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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Could the spelling make a difference?I would not have thought so. The rest of us would expect USn's to use their trademark "Reader's Digest condensed" spelling! 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Slush was the fat used by the ship's cook for frying, etc. - and was considered quite a delicacy.
"Slushy" was often the name the ship's cook went by. They were considered uncouth and grasping by the seamen, particularly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Quite often, the slush fund was used by the cook for the cook's personal benefit, particularly on ill-run ships where the officers couldn't have cared less about the welfare of the men. I read somewhere about a particularly tyrannical cook who managed to amass most of the men's paid wages during a voyage. When the ship returned home, the cook went missing and was never seen or heard from again. 'Ware slush funds!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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"Reader's Digest condensed" spelling!
Oooh! Max!
Touché
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I've always been partial to Royal Naval slang, which is colourful and expressive. I have probably forgotten more than I remember, but some of the notable expressions are:- "Hoggin" - short for hogwash, i.e. the sea "Killick" - a leading hand, e.g, a "killick sparks" was a Leading Telegraphist" (actually a radio operator). The Petty Officer Telegraphist, naturally enough, was known as POTS. Seamen involved with visual signals were know as "Flags" or "Bunty" (for "bunting"). Stokers were always referred to as being "hairy-eared"  (actually, it wasn't their ears that were mentioned, but an entirely lower area of their anatomy - but delicacy forbids, etc) Whenever a feast was arranged - usually on shore, rather than on board - it was referred to as "Big Eats!" Another endearing habit of the RN was to issue the order "lash up and stow" soon afgter reveille, right on into the 1960s (possibly even into the 70s), long after safe, comfortable hammocks had been replaced by highly uncomfortable bunks There are hundreds more - and they changed from time to time, of course, so that you may tell when an ex-matelot served by the slang he uses. Anmd this is not even touching on the topic of nick-names! That almost deserves a thread of its own.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Hoggin" - short for hogwashThanks for that! Funny thing language - I have staggered through life having heard that (as a kid) as 'oggin', which I had assumed was simply a playful stab at 'ocean'! So I have learnt my Fact-A-Day early this lunchtime 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rhuby has always been partial to Royal Naval slang.
Some American examples:
Signalman: Skivvie Waver. Skivvies are underpants.
Machinist's Mate: Mickey Mouse. The abbreviation is MM and the symbol worn on the uniform is a three bladed ship's propeller that looks like a Mickey Mouse head.
Hospital Corpsman: Aviation Snake Charmer. The symbols worn on the uniform for aviation ratings usually were the equivalent of the non-aviation version with the addition of wings. Electronics techs had a helium atom, avaition electronics techs had a winged helium atom. The hospital corpsman symbol was a caduceus.
Boatswain's Mate: Deck Ape. Also a generic term to indicate someone not a snipe, a seabee or an Airedale (q.v.)
General term for ratings that worked on the machinery of the ship: Snipe. This included the classic snipe ratings; Machinist's Mate, Engineman, etc. and also Electrican's Mate.
Electronics Technician: Super Snipe. It was originally a snipe rating before it became a deck ape rating.
Aviation anything: Airedale. Also Brown Shoe (no rational reason for this one)
Constructionman: Seabee. These were the guys that left notes behind on the beaches after they prepped them for the Marine landing forces in the Pacific in WWII.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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In reply to:
"Hoggin" - short for hogwash, i.e. the sea
Around here, "hogwash" means "nonsense." I wonder if there is a relationship to the nautical hogwash, and how?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Thanks for that lot, Faldage - adds credence to the belief that all naval types are linguistically inventive.
As to "Brown shoes" - in the UK, the first military aviators were army officers, with khaki uniform and brown shoes. I believe it was the same in the USA (you still call it the Army Air Force, I believe?) Did the USAAF fly from naval ships for a while, before the Naval air forces were formed? This would account a term for the strangely uniformed fellows mixed in with the blue-uniformed navy people.
Just a hypothesis - anyone know the truth?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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(you still call it the Army Air Force, I believe?)
Not since end of The Late Great Misunderstanding when Air Force was established as a separate branch of the Armed Forces.
It is now : United States Air Force (USAF)
In WWII Army Air Force Officers sometimes went overseas aboard troop ships.
The only time I know for sure that the Army Air Force flew off US warship was from the "Hornet" which was the "base" for the famous raid on Japan led by General Jimmy Doolittle.
As for shoes, navy officers, in peacetime, used to wear white shoes with the white uniforms used in warm climes and as they came down ladders the shoes were a tip off to crew that an officer was descending on them (and the illegal craps game!)
wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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When the UK warships were making regular good will visits to Portsmouth New Hampshire in the mid-1980s we all learned a new word. British seamen serving aboard all answered to the name "Taff."
Anyone know anything about that nickname?
wow
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