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ABOUT FACTS NET
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Naval Trivia
Source US Navy
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Did you ever wonder where some of the strange terms come from in our language? Thanks to the US Navy we now have the answers to some of those questions. Just click on the phrase or term you would like to know the history of and use the browser's back arrow to return to this index. Bamboozle
When a Sailor pays off a debt to the command (advance pay, overpayments,
etc...) they say they've paid off a Dead Horse. The saying comes from
a tradition of British sailors. British seamen, apt to be ashore and
unemployed for considerable periods of time between voyages, generally
preferred to live in boarding houses near the piers while waiting for
sailing ships to take on crews. Dog Watch is the name given to the 1600-1800 and the 1800-2000 watches aboard a ship. The 1600-2000 four-hour watch was originally split even to prevent men from always having to stand the same watches daily. As a result, Sailors dodge the same daily routine, hence they are dodging the watch or standing the dodge watch. In its corrupted form, dodge became dog and the procedure is referred as "dogging the watch" or standing the "dog watch." This custom evolved from the centuries old practice of "manning
the yards." Men aboard sailing ships stood evenly spaced on all
the yards and gave three cheers to honor a distinguished person. The hand salute is the military custom you will learn first and use most while in the military. It is centruries old, and probably originated when men in aromor raised their helmet visors so they could be identified. Salutes are customarily given with the right hand, but there are exceptions. A Sailor, whose right arm or hand is encumbered may salute lefthanded, while people in the Army or Air Force never salute lefthanded. In the days of cannon, it took as long as twenty minutes to load and
fire a gun. When a ship fired her guns in salute, she rendered herself
powerless for the duration. By emptying their guns, the ship's crew
showed shore batteries and forts that they were no threat. Over time,
this gesture became a show of respect, with both shore and ship gun
batteries firing volleys. The Sailor's bell-bottom trousers, which came to epitomize '60s and early '70s fashion, are actually a practical item for Sailors living aboard ship. The wide, flared, legs are easy to roll up when swabbing a deck or wading through slightly flooded spaces. The decorative bone buttons that are today sewn on many suit jackets,
sports coats and blazers began as an effort by Lord Nelson to keep young
midshipsmen and cabinboys from wiping their noses on their sleeves. "Sally ship" was not a ship but a method of loosening a vessel that ran aground from the mud holding her fast. In the days before sophisticated navigation equipment, ships ran aground much more often than today. A grounded ship could be freed with little or no hull damage if she could be rocked out of her muddy predicament. To free her, the order was given to "sally ship". The crew gathered in a line along one side and then ran from port to starboard and back and forth until the vessel began to roll. Often the rolling broke the mud's suction and she could be pulled free and gotten underway. Commissioned ships are "full-dressed" on Washington's Birthday
and Independence Day, and "dressed" on other national holidays.
When a ship is dressed, the national ensign is flown from the flagstaff
and usually from each masthead. When a ship is full-dressed, in addition
to the ensigns, a "rainbow" of signal flags is displayed from
bow to stern over the mastheads, or as nearly so as the construction
of the ships permits. Ships not under way are dressed from 0800 to sunset;
ships under way do not dress until they come to anchor during that period. This old punishment for mutineers consisted of placing them on an island with musket, cutlass, and a breaker of water; and leaving them to their fate. It got its name from a certain Ci-maroon Indians who had been transplanted in the West Indies as cheap labor and, deserted by their Spanish masters, had been left to starve to death. The famous Captain Drake discovered them in a pitiable condition and gained the Indian's lasting gratitude by returning them to their far-off home. Passing honors are ordered by ships and boats when vessels, embarked
officials, or embarked officers pass (or are passed) close aboard -
600 yards for ships, 400 yards for boats. Webster defines dungaree as "a coarse kind of fabric worn by the
poorer class of people and also used for tents and sail." We find
it hard to picture our favorite pair of dungarees flying from the mast
of a sailing ship, but in those days Sailors often made both their working
clothes and hammocks out of discarded sail cloth. Fathom was originally a land measuring term derived from the Anglo-Saxon
word "fætm" meaning literally the embracing arms, or
to embrace. In those days, most measurements were based on average sizes
of parts of the body, such as the hand or foot, or were derived from
average length between two points on the body. As required by 17th Century law, British ships-of-war carried three smaller boats, the boat, the cock-boat, and the skiff. The boat - or gig - was usually used by the Captain to go ashore and was the larger of the three. The cock-boat was a very small rowboat used as the ship's tender. The skiff was a lightweight all-purpose vessel. The suffix "swain" means keeper, thus the keepers of the boat, cock, and skiff were called boatswain and cockswain (or coxswain). As any able-bodied seaman can tell you, a turn of a line around a bitt,
those wooden or iron posts sticking through a ship's deck, is called
a bitter. Thus the last of the line secured to the bitts is known as
the bitter end. Nautical usage has somewhat expanded the original definition
in that today the end of any line, secured to bitts or not, is called
