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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Per request from inselpeter in WordPlay
Nautical Terms:
Walls --- transverse members of the ribs between the double bottoms.
Ceiling -- The inner hull; the inner part of the double bottoms. Generally not watertight.
Door -- An opening through a bulkhead.
Hatch -- An opening through a deck.
Manhole -- An opening through a hatch.
Quiz question:
Where are the head lights on a ship?
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A great source for more obscure nautical terms is A Sea of Words by Dean King. It's a companion book to the Patrick O'Brian novels (which I recommended in the Book Recommendations thread) and really has some amazing stuff. Unfortunately, it somehow missed a few key phrases used in the books, most notably "a cheese of wads."
In spite of reading lots of fiction set during the age of sail, I haven't heard the term head lights. It may be more modern - but I'd guess it means the light in the head, aka the privy.
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I agree with Hyla about the head lights.
Re ceiling: A ship which is going to carry foodstuffs, like grain, in bulk, which is poured/loaded directly, and with no packaging of any kind, into the hold of a ship, generally has to be protected from contamination, moisture and rats by a ceiling. There are ship ceilers, who build a ceiling, or wooden inner liner, in the holds, and it covers the bottom and walls (bulkheads) of the hold. Hence, the bottom, which a landlubber would call a floor, is a ceiling! There's glory for you.
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ladders = stairs
abaft = towards the rear, or stern
abeam = at right angles to the keel, across the width
able-bodied [seaman] = experienced, but not necessarily entirely physically capable
forward = towards the front, or prow
starboard = right side, when facing forward
port = left side, when facing forward
larboard = obsolete term for 'port'
pitch = to rock back to front or vice versa, along the axis of the keel
roll = to rock sideways, at right angles (more or less) to the keel
heave = to rock up and down
yaw = slide down [a wave] in a diagonal direction
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able-bodied [seaman]
A crew-member was typically rated as the above when he demonstrated that he could "hand, reef, and steer."
This means he could: roll up and secure (or furl) a sail, tie a reef knot (and presumably other needed knots), and steer the ship when on duty at the helm.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Here are some I especially like, culled from yours:
larboard
yaw
hand, reef, and steer.
ship ceiler
I guess I'm looking for words that came with the sea, salt crusts and drowning. Parts of boats we've seen, like jib or thwart, a reef I sailed past once outside Gloucester Harbor: The Reef of Norman's woe. Bow sprits (fog sprits, to take a gander at your riddle, faldage). I liked yar when Catherine Hepburn said it. All those things Melville goes on and on with in the 90% primer that's Moby Dick. Romantic stuff. In Flensburg, I think it is, there's a bronze statue of a fisherman, wet and bone cold, carrying his drowned daughter in his arms. What words would he have used then?
Thanks,
Binky
[bad pun intentionally omitted]
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Not sure what the fisherman would have said, but he would certainly have wondered what the hell his daughter was doing on board his boat. In the age of sail, at least in Europe, it was generally considered bad luck to have a woman on board ship, and I understand that persists to some degree. Related to this, one very interesting term is "Jonah" - in the case of a ship that was having a run of bad luck (losing battles, not catching fish, whatever) this was applied to the individual sailor who was thought to be the source of the bad luck. He would often be singled out because of some oddity or flaw of his character, such as being left-handed  or holding unorthodox beliefs. I assume the term comes from the biblical character swallowed by the whale, but I've never looked into the etymology. One of my favorite terms for describing a location on a ship is "abaft the starboard mainchains." I'm also partial to hawse-hole - the hole where the anchor cable passed out of the cable tier and attached to the anchor - as well as cathead - which I think is where the anchor hangs when not in use, but I don't recall for sure. If this thread survives until Monday, perhaps I'll grab my copy of Sea of Words and provide a few more gems. Hyla verbosii nauticalorum
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Pooh-Bah
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<<I assume the term comes from the biblical character swallowed by the whale, but I've never looked into the etymology.>>
Can't remember the story, exactly. They put Jonah in the hold when the storm came up, and when they threw him overboard, it instantly abated. I might have that wrong, but someone's bound to right it.
There's a wonderful quasi-cabalistic interpretation of the tale, that put's Johna in the furthest reaches of hell. So deep, God can't hear him when he calls to Him.
Binky
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Companionway - another word for "stairs"
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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there's a bronze statue of a fisherman, wet and bone cold, carrying his drowned daughter in his arms. What words would he have used then?
"Out of the depths I cry, O Lord, hear me."
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