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BS: Nautical quiz
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Subject: Nautical quiz From: kendall Date: 18 Sep 02 - 05:22 PM In answer to at least one suggestion, here it is. Definitions: 1.Brigantine 2.Meaning of: "He came in through the hawsepipe" 3.What is the Tumbleholm? 4." " Strongback and pudding. 5." " futtock shrouds. 6.Proper name for the Dolphin striker.? 7.What is a "gangway drunk"? 8.What is the binnacle list? 9.What is the "Taff rail"? 10. What is a "keelson"? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: Amergin Date: 18 Sep 02 - 05:45 PM 2 is he worked his way up from the bottom...the hawesepipe is the pipe the anchor chain goes through...not sure abot the others.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 18 Sep 02 - 05:48 PM Well as a paid-up member of the Boat Band for many years I'd better show me a face here or be labelled a fraud. A brigantine is one of those boats you see on TV programs about the Old Days,with two masts. The one nearer the front(bow or sharp end as it is technically known) has those sideways kind of sails that they have always have on the big boats with Nelson and Hornblower on. The mast nearer the back(stern, starn or blunt end) has the sails mounted so they are parallel to the line of the boat (fore and aft, as they say): well,nearly parallel. they swing about from side to side a bit according to how the wind is blowing. That's it really. There's a few more sails on the sticky-out front thingy, and a bit of extra gubbins between the two masts for specially nice days when the Admiral or a TV crew is visiting.. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: Schantieman Date: 18 Sep 02 - 06:06 PM 3. Tumble-home is the inward curve of the ship (or indeed, boat)'s side near the top. Not often built these days, more's the pity. 4. A strongback is EITHER a strut across a boat to enable it to sling a very heavy weight (such as the ship's bower anchor) underneath without crushing the boat OR a strengthening piece across a door or hatch. Never heard of it in conjunction with pudding! 5. Futtock shrouds are the overhanging bits (just below the 'top') of the ropes that hold up the mast from the sides. Jolly difficult to climb up (but I've only tried it once - and I was younger then!) 9. The taffrail is (nothing, as far as I know, to do with the Welsh) the rail across the blunt end to stop people falling off. 10. The keelson is the good-sized lump of wood just above the keel, and to which it is fastened. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 18 Sep 02 - 06:16 PM Schantieman. Come and look at some canal boats, you'll love'em. Narrow boats always have a very aesthetically pleasing tumble-home on the cabins. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: Mark Clark Date: 18 Sep 02 - 06:41 PM Tumblehome serves to stiffen the hull as an alternative to heavier timbers—and at a cost in seaworthiness. The binnacle is the structure holding and protecting the ship's compass near the helm. Not sure about a “binnacle list.” - Mark |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: Herga Kitty Date: 18 Sep 02 - 06:45 PM Oh my gawd. I hadn't realised that Kendall was in serious search of illumination and erudition. I'd assumed this was a challenge on the lines of "I'm sorry I haven't a clue". In which case, "brigantine" could be - a night-time chocolate drink for sailors, or a hair preparation for sailors going on shore, or a very small punishment cell for when they came (or were dragged) back from shore. "He came in through the hawsepipe" = "he couldn't fit in the hipsepipe". Alex Ferguson should give the Dolphin Striker a contract. Gangway drunk is companionway paralytic The Tumbleholm / Tumblehome is a returning Rambleaway. The Strongback and Pudding (club) is the girl he rambled away from before he decided it was safe to tumble home. "Futtock shrouds" - where Kenneth Williams was hiding to avoid witnessing heterosexual (or any other) excesses onboard ship. "The binnacle list" - end of bin wines list for poseurs and bon viveurs lurking on/ or stuck to, folk music threads. "Taffrail" - notwithstanding Schantieman's post, the rail off which frail Welshman were heaving to the rhythm of the rolling sea. The keelson - abbreviated version of a close relative of Jim Mageean, Alan Fitsimmons, George Unthank or Peter Wood (or possibly Danny McLeod or Steve or Mike Wilson, depending on age of keelson).
