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Exact ell mont. When the Latin got translated prove meant test. It's like Adam and Eve and the apple. We kept the word rather than the meaning when the meaning shifted.
The Trincomalee, known to the locals as the Trinc, is a genuine fifth rate Royal Navy frigate, commissioned in 1817. It was built in India from Indian hardwood and it had been ordered because of the shortage of seasoned English oak which the 20-year Napoleonic Wars and the demands of naval building the wars created.
The Trinc never saw action, but managed to survive, mainly because of its continued seaworthiness, right up until 1987 despite being pretty much little more than a hulk. Some local Hartlepool nutcases (well, you'd need to be, wouldn't you?) acquired her and berthed her in the old Hartlepool dock and then set to work restoring her. And they've done an absolutely amazing job of it. Full marks - insanity pays!
She is a 38-gun frigate, although she was over-gunned to 46 guns (including six rather wicked-looking carronades).
Anyway, as a result of our discussion about orlop decks above, I went down into the hold to have a look at the orlop deck on the Trinc. There isn't room to swing a cat in any direction down there. There is less than five feet of headroom and access is via a very steep companionway.
Trinc may never have seen action, but her sister ship, the HMS Shannon, fought and captured the USS Chesapeake in 1813. This link:
http://data2.archives.ca/ap/c/c040089k.jpg
shows you what the Trinc would have looked like in her heyday.
Thought some of you might be interested!
Can you expand on "carronade"? I misread it at first as "cannonade," which I know is a furious bombardment of cannonfire, but this is my first encounter with carronade.
EDIT: Answering my own question: See http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/gen1.htm
It would have made such a lovely Hogwash word, too...
TMI
formerly known as etaoin...
OP
Noted the (lack of) headroom in square riggers when I visited the Endeavour replica a few years ago. I think she was less than 5' tween decks though.
Difficult to imagine how the company made their way around in heavy seas. Maybe because the deck would've been canted whilst at sea the low height might have been easier to negotiate. (Pythagorus and all).
I know folks weren't as tall in those days, but there musta been a few headaches!
stales
I had a friend during my shipboard days who had gotten a waiver for his excessive height allowing him to join the Navy. He had the whole overhead area of the major passageways of the ship memorized. Watching him walk at full speed bobbing his head about to avoid various projections was a real delight. One day he was walking past the area where the daily coffee ration for each work space was handed out. The window through which the coffee was handed out had a shutter that was hinged at the top; it swung out and was hooked to the overhead during the time that the coffee was handed out. He didn't have the shutter programmed into his map and he walked into it at full speed.
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