ship putting new whippings on the ends of the running gear. If a sailor found himself idle he would be ordered to go around the ship looking for loose ends to tie up or whip. Hence the idea behind the expression of being bored with nothing to do. |
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Floating; afloat |
| From the Viking Flota meaning the sea or water. It is recorded that the Vikings had twenty four different words for the sea and all of them derived through poetry. When the Viking was not raping, burning and pillaging or other such fun things he liked nothing better than to listen to poetry about his legendary heroes, the truly great arsonists, pillagers and rapists, and their journeys across the sea. That was the problem, so often did the word sea crop up that the poets had to constantly add new words to avoid repetition. Hence the invention of so many Viking words which refer to the sea and which still survive today; here are some examples; far (seafarer); way (under way; making way; road (roadstead); deep; flood, float; street; water and sound. |
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Group Up or Grouped Up |
| A conventional submarine's main motor configuration which gives higher speed rather than long endurance. Also means a submariner generally getting it together or getting on with it. |
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Slush Fund |
| Slush was the unpromising
name for fat scraped off the top of the barrels of meat. It was jealously
guarded. The crew found it perfect for greasing masts to make sail hoisting
easier and for preserving leather fittings. The cook, unhappy about this,
would secrete it in his "Slush fund". It was a perquisite so far as he
was concerned. He sold it ashore, mostly to candle makers and people
in the fish and chip trade......
The moneys made from this constituted the very first slush fund. A term widely used ashore today. |
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Slackers |
| A nickname given to Halifax, Nova Scotia the home port of Canada's east coast Navy. I t probably stems from the idea (in the non commissioned crew's mind anyway) that the routine and general method of doing things could be "slacked off" somewhat when in home port, particularly during the war years and the seemingly endless days of convoy escort. |
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Know the Ropes |
| The rigging in a large sailing
could comprise upwards of ten miles of cordage and all this divided
into hundreds of separate parts each with it's own name and function. Most
of the hauling ropes were made of the same material, a great many were
the same size and almost all were of the same construction, hence it was
very difficult to tell one from another. Only from the precise position
that ropes were secured on deck could they be identified and this was generally
standardized in every ship. Nonetheless even this arrangement took time
to memorize and the term "knowing the ropes" became the distinction between
the old hand and the beginner.
(Interestingly only three ropes were called by that name: the bolt rope, the boat rope and the manrope.) In modern times add bell rope and head rope. |
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Mayonnaise |
| Believed to have been coined by the French officer Duc de Richelieu who led a successful attack on the British navy base of Port Mahon in Minorca in 1756. Finding the storehouses in flames and with no food for the victors, Richelieu improvised a meal from the remnants comprising eggs, vinegar, oil, pepper, salt and mustard. The beaten ingredients so delighted the Frenchmen they named it after their victory - Mayonnaise. |
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Tampion |
| Ornamental plug for a barrel of a gun, a name that has been slightly modified and commercially adapted elsewhere. |
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Hi-Jack |
| The harlot's call to the sailor
"Hi Jack!" It acquired it's more sinister meaning when after their first
embrace she hit him with a lead filled handbag ~ or alternatively lured
him into a boarding house from where he would be dragged the next morning
in a daze often clad only in a vest and socks to be sold to a ship in need
of a crew.
This practice was prevalent along California's notorious Barbary Coast where ship's emptied of their crews by the call of the gold rush, were desperate and prepared to support such intrigues. It became known as shanghai-ing, probably because many of the ships were employed in the China trade. Occasionally the tables were turned when an enterprising sailor would drag the boarding house keeper to the ship and to sea and in some cases the girl too! |
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(the) Tank |
| The nickname for the Submarine Escape Training Tower at HMS Dolphin, a prominent feature on the Gosport skyline near Portsmouth. All those who aspired to wear Dolphins had to make a free ascent from 120 feet wearing submarine escape gear. No longer in use. |
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Chowder |
| This typically New England and
Canadian maritime provinces term for a seafood soup was introduced to the
North American coast by the Breton fishermen who worked in the waters of
the Eastern Seaboard. It comes from the French word chaudière meaning
a cauldron. The New England version of bouillabaisse, in its different
forms, has created a culinary civil war along the New England coast. In
the States of Maine and Massachusetts chowder is made of milk, clams or
fish and potatoes and onions. To the south it is made with water, seafood
and tomatoes. These last are a pure sacrilege to the Maine and Massachusetts
purists, so much so that almost every decade a semi-serious, semi-spoofing
bill is introduced into the Maine Legislature making it illegal to put
tomatoes into chowder within the State. The penalty? Dig a barrel of clams
at high water!
