#99585
04/03/2003 10:58 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I think he didn't even come close to an answer to the question. IMNSHO French lost the battle for international language of diplomacy when the concept of the Language Academy receded from the English shores. English retained its ability to adapt and French became a fossil.
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#99586
04/03/2003 4:29 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Nah. French lost the battle as the diplomatic language as an outcome of losing the Napoleonic Wars. To the victors, the spoils.
- Pfranz
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#99587
04/04/2003 4:24 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Who said that first?
stales
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#99588
04/04/2003 7:23 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Senator William Learned Marcy of New York in 1832.
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#99589
04/04/2003 10:12 AM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Looks like you're right dxb. I thought it was Marlowe!
- Pfranz
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#99590
04/12/2003 2:52 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Well Shipmates - it took a few weeks, but finally heard back from the USN on the alleged drinking habits aboard the USS Constitution:
"You are in fact having you leg pulled. This story is perhaps the most frequently spread untruth about the CONSTITUTION and certainly the one I am asked to respond to most often. It makes a great story - emphasizing the ability of our sailors to consume alchohol - but is not only improbable, but impossible.
*While it is true that CONSTITUTION cruised the West Indies during this time frame, it was to protect US shipping from FRENCH privateers, not the British.
*CONSTITUTION was moored in Boston Massachusetts from 10 November through 28 December 1798, which negates the trip overseas.
*Of the vessels engaged with CONSTITUTION during 1799, none of them were British, all were French.
*CONSTITUTION was in port at Prince Rupert's Bay, Dominica between 24 January through 01 February 1799.
One should also note, that the consumption of alchohol on board ship was carefully measured and monitored. Sailors were regulated to rations of rum a day, equaling about a pint total. The rum was guarded by marines and doled
out my the ship's Master at Arms.
I hope that this information is what you were looking for.
Respectfully,
SN Tamara Morris, USS CONSTITUTION
So now we know. Apologies to those (any?) that took it as kosher, there did seem to be a question over the whole thing from the outset.
stales
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#99591
04/13/2003 3:44 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
A few years ago we had sailors from an American ship and a British ship in Portsmouth at the same time. In course of conversation it emerged that English ships allow liquor aboard .. in Officers Mess, Chief's Mess etc. None on US ships. However aboard the US ships you can get breakfsst at any time of day or night. Sailors all said they liked it when they were moored alongside. Booze and breakfast a "fair exchange." Just a bit of lore. No significance!
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#99592
04/17/2003 4:41 PM
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 24
stranger
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stranger
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 24 |
I always thought "proof" referred to the yeast used in brewing. When a brewer -- or a baker -- activates yeast by mixing it with a another substance, such as water or milk, he is said to be "proofing" the yeast. Not sure why it now indicates the strength of alcohol.
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#99593
04/17/2003 5:01 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Proof meant (and still does in certain contexts) test. It can have a lot of different meanings depending. The exception can prove the rule and find it wanting. The brewer will proof the yeast to find out if it's still alive. The distiller proofs the spirit against a standard and gives it a numeric value based on its relation to that standard. By the time the spirit gets to the distiller the yeast is long gone.
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#99594
04/17/2003 5:13 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,071 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,071 Likes: 2 |
Proof meant (and still does in certain contexts) test Exceptio probit reglam or whatever the accurate Latin isThe exception tests the rule ( NOT "proves"  )
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#99595
04/17/2003 5:20 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The exception tests the rule
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.
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#99596
04/18/2003 1:55 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
It's like Adam and Eve and the apple. Yes, when she put the apple to her lips and took a bite: the proof is in the putting...
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#99597
04/18/2003 3:47 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Jackie, take thee and thy pomegranate and get y'all's bad se'ves to a nunnery! 
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#99598
04/18/2003 5:34 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Today, mine own true love and my wife and I went to Hartlepool which is to hell and gone over on the east coast of Yorkshire. Hartlepool has an interesting history which I won't bore you with (oh, all right then, I will, kinda). But what it does have is an old dockyard which has been tarted up and restored to what might have been its early 19th century splendour. Interesting in its own right. But the real reason we trooped 210 miles north of home was to have a look over the HMS Trincomalee. 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.jpgshows you what the Trinc would have looked like in her heyday. Thought some of you might be interested!
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#99599
04/18/2003 7:27 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,071 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,071 Likes: 2 |
six rather wicked-looking carronades"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.htmIt would have made such a lovely Hogwash word, too...
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#99600
04/19/2003 12:03 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
mine own true love and my wife and I TMI 
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#99601
04/19/2003 12:57 AM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210 |
I think he's talking about his car...
formerly known as etaoin...
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#99602
04/19/2003 2:56 AM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
The carronades on the Trinc are on wheeled carriages. Carrying only six of them, all of them on the upper deck, I would imagine that they would be shifted from place to place in a hurry when power over accuracy was required.
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#99603
04/22/2003 4:46 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866 |
Cap
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
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#99604
04/22/2003 10:19 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
musta been a few headaches!
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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#99605
04/22/2003 7:07 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 36
newbie
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newbie
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 36 |
What's the problem with go navy?
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#99606
04/23/2003 11:51 PM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 247 |
I knew an officer who was assigned to the position whose primary duties were to strut around the ship wearing the uniform of an officer of that era.
Sinecure? Sounds like a lot of work to me. Whadda' ya do for downtime?
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