Help: sea terms

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 08:42 AM

ever wonder about the origin of the name of the water proof headgear that sailors wear? In the old days, they were made of pig skin..hence, the term SOW WESTER!! Sorry, I'm just a pun loving guy.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 08:49 AM

In a pig's eye, Sir! You should hide for that one. That's on a par witht he guy who thought an oilskin was a lubricated condom.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 08:51 AM

I'd love to sail with some of you guys...you know who you are..

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 09:09 AM

Anybody else ever enjoy latter day naval battles with APYC's?? What a great "toy." We also used to bomb the local Yacht Club on a regular basis.....but them boys seemed lacking in humor. Of course, that just triggered more "attacks."

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 09:12 AM

I still think we should liberate the Roseway and rename her the Mudcat -- I'd have to relearn a lot I have forgot, but it would be worth it. We could do the Atlantic seaboard in summer, and the Carribean in winter, in between the hurricanes of late fall, when we would just batten down at some well lubricated port somewhere.

Memories from deep water: in a cloud of steam the 78-year old Aberdeen born chief engineer, Cabbie Runcie, emerges from the engine room of an old triple-expansion N. Sea trawler, wearing a torn undershirt and greasy jeans, and starts cussing all over the quarterdeck.

"Thiy wanna knoo w's wroong with the HP piston?!!! A'll tell em wa's wroong wi' eet! A' knoo exacly w'as wroong wi' eet! Eet's FOOOOCKT!!! Tha's w'as wrong wi' eet! FOOOCKT!!!"

Now, that's an elegant explanation for you.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:19 PM

If you ever visit Newfoundland, you will be expected to learn this catch all statement. The following words are to be strung together with no gaps.

Whale oil beef hooked

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: MMario
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:25 PM

*chuckle* shall we add WOBH to Mudcat Acronymns, and REALLY confuse people?

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: catspaw49
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:34 PM

Whale oil beef hooked if that isn't a winner Kendall. I think Mario is right.....I can see this entering the Mudcat jargon immediately.....Wait a minute......whale oil beef hooked, it already has!!!!!!

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:39 PM

yeeee hahhh!!! 'hooked here !

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:44 PM

WOBH! A new classic piece of jargon -- from Newfie to kendall to the Cat, and it's a triple-play, folks. Whale oil beef hooked! LOL!

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 12:50 PM

Great place to catch me the fishies, boys!!!! Am i the only girl now on board?? You get a line, I'll get a.... babe!!!

YeeeHAHHHH!

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Margo
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 03:40 PM

My stomach is sore from laughing, you all. Spaw, I could just see your friend in mid flight... Still laughing! Hey, I thought the pawl was the actual bar that they stuck into the capstan.... Margo

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Troll
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 03:51 PM

No Margo. The bar they stuck in the capstan was called, interestingly enough, A "capstan bar". Aren't these quaint nautical terms fun? *BG*

troll

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 06:57 PM

I didnt mean to create a monster, but, being a New Englander, I must accept the blame WOBH

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amos
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 07:00 PM

You a member of that Chutch, kendall -- Ouah Lady of Infinite Blame?

A

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 08:42 PM

Actually, I'm a devout pedestrian

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: MMario
Date: 29 Feb 00 - 10:56 PM

gosh, kendall, I coulda sworn you were a dedicated biped.

and having grown up in New England, I agree, taking the blame is deeply ingrained in the culture.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Sourdough
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 12:50 AM

This is all true stuff, it's the Gospel According to St. Pawl as preached at Our Lady of the Whelps.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: GUEST,micca at work
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 05:55 AM

If my memory serves me right I think its more likely to be the Gospel of St Pauli ( Hamburg) as preached by sailors on shore leave.. I must go ashore for some Pils for my stomach (it worked as an excuse in several European ports until the Mate twigged on)

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 07:47 AM

Guess he was ashore "for the cure" too Mike, pity you chose the same bar for yer Pils, mate...Crafty bastards us mates.Yours,Aye. Dave (the ancient "Miller Time" devotee)

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 10:52 AM

Speaking of bars... Why were capstan bars "fleeted"?