Note: It is impossible to dig clams at high water for they are covered, hence the meaning of the expression "happy as a clam at high water" ~ ecstasy, the only time the clam feels safe. |
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Tot |
| A half gill measure of "pussers"
rum issued (at 180 proof) to sailors of British and Commonwealth Navies
at tot time usually at 11:15 for afternoon watchmen and 12:00 for the remainder
of the non commissioned ship's company. This was an eagerly awaited event
in the warship's day and a major social event which the crew got together
and discussed the latest happenings, buzzes, conquests and anything else
of interest. The tot could also be used as an item of bargaining, e.g.
a duty watch stand-in might be worth one gulper (see below) or maybe
up to four or five tots........depending how good the port was!
There was also a given "framework of hospitality" when giving rum to your messmates; two wetters (wet your lips) were equal to one sippers ( a small mouthful) , two sippers were equal to one gulper ( a large single swallow), two gulpers were equal to sandy bottoms or grounders.......the volume of a single tot. Sadly the tradition of the tot
has gone by the wayside in most navies today, however, the demise of the
tot brought with it bars on board for the ship's company where variety
of much more sociable (and a whole lot less potent) beverages are available
when alongside.
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Wash the Windows |
| The practice of the conscientious panel watchkeeper getting an ounce or two of gin from the wardroom to clean the upper periscope glass when on the surface (the alcohol preventing smearing) This would be transported to the top of the fin in the individual's mouth were it would be swallowed by the individual who would then liberally drool on the periscope "windows" with the remnants of the gin in his saliva sufficient to do the job. |
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Blazer |
| In the middle of the 19th century it was the custom in the Navy for captains to buy uniforms for their boat's crew. Uniforms were not commonplace amongst the lower deck but most captains liked to show off their crews on ceremonial occasions and since the captains were paying for the uniforms out of their own money, so they were given the freedom to choose their own style and colours The boat's crew of HMS Harlequins the records state, were dressed as harlequins; the HMS Caledonia's crew wore the tartan; and HMS Tulip's boatmen had a green suit with a bower in their caps. But the most memorable outfits of all were the snappy blue jackets worn by the boat's crew of HMS Blazcr. In no time the crew became known as "the blazers" and that is how the garment got its name. |
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Proctoheliosis |
| The prefix procto concerns the lower bowel, helios refers to the sun. Someone afflicted with this condition thinks the sun shines from you know where. |
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Strike |
| The shortened form of "strike work". It was a method of protest against low wages, poor conditions, etc. The crew would strike, or lower the ship's yards to immobilize her. It was particularly done in port and not at sea which would have been mutiny. |
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Flogging A Dead Horse |
| A "dead horse" was the seaman's term for the first month at sea - a month for which they would have been already paid and spent the money very quickly afterwards. So it seemed to them, with the money all gone the first month was spent working for nothing. To mark the end of the "dead horse" month the crew would make an effigy of a horse and parade it around the decks (on passenger ships money would be collected), then with great noise and celebration the horse would be hoisted to the end of a yard, cut down and dropped in to the sea. No doubt there was the established understanding of beating a dead animal to work but to ship's officers "flogging a dead horse" described the difficulty of getting the crew to do any extra work during this first "unpaid" month at sea. |
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Shape Up |
| Frequently used as a verb in connection with the course a vessel is to make. The navigator will draw or shape a course around a headland, a danger or an obstruction. A ship out of position will shape up a course to reach her destination. Hence, look smart, improve oneself. |
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Fathom |
| From the Anglo Saxon "faedm"
to embrace, which loosely describes the manner by which this measure arrived.
A fathom is six feet which is the span of an average man's arms. Ropes
to be measured were held in each hand and stretched across the chest.
