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You are welcome to apply any part of this article to your own personal use. Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.
In the last several articles we covered Sailor Talk that carried the names of individuals, and those that carried the names of animals. While writing those articles I collected a list of Sailor Talk that don't seem to fit any particular category.
Why do we have staterooms instead of bedrooms on board? It turns out that ships of the 16th and 17th centuries had special cabins reserved for important personages such as noblemen or other representatives of the state. Those cabins were designated as staterooms. They retained that designation when the more common folk became passengers and were assigned those very same cabins.
Have you ever been given a chit, a "marker" for something? This comes directly to us via British ships sailing to and from India, from the Hindi chitthi, a letter or note.
Ever wondered about the fiddle rail? It got its name because the very earliest were made of string stretched tight between pegs, much like a fiddle.
The ship's galley has an interesting origin. Dating from about 3000 BC, a galley was a Mediterranean fighting vessel. While sometimes carrying sails for auxiliary power, it was always propelled with oars in battle. The oars were manned by slaves. With the vagaries of the wind in the Mediterranean, the galley was a very practical fighting vessel. So practical was it, that it managed to keep its importance in the region until the great Battle of Lepanto in 1571. The Turkish fleet under Ali Pasha had 273 galleys against 200 galleys from practically every major European power of the time under Don Juan of Austria, the brother of King Philip of Spain. The Turkish fleet lost the battle and, with it, control of the Mediterranean.
As gunpowder and guns made their way aboard vessels, galleys were quick to adapt. They all had rams built at the bow. A galley would have either a rambow to puncture enemy hulls below the waterline or a beakhead to disable the enemy rowing tiers. The presence of rowing tiers made it impossible to mount guns on the sides of the galleys, but they could, and did, mount them on beakheads. This limited war galleys to firing straight ahead.
At about that same time as the battle of Lepanto, galleons began making their way on the scene. Originally galleons were the result of English experimentation in 1570 with elimination of the very high forecastles of the times. This gave them a distinct sailing advantage over their predecessors. As sailing vessels, they were still subject to the vicarious winds of the Mediterranean. Yet they quickly gained the advantage over galleys, because they could carry a larger cargo of gunpowder for longer gunbattle times, more and heavier guns to inflict greater damage, plus they could fire in all directions instead of just straight ahead.
Both galleys and galleons required cooks to feed the crew, sailors and slaves alike. For the galleys, these were always selected from the galley slaves that manned the oars. The early galleons had no such slaves to select from, so the masters brought their own slaves with them. The galleon cooks were still considered galley slaves. Since they were no longer aboard galleys, the cabin where the galley slaves worked kept the name of galley.
We've all heard a phrase that goes something like "a (fill in the blank) can ruin your whole day". I was quite surprised when I found out how far back the use of this phrase goes. The original phrase was "a collision at sea can ruin your whole day", and is attributed to Thucydides, a Greek seaman, adventurer and statesman of the 4th century BC.
What's a slop chest? The captain maintained the contents of this chest as a supply of clothing for the crew, especially for foul weather. He would keep chits as sailors took the contents, settling up at the end of the voyage. The slop chest usually earned a small profit for the captain to compensate him for his troubles. How do we get from slop to clothing? In the 16th century, slop was a colloquial term for clothing. It originates from Middle English sloppe, meaning clothing. That, in turn, came probably from Old English oferslop, outer garment.
When is a bumper called a fender? A fender is hung out when needed, and a bumper is left hanging out even when under way.
When are you "in" a ship, and when are you "on" that same ship? You are "in" the ship if you are crew, and "on" when a passenger.
When I first heard the term "jury rig" I imagined twelve people needed to put it up. There are several possibilities for the origin of this term, none related to the number of crew required to make it work. One possibility is the Old French word, ajuirer, to help. The most likely source in my mind is the Old French word journal, sometimes spelled jurnal. The meaning was "for the day" in the sense of being temporary.
A rose box, a strainer usually on the intake to the bilge pump, is a fine example of a sailor's whimsy. We can well image how rose-like the scent and how petal-like the solid matter that the box collected.
I remember seeing the old war at sea movies and hearing "the smoking lamp is lighted" being piped throughout the ship. As tobacco gained general use, the men needed some way to light their pipes. To minimize the fire hazard aboard, the masters would have an oil burning lamp made available. It would be lit when it was safe to allow pipe smoking. There were times when it was hazardous to allow smoking. When the wind piped up, it could blow the burning tobacco embers from the pipes to combustible material. When battle was immanent, gunpowder would be plentiful around the ship. And, of course, the men couldn't stand around the smoking lamp waiting to find out if it was okay to light their pipes. Thus we have general announcements to the crew that "the smoking lamp is lighted" or "the smoking lamp is out".
When is another sailor your shipmate and when is he your messmate? To a deep-water sailor, any other deep-water sailor is a shipmate. If he hasn't been in a ship with you before, he might have been or at some time in the future will be in the same ship that you may have been or will be in. A messmate is someone with whom you share mess, meaning someone who's in the same ship with you at the same time.
Mess, by the way comes from Middle English mes, and goes back to Late Latin missum, that which is put on the table.
Ever hear of a "soldier's wind" or a "sailor's blessing"? A soldier's wind is one which is hard on the beam and will take the ship to her destination and back again. It calls for very little skill in sailing, so even a soldier could sail her. A "sailor's blessing" is a whimsical term for a curse.
Have you wanted to know what 100 proof liquor means? It comes from the practice of customs officers at dockside checking the alcohol content of rum. They would take a small sample and put it in a dish. They would then attempt to light it. When the rum was "up to proof", about 50% by volume, it would ignite. With the invention of the hydrometer in the late 17th century, customs officers could then rate the rum by the percentage of "proof". Thus we have 100 proof being 50% alcohol by volume.
What's a gam? This is a sailor's social "bull session". It appears to have started out as a sailors' slang for a pod of whales. From there it became a chat or conference between whaling captains at sea, and occasionally ashore. These gam sessions started very formally with the two captains "speaking" each other, sailing close enough that they could speak without raising their voices and without using a speaking trumpet. One captain would then be rowed over by his crew to the second ship, with the officers and any shipboard wives of the second visiting the first ship at the same time. Mail and news would be exchanged. While the captain and other officers were busy with their visits, the crews would also get together to engage in scuttlebutt.
That's it for this time. Next time I'll cover poop deck, wardroom, and more.
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