Regards

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amos
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 12:31 PM

That's an obscure one -- the best guess I have is that it meant stacking them together, as in a number of vessels under single command. Another guess is that it derives from what gets done with them as the vessel passes the Fleet, a small stream which runs into the Thames at Fleet Street, which p'raps would mark homecoming for inbound vessels. This is all speculation, though...

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: AndyG
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 12:50 PM

For those who like to mix seafaring with bricklaying (cf Noel Murphy's song) you might like to read All at Sea from my a.h.b-o-u archive.

AndyG

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 01:07 PM

Pawls and fleeting.

My knowledge of these matters comes from a couple of years in Thames barges back in the 70's, and they may well be colloquial derivations.

Pawls are the steel bars that fall (loudly) as the anchor windlass is turned, and act as a brake to stop the chain recovered being lost. It is a very evocative sound, as, in the days of commercial sail, when a fleet of barges were anchored under the lea of a headland, during foul weather, the decision not to sail was unanimous, ..... until the sound of the pawls was heard. This would be one skipper deciding to brave it, and honour required every other master to make sail, too, even though the decision may have meant the loss of the barge, cargo, and probably crew.

Not that there wasn't black humour played out on occasion, when, under the cover of darkness, or even daylight, the pawls were 'lifted' (disengaged) and the anchor was recovered in silence. The lucky skipper (if he was lucky, not foolhardy) stole an entire tide on the competition, and maybe he was the only one to escape the 'Starvation Buoy' at Woolwich, by winning the next scarce cargo.

Fleeting the chain is neccessary as there are three turns of chain around the windlass barrel (horizontal) and the turning of the barrel causes the chain to move across the drum to the point where the chain jams, known as a 'riding turn'. To avoid this, the chain is 'catted' (very appropriate, I know)or held by an iron claw (literally), whilst the chain on the drum is loosened, and moved across to the unfavoured end.

It is a chance for the poor sods on the windlass to take a breather, as the one who lets 'enough' chain out (the skipper) isn't usually the poor bastard who has to get it back in again. It takes ages to grind in only a few fathom, and as has been said already, is very sweaty work.

As said, this may well be colloquial.

Skipjack (who hates 'catters thinking he's a smart arse)

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amos
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 01:31 PM

So there was no fleeting of the capstans bars, just holding and slacking some chain on the drum...the same technique is used on vessels heaving on wire ropes to reposition the ship -- a chain stop is turned onto the wire to take the strain, aand the turns on the drum can then be slackened or adjusted as needed. When the chain stop is yanked off, the strain transfers back to the main standing part of the wire. The same technique is used on mooring lines of manila, polyprop, or other materials, but a rope stopper is used instead of chains sometimes, using a couple of rolling turns and hanging on to the standing part. This allows you, for example, to transfer the line from windlass to bitts to make it secure without losing any. Just don't put yer focking fingers between the wire and the fairlead. Had an AB lose two fingers and faint dead away during a tug manuver doing that once. Never forgot it.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Troll
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 01:42 PM

I know what you mean,Amos. We had a gunners-mate who closed the breech-block on a 3"50 gun on his hand. It cost hin part of two fingers. There is only one crime at sea and that is carelessness. The punishment is swift and there is no appeal. You can sometimes get away with being stupid but careless will get ya every time.

troll

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: SeanM
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 02:22 PM

Heartily agreed. LHA I was on got to do S & R on a helicopter that forgot to reset their artificial horizon... careless move that cost 8 people their lives...

M

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 02:50 PM

My nickname was Doctor Dave... I had to cure everything from lacerations and broken bones, to syphilis and frostbite. I put more stitches in people than some doctors. Held em while they died; and helped bring em back from death.. The marine industry is the most dangerous of them all, even today. Your are right Troll, mate, carelesness costs lives. I always told my crew, I never gamble, and one day you'll thank me for that. Yours,Aye.Dave

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 03:54 PM

Anyone ever read THE GREAT GRAIN RACE? there is a story in there about "passing the stopper" which I found quite amusing. Only the most trusted Bos'ns mate or seaman got to do that.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 04:04 PM

Had a bosun who lost the upper part of his thumb, when an open hatch (up in the wheelhouse) got pushed by the wind and chopped it off. He's been in the business for twenty years and he knew better. Either keep the hatches dogged open or dogged shut.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: kendall
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 04:23 PM

While lifting cargo out of the main hold, we had a green seaman who thought he was Tarzan. He tried to grab the fall and swing across the open hatch. It would have been ok if the hook had been attached to the load...