Unhappily the word is dying at sea as measures and depths are now expressed in metres. However, the word still survives ashore where it's figurative meaning is to get to the bottom of things, to penetrate or understand. |
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Scrub Round It. |
| From the routine job of holystoning or scrubbing the decks. If an obstruction were placed on the deck the men would be told to scrub round it, hence ignoring or dismissing a problem. The "holystone" was a large block of sandstone which was used to scour the wooden decks. It earned its name because the men kneeling down to work the stone looked as if they were praying. |
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Two and Six, Heave. |
| From the days when each man of a gun's crew was given a number. It was the job of Nos 2 and 6 to haul the gun back through the gun port in preparation for firing after it had been loaded. |
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Windfall. |
| Some English and American landowners were prevented, by a clause in the title of their estates, to either fell or sell timber as this was reserved building ships for the Navy. However, this did not include trees which were blown down and so a "windfall' came to mean a financial blessing, an unexpected gift of money. |
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Davy Jones Locker. |
| According to mythology Davy Jones Locker is the final resting place for ships that sink, things lost overboard and sailors who drown. Thus it becomes a sailor's phrase for death. Some believe Davy Jones was a Welshman but an older school of thought claim the name is a corruption of Duffy Jonah ~ Duffy being an African word for ghost and Jonah the luckless biblical figure. In contrast, sailors who die ashore go to Fiddler's Green ~ a satellite heaven filled with chorus girls and unlimited amounts of free rum and tobacco. |
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Derrick. |
| When the first cargo hoisting booms appeared in ships it was noticed they resembled an invention by Mr. Derrick, the hangman at Tynham prison. He used a single spar, topping lift and purchase to hoist condemned criminals to the gallows; up until this time only a rope had been used. Mr. Derrick's name has not achieved the same ignominious fame of M. Guillotine, but can certainly claim a wider market. |
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The cat's out of the bag. |
| An often used tool for corporal punishment was the cat o'nine tails which was stored in a red baize bag (red to conceal the blood drawn by it) hence the expression "the cat's out of the bag" which still means that retribution or some kind of action is imminent. Also associated with the expression "hardly enough room to swing a cat" implying restricted space. |
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Cut and run. |
| NOT the cutting of the anchor cable and running away, but the process of furling the sails on their yards and stopping them there with light spunyarn ; this could be easily cut with a knife so that the sails fell and drew almost immediately. |
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Pipe |
| Whistle call made to indicate various phases of a ship's daily life such as pipe down at the end of a day which meant it was time to settle down and turn in for the night, quiet routine etc., hence, when used in the derogatory sense, can also mean for " #@/&!%$! sake "Shut up!" , piping the side when a V.I.P. arrives or departs a ship or special evolutions in the days of sail when the shrill notes of the Bos'un's pipe, producing various combinations of notes, were used to relay orders in major evolutions where the voice could be difficult to hear such as sail handling. Commanding Officers of ships, flag officers, foreign naval officers, Heads of State, Royalty and female guests are normally the only people who rate piping on board. |
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Piping Hot |
| From the days of broadside messing; if the meals were picked up from the galley as soon as the appropriate pipe (see above) was made the meals could be delivered to the messdeck "piping hot" |
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Touch and go. |
| Not originally an aviation term as most people think! It originally comes from the days of sailing barges trading the rivers and estuaries of the east coast of Britain which carried only two men as crew and were unable to sound the depth of water. They managed by the simple expedient of running the barge to the side of the river or channel until they felt it touch bottom, then promptly go about onto the other tack. The sudden change in direction and the force of a 50 ton barge was usually sufficient to ensure they kept going but of course sometimes the barge would become stuck. From this comes the expression "touch and go". |
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Nicknames | ||||
A plethora of nicknames attached
to certain surnames have been used in the Commonwealth Navies for a number
of years the reasons of which in some cases are obvious, but in others
who knows?
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Navalised |
| Something that has been made
"jackproof"; usually by the process of taking a civilian item, doubling
it's weight, adding a hook and some navigation lights, painting it some
shade of grey, then increasing the cost ten-fold....
and announcing it as new construction. |
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Nipper |
| A short length of rope used
to bind an anchor cable to an endless messenger cable that ran from the
capstan around a series of pulleys. As the thick anchor cable came up and
inboard through the hawse holes it was hove to the messenger with
a secure (but quickly releasable) nipper .
The boy seaman responsible for
this then walked back with it towards the hatch leading down to the cable
locker, cast off the light lashing (nipper) at just the right
moment, and then ran forward again to repeat the process until the anchor
cable was all inboard . There was half a dozen of young boy seaman doing
this as the anchor was being weighed and they were called nippers,
hence comes the term little nippers for young boys.
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