SeaTalk

CHAIN

2007-10-16T16:33:00.000-03:00

Some think there may be a connection between this unit of measurement and the anchor chain, but this is false. The chain is a surveyor's measuring tool, equal to 66 feet (Gunther's chain). The actual chain used by surveyors (before the advent of modern optical measuring tools) was comprised of 100 metal rods, each 8-inches long, connected with rings. One chain is equal to four rods. Ten chains equals one furlong, and ten square chains equals an acre. These are all land measurements and have nothing to do with the sea. From Wikipedia

LOFTING

2007-10-03T14:49:00.000-03:00

The original plans for a boat are drawn to scale by the marine architect. With pencil and paper, he is able to refine the lines so that they run smoothly from frame to frame. He can emphasize the elements of speed, stability and buoyancy that he is trying to achieve with his concept for a new design.

When the time comes for construction to begin, those line drawings are recreated at full size, often on the floor of the workshop. That process is called "lofting". Usually there is a degree of art involved in boatbuilding, since nothing is made square. The reference points are marked on each station using careful measurements, and then those points are connected using sweeping curves drawn with the help of flexible battens.

When the lofting is complete, the boatbuilder can begin cutting and shaping each piece, using the lofting drawings for his reference.

ELECTROLYSIS

2007-10-03T14:36:00.000-03:00

Sea water is salty, the result of river waters carrying salts out of the rocks of the earth during endless millennia, and washing those chemicals down to the oceans. The salt makes ocean water more buoyant, so that a person or a ship actually floats higher in salt water than in fresh water. The salt content also makes sea water a fairly good electrolyte, meaning that the liquid can more easily conduct electricity. The underwater parts of boats and ships often expose different metals to that electrolyte creating a kind of battery. One metal, such as the bronze of the propeller may lose electrons through the water to the stainless steel drive shaft. Over time this will cause pitting of the propeller, weakness and eventually failure. That devastating process is called "electrolysis".

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

2007-08-21T10:25:00.000-03:00

Jetsam refers to any of a ship’s gear or cargo that is purposely thrown overboard in an emergency. The term is derived from the word "jettison", and refers to all items sacrificed to lighten the ship, whether those items sink or float. Flotsam describes floating debris from a shipwreck at sea.

BAGGYWRINKLES

2007-08-14T20:21:00.000-03:00

Even without knowing the meaning of this term, you have to admit this one is really charming. To get the meaning, you have to picture the sails sometimes filled and drawing hard against the shrouds, or sometimes slapping against the standing rigging during a tack or when the wind shifts suddenly. That kind of friction will wear out the sails, and cause tears and holes. To protect the sails, seamen used to improvise chafing gear out of old rope, wrapping it around the shrouds so that the strands stick out, providing a soft cushion for the sails. That chafing gear is called baggywrinkles.

BUCCANEER

2007-08-09T20:57:00.000-03:00

One of the SeaTalk contributors, John Hutchinson, suggested that we provide more information about this term. It comes from the French word "boucan" meaning smoked meat. Back in the 17th Century, freebooters used to stop at islands in the Caribbean and poach cattle, then preserve the meat by smoking it for their own use and for resale at the market. The French word for smoke is "boucane", and the smoked meat was called "boucan". The scoundrels who engaged in this trade in stolen meat were known as "boucaniers". When the term was Anglicised, it became "buccaneers". They were the forerunners of the pirates of the Caribbean.

AVAST

2007-08-07T09:40:00.000-03:00

Here's an archaic term often used in pirate movies: "Avast, me hearties!" Probably the script writers had no idea what this meant; it just sounded nautical. In fact the term comes from the Dutch, and means "hold fast!" It's good to know the term, but don't use it, unless you don't mind sounding foolish.

ABOVE BOARD

2007-08-06T09:39:00.000-03:00

Today, above board means without deceit or trickery, and the term comes right out of the seafaring traditions. The board refers to the topmost plank in the siding, and that important slab of wood shows up in numerous seafaring terms, such as on board, overboard, inboard, by the board and others. Back in the days of the buccaneers, when a pirate ship approached another vessel at sea, most of the crew would hide below so that there appeared to be no threat. On the other hand, when the crew could be seen "above board", that signified they were not being deceitful about their intentions.

MAKE AND BREAK ENGINE

2006-12-08T11:46:00.000-04:00

A magneto ignition single-cylinder gasoline engine once used in small motor boats. Often called a one-banger, these simple engines carried one or two flywheels to keep the engine turning until the next firing sequence. Some are still operating. They make a characteristic popping sound.