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Mar 00 - 06:50 PM

A Longshoreman I once knew had a dad who was one too. His dad one day had the bright idea of riding the cargo and fell off. I think it killed him, instantly.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 Jul 00 - 05:00 PM

The origin of WOBH, refreshed.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Wincing Devil
Date: 31 Jul 00 - 12:02 AM

Click here for a good page (with Pictures!) of the Parts of a sailing ship.

Wincing Devil
Nobody ever said that computers were gonna be polite!

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From:
Date: 18 Oct 04 - 11:06 PM

Ahoy! Great tales - bin' singin' such songs a s I may for years now, with all the manly passion in the world...still don't know what stun'sl bones are, and why they might make a horrible sound as they are carried away by gael, or strong wind or what? "Old Maui"

Thanks

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: GUEST,Observer
Date: 19 Oct 04 - 05:13 AM

There was a young girl called Bianca
Who fell asleep while the ship was at anchor
She awoke with dismay when she heard the Mate say
We'll raise the mainsheet and spanker

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Dead Horse
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 04:31 AM

Stun's'l booms = Booms added to a yard to carry extra sail.
Like wot ya see Cutty Sark carryin' in all the piccies ;-)
Adieu Spanish Ladies is the one that flummoxes me!
(bloody Shank braillers & Cat painters etc.)

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Snuffy
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 08:46 AM

Isn't Spanish Ladies supposed to be Elizabethan, DH? Perhaps the Shank braillers & Cat painters were abolished by Samuel Pepys in his navy reforms

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 09:52 AM

Dead Horse - if you were aboard a ship you'd be "worked off" then they'd drop you over the side.

The RSPCA abolished cat painters.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Les from Hull
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 10:05 AM

Shank braillers and cat painters are used to secure the anchor to the cat head. A painter is a short length of rope used for tying up (we still refer to a boat's painter). Brailling is a word for tying up or fastening.

Stuns'l booms (or more correctly studding sail booms) are extension pieces to allow a strip of extra canvas to be carried next to a square-rigged sail in calm weather to increase the sail area. Anybody who rigs them during a gale is out of his mind, they are for light winds only.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: MaineDog
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 10:07 AM

Your artificial horozon? Mine always took care of itself unless I did illegal aerobatics. You must mean you gyro compass?

Anyway, this is without doubt the best thread I have seen yet.
Carry on mates!
MD

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Dead Horse
Date: 20 Oct 04 - 03:57 PM

By the way, the Folks'l is the place reserved for folk singers aboard ship, and is located just below the bilge.
Catted is when a piece of string or thread has lived out its usefull life, and has been terminated by the Clones.
Kanakas are the things that fall off on Brass Monkeys in inclement weather.
Men Of War are exremely large jellyfish, so called because they never sing shanties.
And a Jolly Boat is what brings the local women-of-ill-repute out to your ship. A Bumboat is the same thing, but for homosexuals.
A Brilliantine is a ship rigged, three masted vessel, with grease on all upperworks.
A Bowline is any rope attached to the front of a ship.
Mainline is a rope attached to the waist (the side of the ship that gets thinner, near the big mast).
Mizzenline is any rope you cannot find. (i.e. "The Upper Garnet Havantaclue Taffline is mizzen, Mr Bosun, sir")
A Turks Head is a restroom in Istanbul

I'll get me dungaree jumper...........

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 21 Oct 04 - 05:50 AM

. . . to secure the anchor to the cat head

Is the cat head the place that mudcatters go to relieve themselves at Mudgathers ? - I never noticed any anchor at Banbury the other weekend.

Subject: RE: Help: sea terms
From: HuwG
Date: 21 Oct 04 - 08:14 PM

I thought "brailing" was a technique used by blind banjo players. And a "stunsail boom" was what hit my father on the head every time he shouted, "Lee-o!"

Just shows, we can always learn.