I have to agree on "listing". It is not uncommon to see the ferries that ply Cook Strait listing by 10 to 20 degrees in strong gales, yet they are definitely not sinking. Even the planes coming into Wellington airport are often "listing", for want of a better word. Not for nothing is our capital called windy Wellington.
OK, about "listing" applied to ships. In WWII the Queen Elisabeth was made into a troop ship and during one trip from USA to UK, carrying US troops, she was caught in bad weather and listed -- as I recall -- five degrees MORE than the specs said she could without turning turtle then righted. I tried the Net for info on the incident but gave up after an hour. Arrgghhh! I even went through all my notes re WWII incidents and couldn't find it. Double Arrrggghhh! The upshot being that a ship can indeed list way over and not sink. If anyone has a link I'd be most grateful. wow
I think that is called "crabbing" when in relation to flying a plane
Thank you, wow. That is another example of not even knowing there was a specific word for something, and discovering it here. There is a caveat, however, illustrated by the following online dictionary definitions The maneuvering of an aircraft partially into a crosswind to compensate for drift.
1 : to cause to move sideways or in an indirect or diagonal manner; specifically : to head (an airplane) into a crosswind to counteract drift
The definition suggests the action of the pilot - he crabs the plane. The planes that are "listing" on their way into Wellington airport are being violently tilted by the actions of the wind, and the pilot cannot manouevre into the crosswind, as that would have the plane at right angles to the runway.
"painter" can be line to tie small boat to a ship,as for towing. Sometimes may refer to the small boat.
5LME paynter < OFr pentour, ult. < L pendere, to hang: see PEND6 a rope attached to the bow of a boat for tying it as to a dock or for towing it
scull 7skul8 n. 5ME skulle, prob. < Scand form akin to obs. Swed skolle, thin plate < IE base *(s)kel3, to cut > HELM26 1 an oar mounted at the stern of a boat and worked from side to side to move the boat forward 2 either of a pair of light oars used, one on each side of a boat, by a single rower 3 a light, narrow racing boat for one, two, or four rowers vt., vi. to propel with a scull or sculls scull$er n. Do you know the origin of the phrase by and large? Thanks. Your site is wonderful!(Melanie&Mike in Burnside)
By and large, I can tell you! Today the phrase means "for the most part," but it was originally a nautical term meaning "sail the ship as close as she can go to the wind without being hard on it." This makes the ship easier to steer. This meaning of "close but not completely" came to be applied to situations in general.
Tom Waits has a wonderful tune called "Shiver Me Timbers":
And nobody knows me I can't fathom my stayin' Shiver me timbers I'm a-sailin' away
i remember Popeye saying this phrase, along with Blow Me Down. i take "blow me down" to be akin to "you could knock me down with a feather", but whence comes "shiver me timbers"??
It's always linked in my mind with Long John Silver from R L Stevenson's "Treasure Island".
Brewer says: An imprecation used by 'stage-sailors' and popular with children's story writers. Presumably of nautical origin, 'shiver' here is used in the sense of 'to shatter' or 'splinter into pieces', the timbers being those of the ship.
re crabbing: refers to plane moving sideways (under control). I seem to remember boats or at least sailing dinghies crab (or are crabbed) as well. The aerial equivalent of "listing" is presumably "banking" though again that might suppose a controlled manoeuvre rather than the plane being banked by the action of the winds, etc. Rod
" ALOOF! An old expression meaning 'Keep your luff', or sail as close to the wind as possible. Sometimes, in old books of voyages, written as 'ALUFFE'. The expression was most often used when a ship was sailing along a lee shore, the order to 'keep aloof' meaning to keep the ship's head nearer to the wing to prevent her being driven closer to the shore. "
I never saw this before, and can't imagine how it acquired its usual meaning.Incidentally, the "wing" in last sentence of definition must be a typo for "wind".
a rope attached to the bow of a boat for tying it as to a dock
There is a lovely harbor at Rye, NH, with a many-windowed restaurant on the shore.(Sanders, if your near there) and it is a source of amusement to those sea-wise among us to see newcomers tie their small painter up to a stanchion and debark for lunch and a few drinks ... while the tide goes out ... and return to find their boat high and dry, hanging alongside the stanchion and not a prayer of going anywhere until the tide comes in again.... about 8 to 12 hours before it's high enough to float your boat! The moral is : leave plenty of rope between your boat and the tie-up so you don't end up High and Dry!
newcomers tie their small painter up to a stanchion and debark for lunch and a few drinks ... while the tide goes out ... and return to find their boat high and dry, hanging alongside the stanchion and not a prayer of going anywhere until the tide comes in again.
If they're tying their clove hitches as tight as this, the reverse must happen as well no? A nice tight knot, so the little craft'll no' be lost when tha' great taid comes in - and when it does, that selfsame knot keeps the dinghy littly thing underwater. There's a particular knot recommended for such a situation, which'll slide up and down but not untie, but I can't recall what it is (I've a knot fixation, but it appears to have come unfixed at the moment). As you point out, however, cutting themselves some slack would do the trick as well.
Good one, Jackie. But it was missing one very important piece of information - how to untie the Gordian knot that all children seem to know, almost instinctively, how to tie!
Dear CK: Since it seems likely that the kids are going to tie Gordian knots only in their shoestrings, a careful scissors version of Alexander's solution is suggested, since shoestrings are inexpensive.
I have a shoestring knot problem. Remember in The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck illustrates the mental limitations of the Okie girl, by telling that she could sit for hours wondering how the tail of "C" could get through the loop of the "L" on the Coca Cola logo. When I do my two mile b.i.d. hike around the block, I am really amazed at how many times an aglet of the lace goes through a loop, causing a hard knot if I am careless when I take my shoes off, causing great difficulty removing my shoe because my arthritis makes bending over difficult. Like the Okie girl, I can spend hours wondering how it can happen so often.
Shall we call the inclination of the Posts to go w-i-d-e suddenly the Gargian Unknot? It was regular size yesterday when I posted my anecdote and today my post and some before and after have gone screen-and-a-half. ??????
I don't know if these has been discussed; at least I didn't see it... Whether 'port holes' are the small round windows in the hull, or holes along the deck's railing for tying up the ship seems to be the cause of a lot of debate. Does any one have a definitive answer?
Hyla, can you tie a Fisherman's Bend?
BTW, My favourite nautical term is the 'poop deck' (a small deck at the stern) from which the captain might yell 'Furl the sails and batten down the hatches, me matey!'
I believe the openings for guns are often called "gun ports," rather than port holes, but the basic idea of a port being an opening in the side still holds.
And yes, I can tie a fisherman's bend, a sheet bend, a slipped sheet bend and, if I really apply myself, a short-end sheet bend (useful in mending things like a broken shoelace, but I generally prefer Bill's method, recommended elsewhere, for dealing with that issue - but's it a nice euphonious name).
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Don't let him fool you--by the way, insel., what's a gaf rigger, please?