HULL DOWN

2006-12-08T11:38:00.000-04:00

Quite often at sea, if you keep a careful watch, you can just see the rigging of a ship in the distance. The ship itself lies over the horizon, and is described as being "hull down." Aside from the additional distance afforded your vision, this phenomenon also clearly reveals the curvature of the earth.

GALLEY NEWS

2006-11-22T15:52:00.000-04:00

The galley is the place where food is prepared. (There is no such word as "kitchen" on board ship). When there was no work to be done for a period of time, the crew inevitably gravitated to the galley, where there was water to drink, warmth from the fire, and possibly a scrap of food to eat. At the door of the galley, shipmates would also talk about what was happening in their little floating world, and swap stories, some of which were not always truthful. Ashore, we would call that gossip. Aboard ship, those stories are called "galley news".

CAREEN

2006-11-22T15:36:00.000-04:00

Ashore the word means to drive extremely fast and recklessly, barely in control. At sea, the word means to moor a vessel in a place that dries at low tide leaving the boat grounded. This is often done at harbours that have a big tidal range, and is sometimes employed as a simple way to expose the bottom of the ship for repairs and maintenance. The ship is brought carefully into shallow water at high tide and braced there. When the tide falls, the bottom is left exposed for quick scraping and painting or repairs that can be completed before the tide fills again.

VEER

2006-11-03T08:23:00.000-04:00

Ashore, this term always carries the idea of changing direction, but at sea veering is a little different. The term is used in four different ways on board ship: 1) Changing direction of the wind clockwise; as in: "The wind is veering into the East." 2) To lead a line around a bitt or block, thereby changing its direction for a purchase. 3) To indicate that the relative wind is changing direction toward the stern, as in "Ease the sheets; the wind is starting to veer." 4) To let out rope. "You can veer out about 20 feet of the dinghy painter so it will tow better."

TANBARK

2006-10-26T10:14:00.000-03:00

Before the days of Dacron, cotton canvas was the common material for sails. Cotton is heavy, and stretches, and, when left furled too long, provides a perfect place for mold and mildew to form. To combat those destructive growths, sailors used to treat the sails by "tanning" them with the bark of the Acacia catechu tree. The sails were boiled in water filled with the tree bark, or else the mixture was swabbed on, giving the sails some protection from mildew, and turning them a handsome reddish-brown colour. That colour became known as "tanbark".

LEADLINE

2006-10-19T15:54:00.000-03:00

In this electronics age, the leadline is nearly forgotten. Today when a mariner wants to know the depth of the water he simply looks at an electronic readout. But in the old days, a crewman would go forward and swing a leadline, a heavy lead weight fastened to a line marked in fathoms. When heaved properly, the weight would hit the water far in advance of the ship, and plummet to the bottom touching down just as the line went vertical. The man would read the marking on the line where it touched the water and call out the depth to the deck officer.

DORY

2006-10-11T08:46:00.000-03:00

The dory is a flat-bottom straight-sided fishing boat that was carried on schooners and whalers during the 18th and 19th Century. The design was probably prompted by the bateaux of the trappers and fur traders of Canada and Maine. They were built in Lowell's Boat Shop at Amesbury, Massachusetts, and cost $15. As many as a quarter million were built in production methods along the Merrimack River. Having no thwarts, the dories could be nested on the deck of a larger fishing vessel, and were respected for their sturdiness and cargo capacity. (Ref. Yankee Magazine, August 1986, p. 96)

FATHOM

2006-10-09T09:37:00.000-03:00

This term comes from the Anglo-Saxon term "faetm" and was originally a land term meaning "embrace". As with many of the measurements from those old days, this one was adapted from the proportions of the human body. A "hand" (still used to measure horses) was about four inches, and a "foot" about 12 inches. The "faetm" or "fathom" was the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched hands, (an embrace), which is about six feet. This was perfect for measuring rope, so the term was adopted by seamen. Since the leadline is marked with a tag every six feet, the depth of the water was described in fathoms too. The symbolic meaning of the term, to discover or understand, comes from this use of the leadline to find the bottom.

All Aboard!

2006-06-21T11:15:00.000-03:00

That warning call, often accompanied by the ship's whistle, gave notice that the vessel was about to get under way, and that any lingering passengers had better hurry across the gangway.

The boards of a ship are the planking, timbers cut long and flat, and usually no more that two or three inches thick. Unless you have been to sea, you may have trouble sensing the special meaning of those planks or boards. On one side is a dry bunk, food, safety and comfort. On the other side of those boards is cold water, and death by drowning. With that in mind, perhaps you can begin to comprehend the special importance of the word.

