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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 Please do NOT publish any part of the article or apply any part of it to any non-personal use without the express written concent of the author.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've been covering Sailor Talk that don't seem to fit any particular category. In this last article we'll continue along that line.
First let's look at some items made from cloth and consider dungarees, the modern sailor's work trousers. The term dates back to the 18th century, from the Hindi word dungri, a particular type of sturdy Indian cotton cloth that was used for making sails. The original cloth wasn't dyed, nor was it woven as finely as today's denim. The original dungarees were cut directly from old sails and retained their tan color just as if they were when they were drawing wind. Dungri became Anglicized to dungaree.
Often captains would report more sail lost in battle than was actually the case so the crew would have material to mend their hammocks and make new clothes. Clothes made of dungaree cloth would of course be called dungarees.
Khaki was a cloth that didn't arrive in naval tradition until early this century. It started as a soldier's uniform material, first manufactured in India starting around 1845. British soldiers would soak their white uniforms in mud, coffee and curry powder so that they might blend into the landscape better.
The Pea Coat is a much, much older item of cloth. The heavy topcoat has been worn in cold and foggy weather since at least 1723. It is made from pilot cloth (p-cloth), a heavy, course and very strong twilled cloth. Jackets made from p-cloth were sometimes called p-jackets or p-coats. Eventually the spelling of p-coats became pea coats.
Bell-bottom trousers were introduced probably around 1817. They were developed to enable the crew to roll the legs above the knee when washing down the decks, to make trousers to be removed over their boots when forced to abandon ship or when washed overboard. The removed trousers were intended for use as a life preserver by knotting the legs, then flipping the trousers over the head, belt first, in a scooping motion to catch air.
The duffle bag, also spelled duffel bag, originally referred to the sailor's principal clothing as well to the seabag in which he carried and stowed it. The term comes from the town of Duffel, near Antwerp, where an inexpensive and rough, yet very serviceable woolen cloth was once made.
A ditty bag these days is a small bag used to hold a sewing kit, toiletry articles, perhaps some writing paper or maybe a sail repair kit. But first it was called a ditto bag, because it usually contained at least two of everything, two buttons, two needles, and so forth.
Some ditty bags contain a variety of gadgets. The gadget, from the Middle French gache, started out life in the nautical world as a small hook.
Now let's take a different tack. One reader asked for the origin of marooning, the punishment where the victim would be left to his fate on a deserted island with only a musket, a cutlass and maybe a container of water. This term goes back to none other than Sir Francis Drake. Spain had captured some Ci-maroon Indians on the Darien coast of Panama and took them to the West Indies as slave labor. The Indians were subsequently deserted by their masters and left to starve. Sir Francis found them and returned them to their home, receiving some valuable intelligence from them in return.
We're all familiar with the story of Robinson Crusoe, who was marooned on an island in an accident of shipwreck. It was years before he found his companion, Friday, so named because he was found on a Friday. To Robinson Crusoe, that particular Friday was auspicious. But to many sailors, any Friday is a very inauspicious date to set sail. Why this has come about is not known. But there have been recorded instances when even ship's masters would refuse to set sail on a Friday. Here's an interesting story about the superstition. It could even be true. Supposedly the English Government decided to really disprove the superstition. They laid the keel of a new ship on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, named her HMS Friday, gave her to the command of Captain Friday and sent her on her maiden voyage on a Friday. All worked according to plan... except that the ship was never seen again.
"The tie that binds" is often said of blood, marriage or other relationships where people are in a very strong common bond. It could most certainly be said of Robinson Crusoe and his man, Friday. The phrase is generally believed to have come from the short chain that attaches the main and fore yards to their respective masts.
And finally, let's look at the background of firing gun salutes. Some people think that the 21-gun salute came about by adding the numerals of 1776, the year of American Independence (1+7+7+6=21). But the tradition goes back much further to the first cannon appearing on ships. In those days, it might take as long as fifteen or twenty minutes to clean, load, aim and fire one cannon. By emptying her guns, a ship showed that that she was no threat to those ashore. The batteries of the shoreside fortifications would return the gesture. Over time this became a gesture of respect. But the habit of firing salutes became wasteful, with ships and batteries firing for hours at a time. This would be especially problematic for a ship with limited storage space for powder. Eventually the British Admiralty established a regulation to address the situation. The rule was very simple. For every volley fired by a ship in salute, the shore battery could return up to three volleys. The regulation further limited ships to seven shots in salute. This, in turn, meant that the shore battery was limited to a 21-gun salute. The maximum allowable salute eventually became reserved for honoring only heads of state or other similarly important dignitaries. Salutes of fewer than 21-guns can be offered on significant occasions for lesser individuals, such as Admirals (17-guns), and Vice Admirals (15-guns).
Holland joined the War of American Independence against Britain as a direct result of a 17-gun salute. The Dutch governor of the Caribbean island of St. Eustatia, more commonly known as Statia, noticed a ship with a strange flag entering the harbor. The ship fired off the traditional salute honoring the Dutch flag flying over the fort. Never having seen that particular ensign before, but needing to return the salute, the governor ordered 17-guns fired in return. This was the very first salute to the flag of the fledgling United States of America. On hearing of this action, the British declared war on the Dutch for honoring the flag of the American rebels and, thus, officially "recognizing" the independence of the American colonies. Today one can visit the old fortifications on Statia and view the plaque presented by President Franklin Roosevelt in honor of that occasion.
And that concludes this 15-article series on Sailor Talk. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've certainly enjoyed writing them.
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