a bitter end. In the modern Navy, falsifying reports, records and the like is often referred to as "gundecking." The origin of the term is somewhat obscure, but at the risk of gundecking, here are two plausible explanations for its modern usage. The deck below the upper deck on British sailing ships-of-war was called the gundeck although it carried no guns. This false deck may have been constructed to deceive enemies as to the amount of armament carried, thus the gundeck was a falsification. A more plausible explanation may stem from shortcuts taken by early Midshipmen when doing their navigation lessons. Each Mid was supposed to take sun lines at noon and star sights at night and then go below to the gundeck, work out their calculations and show them to the navigator. Certain of these young men, however, had a special formula for getting the correct answers. They would note the noon or last position on the quarter-deck traverse board and determine the approximate current position by dead reckoning plotting. Armed with this information, they proceeded to the gundeck to "gundeck" their navigation homework by simply working backwards from the dead reckoning position. "God made the vittles, but the devil made the cook," was a popular saying used by seafaring men in the last century when salted beef was staple diet aboard ship. This tough cured beef, suitable only for long voyages when nothing else was as cheap or would keep as well, required prolonged chewing to make it edible. Men often chewed one chunk for hours, just as if it were chewing gum and referred to this practice as "chewing the fat.". The so-called Lucky Bag was really a huge locker in which articles lost aboard ship were deposited. Once a month these articles were produced and handed back to their respective owners. But there was a catch to it...each lucky recipient of a lost article was then given three strokes from the cat-o'-nine tails to teach him not to lose anything again. Jacob's Ladder is a portable ladder made of rope or metal and used primarily as an aid in boarding a ship. Originally, the Jacob's Ladder was a network of line leading to the skysail on wooden ships. The name alludes to the biblical Jacob, reputed to have dreamed that he climbed a ladder to the sky. Anyone who has ever tried climbing a Jacob's Ladder while carrying a seabag can apreciate the allusion. It does seem that the climb is long enough to take one into the next world. Today, any bound record kept on a daily basis aboard ship is called a "log." Originally, records were kept on the sailing ship by inscribing information onto shingles cut from logs and hinged so they opened like books. When paper became more readily available, "log books" were manufactured from paper and bound. Shingles were relegated to naval museums but the slang term stuck. The Wardroom originally was known as the Wardrobe Room, a place where
officers kept their spare wearing apparel. It was also the space where
any loot secured from enemy ships, was stored. In an effort to have
some privacy on a crowded ship, officers would sometimes take their
meals in the Wardrobe Room. Today, the wardroom aboard ship is where
officers take their meals, relax, and socialize. Swinging beds for Sailors were first used by Columbus, who discovered their practical use from natives in the West Indies. Originally, skylarking described the antics of young Navy men who climbed
and slid down the backstays for fun. Since the ancient word "lac"
means "to play" and the games started high in the masts, the
term was skylacing." Later, corruption of the word changed it to
"skylarking." Skylarking is a familiar term to most Sailors
and a popular pastime for others. Today, it is generally looked upon
with disfavor both onboard ship and ashore. The reluctance of seaman to sail on a Friday reached such epic proportions, that many years ago the British Government decided to take strong measures to prove the fallacy of the superstition. They laid the keel of a new vessel on Friday, launched her on a Friday and named her HMS Friday. They then placed her in command of one Captain Friday and sent her to sea on Friday. The scheme worked well, and had only one drawback...neither ship nor crew were ever heard from again. Americans are known by their nicknames from Hong Kong to Timbuktu;
one of the most widely used is "yankee." It's origin is uncertain
but one belief is that it was given to us by the early Dutch. Many novice Sailors, confusing the words "binnacle" and "barnacle,"
have wondered what their illnesses had to do with crusty growths found
on the hull of a ship. Their confusion is understandable. The term knot, or nautical mile, is used world-wide to denote one's
speed through water. Today, we measure knots with electronic devices,
but 200 years ago such devices were unknown. Sickbay Bamboozle One tradition carried on in the Navy is the use of the word "chit."
It is a carry over from the days when Hindu traders used slips of paper
called "citthi" for money, so they wouldn't have to carry
heavy bags of gold and silver. British sailors shortened the word to
chit and applied it to their mess vouchers. There are few of us who at one time or another have not been admonished
to "mind our P's and Q's," or in other words, to behave our
best. Oddly enough, "mind your P's and Q's" had nautical beginnings
as a method of keeping books on the waterfront. Bully boys, a term prominent in Navy chanties and poems, means in its
strictest sense, "beef eating Sailors." Sailors of the Colonial
Navy had a daily menu of an amazingly elastic substance called bully
beef, actually beef jerky. The term appeared so frequently on the messdeck
that it naturally lent its name to the sailors who had to eat it. As
an indication of the beef's texture and chewability, it was also called
"salt junk," alluding to the rope yarn used for caulking the
ship's seams. Side boys are a part of the quarterdeck ceremonies when an important
person or Officer comes on board or leaves a ship. Large ships have
side boys detailed to the quarterdeck from 0800 to sunset. When the
side is piped by the BMOW, from two to eight side boys, depending on
the rank of the Officer, will form a passageway at the gangway. They
salute on the first note of the pipe and finish together on the last
note. In the days of sail, the Officer of the Deck kept a weather eye constantly
on the slightest change in wind, so sails could be reefed or added as
necessary to ensure the fastest headway. Whenever a good breeze came
along, the order to "carry on" would be given. It meant to
hoist every bit of canvas the yards could carry. Pity the poor Sailor
whose weather eye failed him and the ship was caught partially reefed
when a good breeze arrived. The Church Pennant is the only flag ever flown over the National Ensign at the same point of hoist. It is displayed during church services conducted by a Chaplain, both ashore and afloat. Most of the early ships had heads of mythological monsters or patrons
carved in the bow; hence, the terms "figure head," "the
heads" and the term "eyes of the ship" followed from
the eyes of the figures placed there. Large "eyes" are still
painted on the bows of Chinese junks. In the days of sailing ships, nationality and rigs could often be distinguished
by ther jibs. A Spanish ship, for example, had a small jib or none at
all. Large French ships often had two jibs and English ships normally
had only one. To Be Three Sheets in the Wind In the days of sailing ships, this is a phrase which refers to the lines used to control the sails of sailing vessels. When these sheets are cast to the wind (let go), it would cause the old sailing ships to shudder and stagger. The resulting track would be the same as that of a drunken Sailor, out of control, and hence "three sheets in the wind." |