In the early development of the term, you will find the word "bord" which carried the sense of a line of demarcation, or a border. That word conveyed a meaning so closely related to the sense of the term "board" on a ship, that the two words just blended together in the English language.

You will find "board" used often on ships and boats. If you type the word "board" into the search field of the Seatalk Nautical dictionary, you will find 45 entries for the word. Most of them refer to that concept of planking, but there are many others referring to parts of a vessel that are made with thin, flat pieces of wood, such as trailerboards, centerboard and running boards.

The word is also commonly used to indicate a course sailed on a single tack. The expression "short boards" suggests frequent tacks.

"By the boards" describes losing something over the side of the ship, a term related to "overboard". A "boarding party" is a group of armed seamen who have the task of entering another ship by climbing over the side.

"Inboard" can be used to describe anything, such as an engine, that is mounted within the ship, while "outboard" describes anything mounted on the wet side of the planking.

The Seven Seas

2006-04-20T13:14:00.000-03:00

"Sail the seven seas" goes back to very ancient times, perhaps as long ago as 2100 BC or earlier. Even then, the term described an adventure of huge proportions, navigating a vessel on all of the major known waters of the day. There is no absolutely correct list of those seven seas, but they must have been the ones surrounding the cradle of civilization:

the Red Sea
the Mediterranean Sea
the Persian Gulf
the Black Sea
the Adriatic Sea
the Caspian Sea
the Indian Ocean

Some geographers suggest that the Aegean Sea and the Arab Sea should be considered part of this list.

In more recent times intrepid sailors ventured out on even greater bodies of water, so huge that there seemed to be no end to them. They became known as the four oceans:

the Atlantic Ocean
the Pacific Ocean
the Indian Ocean
the Arctic Ocean

Notice that the Indian Ocean appears on both lists. There are also other lists of named areas of the earth's waters, but they actually represent subdivisions of these major oceans.

For example, some insist that there must be a North Atlantic and South Atlantic Ocean, as well as a North Pacific and South Pacific Ocean, and that makes a lot of sense too. Some others reference the Southern Ocean, which describes the waters south of the continents.

There are many other large bodies of water known as seas, such as the Dead Sea, as well as some very sizeable lakes and bays, but they don't usually fit into this rather poetic terminology: the four oceans and the seven seas.

Squids and Swabs

2006-04-06T13:07:00.000-03:00

While writing definitions for this dictionary I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of terms for the crew, the men who do all the really hard work on board ship. Some of the terms are old fashioned, from the early days of sail, such as tar and jack tar. Possibly this is the origin of the term gob too. The military crewmen often came up with their own special names for themselves, usually having something to do with their work. That's where the term swab comes from. Inter service rivalries surface in some words, like squid. In more respectful language, navy men were called bluejackets, but more often they were working names, such as deckhand or black gang.

Of course in early times there was scurvy on board from lack of fresh citrus fruit, which is where the term limey comes from. Those sailors were sometimes referred to as hearties for their fearless nature. Of course there are the straightforward names, such as sailor and seaman. In the Chesapeake Bay, the term waterman grew to have a special meaning. The most common of the general terms for the seagoing man is mariner

You can also find some rough and tough terms, such as shellback and water dog, and one of my personal favorites, salt.

A new column is published here every Wednesday.

Which Horizon?

2006-03-29T20:49:00.000-04:00

When you are out on your boat, the line where the sky meets the ocean is called the apparent horizon, or what appears to be the horizon. They call it the apparent horizon because it is not a very exact term. After all, it represents your line of sight (notoriously unreliable) as a tangent (just touching the arc of the globe) where there are seas that can reach 15 meters or more (a fuzzy surface). This is not a terribly scientific horizon, nevertheless good enough to perform pretty reliable celestial navigation.

To find out how far away the horizon may be, there is a simple calculation: Find the square root of the height of your eye in meters, and multiply that by 3.57, which will give you the distance in kilometers. If you want to find that distance in miles, find the square root of the height of your eye in feet and multiply that by 1.23.

For example, if you are standing on deck so that your eyes are four metres above the water, you multiply the square root of four (two) by 3.57 and that equals 7.14 kilometers to the geodetic horizon.

Now you have to throw in refraction, which refers to the bending of the light passing through the atmosphere above the horizon. In certain conditions of humidity and heat, you may be able to perceive islands, land masses, light houses and ships that are much farther away.

And then there are mirages caused by atmospheric conditions that perform like a lens. On some days you will see low islands that seem to have huge palisades, ships sailing in the sky, and mirror ships sailing upside down above them.

