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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Not nautical, but many oldtimers in New England believed the northeast winds caused their arthritis symptoms to be made more troublesome. One mildly odd character would not get out of bed if his weather vane indicated wind from northeast. So a boy tied a fine thread to his weathervane to keep it pointing to the northeast. The victim stayed in bed for over a week, allegedly.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Yes, rodward, the literal meaning of "list" is "to lean to one side"...but I have only heard it used in nautical terms when referring to a sinking ship
I once read a maritime adventure based on a fact that spoke of a vessel being towed some hundreds of miles to Halifax while listing 30 or 60 degrees. It's not my impression that "to list" refers to the ship going down at all, even though listing heavily would probably lead to it.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
rodward wrote in reference to "nor'easter": >At least that is certainly a foul-weather hat."
The term may pertain exclusively to the hat or head-gear seaman don for stormy weather...I seem to remember a picture describing "an old salt..there's another one, "OLD SALT!"...wearing his nor'easter" as a head shot.
And it's interesting that it's called a "sou'wester" on the other side of the pond!
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
And, how 'bout MATE, MATES, and MATEY!?...How did our voices from Down Under miss this one
Good question. "Matey" is not much used here, but thee was a TV ad, (from OZ, I think) shown here in which "mate" was almost the only word spoken.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
inselpeter wrote: >It's not my impression that "to list" refers to the ship going down at all, even though listing heavily would probably lead to it.<
Are we getting bogged down in the semantics of image here? If a ship is taking on water causing it "to lean" or "to list" it is then "in the process of sinking"...no, it doesn't actually have to sink all the way...but it has sunken to a degree. How else to convey the word "list" in the context of the image? If a boat is "listing" at the bow, it is then sinking at the bow...is it not? Is a boat ever listing because it is not-sinking? Can anybody else help "bail me out"?...There we go!...If a boat is taking on water you bail it out because it is sinking...if you bail fast enough it won't actually sink...but while you are bailing the boat it certainly is in the process of sinking. And suddenly I'm thinking of R.D. Laing's "Knots"! I'll swim off toward my life-raft now...
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Faldage wrote about "listing": >Unbalanced cargo could cause the same condition.<
True. A shift in cargo or other factors could cause a vessel to list. Many of the clammers (clam boats) in this area have that problem because of the regulations...they are only allowed to go out at certain times and tend to overload...so many of them go down when the clam-cargo shifts in the hold (not to say that a boat HAS to go down when the cargo shifts, guys!) But, actually, I've lost a few friends that way. I just thought the image of a foundering or sinking ship was the classic example of the word list or listing. I see, now, that literalism is part of the fun of the wordplay here...I'll make a note of that.
And all this semantical dissection of "listing" brought this to mind, so here it is:
Can a submarine sink if it's already submerged? Or at the bottom? Do we need a new word? Or do we need to say "losing air," "lost air," or "lost all air" instead?
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Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Re: Whitman'o's insisting, listing takes on water
***
No! A ship will list if her ballast shifts and still keep all her scuppernongs dry if unlikely. But look, we're pushing a dead bull up a hill with a rope and a blue ball, or is that what ~presidents are not elected to do?
On a lighter note (?), tonight is one of those nights you'd drown in here in summer--not yet pea soup, but a fine, rolling mist, which brings me to brass tacks. Is "pea soup" a nautical turn--I learned it on a gaf rigger off the Massachusetts shore and also to call "suds" the Balatine Ale that might as well have been. Nonce nauticals, or nauticals in blood and salt? We were still well south of rough water and the Reef of Norman's Woe. If I'd a story to tell surpassing one line, I'd draw a yarn of it like pulling taffy and keep it to myself so all them could wonder that wouldn't.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Can a submarine sink if it's already submerged? Or at the bottom? Do we need a new word? Or do we need to say "losing air," "lost air," or "lost all air" instead?(First of all, precision and "literal" are not the same, [hurumph emoticon]  ) But to the point: my guess, which is subject to amendment, would be that as long she's buoyant, she's afloat; that is, there's no substantial difference between a vessel on the surface or one below so long as each is buoyant. Do you say a ship is sunk when you can't see the red of her keel? If she's resting on the bottom, she can't go down, so she can't sink. She floods or is crushed. In my mind the question is, what's the status of a submarine resting on the ocean floor? Or not what by why.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, I get it, inselpeter...this is your little frat hazing for me, right?
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
Oh, I get it, inselpeter...this is your little frat hazing for me, right?W'O: I tell you honestly it wasn't, even though I'm not sure which post you're refering to. First, middle, and last, as far as I'm concerned, you're very welcome here. Hazing? Never was much of a sorority boy.
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