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 18 Sep 02 - 06:56 PM The binnacle list is a bit of paper drawing-pinned (or thumb-tacked in the US Navy) to the binnacle. In the old days when approaching port the crew were encouraged to write things on the list that they would like buying to improve food on board. When they got to port the captain would give the list to the purser with some of his own money so that nice treats could be bought for the sailors. A charming old custom, immortalised (in Britain atleast) in the phrase"ship's biscuits". These were kept in a big tin (often with a picture of Balmoral Castle on); the Jaffa Cakes, bourbons, ginger nuts, rich tea fingers and so on, all the brands that the sailors had asked for, were served up with the rum ration. In Britain, this was alas all abolished by the Navy Act of 1957, when these traditional perks were removed and replaced with a very modest inflation-linked pay rise. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 18 Sep 02 - 07:05 PM Sorry, Kendal, people have been taking the piss.Let's get back to the quiz. The Dolphin Striker is a rather down-market waterfront bordello in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: harpgirl Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:18 PM ...no the taffrail is a string thrown off the transom that measures distance. I think it has a whirling gadget on it which we called the taffrail log. We used to use it on long trips. The head used to be the bow, where sailors use to take a leak. Now it the "bathroom" is considered the head. the binnacle list the the watch list, I think. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: kendall Date: 18 Sep 02 - 09:41 PM Give up? You are doing very well, so far. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 18 Sep 02 - 10:01 PM I know plenty of gangway drunks but I'm not going to name them here. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: kendall Date: 18 Sep 02 - 10:05 PM Only 3 unanswered, 1.Strongback and pudding 2.Proper name for Dolphin striker. 3.Binnacle list.
Let me throw in an old sailor's tale, not true, of course. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 18 Sep 02 - 10:09 PM Have you checked a representative sample, kendall? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: BillR Date: 19 Sep 02 - 12:42 AM Kendall. The "proper" name for the Dolphin Striker is Martingale. Not sure about Binnnacle List or Strongback and Pudding, though I know what a strongback is. And what about "Gangway Drunk"? -Bill
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: kendall Date: 19 Sep 02 - 07:50 PM Ok, time to end it. 1.being on the binnacle list means you are in sick bay. 2. a gangway drunk is a guy who has had little to drink, but, needs to impress his shipmates when he comes back from liberty. 3. A strongback is a large wooden spar, of the same diameter from end to end. It is slung on the boat deck, and, it keeps the longboats from banging against the side of the ship. The pudding is wrapped around the strongback, filled with material that gives on impact, and, at least on the ship I was in, it was covered with leather. The edges were nailed to the strongback with brass nails. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: greg stephens Date: 19 Sep 02 - 08:07 PM Mmmmmm, looks like I got a few wrong then. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: HuwG Date: 20 Sep 02 - 09:00 AM A brigantine is, as Greg Stephens correctly defined it, a two-masted sailing ship, with the foremast square-rigged, and the mainmast fore-and-aft rigged. This was sometimes also called a "hermaphrodite brig", or a "jackass brig". However, "jackass" was a british term which referred to any unusual (or experimental) rig, so a "brigantine" might be a "jackass brig" but the reverse ain't necessarily so. A close relative of the brigantine was the very common "topsail schooner", which had fore-and-aft rig on both (or all) masts, but two or three additional square sails (topsail, topgallant and very occasionally a top-royal) on the foremast. Another was the "barquentine", a three-master with square sails on the foremast, and fore-and-aft sails on the main and mizzen masts. --- Admiral Benbow was famously the man who attained high rank via the hawsehole. Ned Sherrin wrote a book on his life, which unfortunately I cannot now locate, which included the words to several shanties and other songs about him. I shall rummage in my house again for the missing book ... --- A "Tumbleholm" sounds like a mythical island, long since sunk beneath the waves, in the Bristol Channel, just off the village of Y Twmbl. Like wise, the "Taff rail" is a jeremiad uttered by a Welshman. --- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Nautical quiz From: Schantieman Date: 20 Sep 02 - 11:16 AM Greg - know what you mean about narrow boats. Speaking of gangway drunks, I heard a supposedly true story about a rather senior Naval Officer who, in his younger days, was on a run ashore with (would you believe) a stoker and a Wren. After several drinks they end up in a nightclub where the stoker and Wren are dancing on the table. Someone suggests the all swap clothes. Reasonable enough, at that time of night - so they do. After a little more lemonade they stagger back to the ship, still cross-dressed, and as they approach the brow the Officer says to the other two, "Oh hell - I hope we're not going to get defaulters for this." Then he comes to his senses a little, and as he realises the true gravity of the situation.
"No, we'll be all right," says he, "I'm the Captain".
Having met him earlier this summer, I can believe it! Steve |