The point of all this for the navigator: you cannot really trust the horizon to judge distances, yet sometimes being able to see over the horizon gives you a big advantage.

Box or Swing

2006-03-23T09:16:00.000-04:00

I had an email this week from a contributor who wondered if there was another definition for the term box the compass. He reported that the term was used in a different sense in a book he had read. The author had referred to a procedure that was performed by an "expert" prior to undertaking a voyage.

I replied that the term was correctly defined in SeaTalk, but perhaps the author had intended to use the term swing the compass.

There are two components of compass error, each generating a correction that is applied to any navigation problem.

The first correction is variation, which is the difference between the angle of True North and Compass North at a specific location on the globe. This correction is clearly printed on current marine navigation charts.

The second correction is deviation, and that error is the result of influences on board ship that alter the magnetic field around the compass. Rather than change the ship, we simply take note of the error on a simple deviation card that is posted at the navigation station, and then apply the appropriate correction when plotting each course.

To determine the deviation of any particular compass installation, we have to "swing the compass", by actually sailing in eight or more directions of the compass along courses that are determined by landmark ranges, then comparing each course with the reading on the ship's compass. The numerical difference in degrees is the deviation for that direction.

This test of the compass is best performed in a harbor on a windless day and at slack tide so that the vessel is not crabbing to follow a range.

Birds on Boats

2006-03-15T17:25:00.000-04:00

The first mariner that we know about was Noah, and from what we have read about that great voyage, there was not a lot of navigation involved. Nevertheless, after ten months on the water, Noah could see the tops of the mountains, and decided to find out if the water had receded.

He sent out two of the flying creatures, a raven, and a dove. The raven flew up and down looking for a place to rest, and the dove returned after awhile having found "no rest for the sole of her foot." A week later, he sent the dove out again, and the bird returned with an olive leaf in her mouth, so Noah knew the waters had receded.

Early mariners usually stayed near shore so they could return safely. The Vikings were the big exception. They went on long and thrilling expeditions well offshore, and became proficient at enduring the struggle of navigating in the frigid North Atlantic.

We have some evidence that Viking voyagers carried crows with them, and would release a bird when they wanted to find land. The crow, a landlubber at heart, would head for the nearest dry ground, and the Vikings would follow his direction to safety.

That seems to be the origin of the crow's nest, a platform at the top of the foremast, where a lookout would stand for hours scanning the horizon for land. From a height of 10 feet above the water, the horizon is only four nautical miles away, but from a height of 50 feet, a lookout can see more than 8 nautical miles.

Next week: How far is it to the horizon?

(A new feature is published every Wednesday.)

Jaws without Teeth

2006-03-08T14:05:00.000-04:00

Here are some more of those shorebound words that, when seasoned with a little salt water, develop a completely new flavor.

On board ship, the crew does not go to the tabernacle to pray.

There is no place for a drawing pin on a ship, but how about a tack?

Your lemonade may taste a little sour, but another kind of tang holds up the rigging.

There are lots of yardarms on a tall ship, handy places to hang a man, but for some reason they would never use the gallows.

A sailor's crotch is not located where you are thinking.

A weeping woman is sad. A weeping ship is bad...but nothing that a little tar won't fix.

A board that dries unevenly will warp, but did you know you can warp the whole ship?

You can use your jaws to clamp onto your dinner, but the jaws on a ship's rigging are not intended to eat anything.

Most of that stuff piled up in the corner of your garage is useless, but this ship is certainly not junk.

You may wash your face in a basin, but can you fit a whole ship in there?

The banker will take good care of the cash, but a seagoing banker is more interested in the catch.

(A new feature is published every Wednesday.)

Don't Smell the Rose!

2006-03-03T14:27:00.000-04:00

For people who are used to living ashore, the language of the sea can be a bit confusing. Many of the words we use every day on shore will have a completely different meaning once they step aboard a ship. Here are some of them.

You can play a fiddle ashore, but on board ship the fiddle keeps the dishes from falling off the shelf. The floor is not for walking on, and you would not want to cook a fish for supper.

A flake has nothing to do with pie crusts, and the ceiling is where the walls should be. The bottom of your shoe is called the sole, but has another meaning in the cabin of a ship.

Your brow is the front of your head between your eyes and hair, but when you want to go aboard ship you use a different brow. Oh, and by the way, at sea you won't find a head on your shoulders. Speaking of body parts, do you think you know what a throat is?

You may think you know what a step is, but on a sailing ship a step is something else altogether. When you go aboard ship you will find four monkeys and none of them are like ones in the zoo. And please, don't smell the rose.

More of these next week.

(A new feature is published every Wednesday.)