I usually restrict this topic to once a year—my September column—when I help my readers celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, which is "officially" September 19. However, because so many sailing terms have enriched our daily language, I just can’t resist sharing a few more of them this month.
By Captain Ray
Published: May, 2014
I usually restrict this topic to once a year—my September column—when I help my readers celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day, which is "officially" September 19. However, because so many sailing terms have enriched our daily language, I just can’t resist sharing a few more of them this month.
The word "boat" is often applied to any vessel. When used properly, however, the term means a small, open craft that was often used for transport between large ships and the shore, and sometimes between ships while they were at sea. This latter endeavor was often quite dangerous, requiring all on board working in unison to avoid capsizing. Getting this cooperation was easy because everyone was "in the same boat."
Here’s another obvious one. Sailors on shore leave (or as it is sometimes called, "liberty") were given a time to rendezvous at the dock in order to be transported back to their ships. Some—perhaps because of too much to drink the night before—would be late and were said to have "missed the boat."
The Old English word "scufan" meant push. Sailors corrupted that word and used it as a command when leaving the dock. It then came ashore and now when telling someone to leave (sometimes rather abruptly), we tell them to "shove off."
Isaac D’Israeli, father of the famous English statesman and Prime Minister Benjamin D’Israeli, wrote in 1791: "There was, sir, in our time one Captain Fudge, who always brought home his owners a good cargo of lies, so much that now aboard ship the sailors, when they hear a great lie told, cry out, ‘You fudge it.’"
When the weather at sea deteriorated and the waves grew large, moving about the ship became difficult and often quite dangerous. In order to give the crew something to grasp and keep from being washed overboard, lines would be rigged fore and aft. Modern sailboats almost always have lines for the same purpose running around the edge of the boat a few feet above the deck. The term for these lines has been adopted into our language to mean anything or anyone that your life depends on—"lifelines."
When cargo was unloaded, each item, package, or crate was compared to what was listed on the ship manifest (or bill of lading), to ensure that it matched properly or "fit the bill."
Ships had the ability to carry much more than cargo from one port to another. They could (and did) carry disease, sometimes very infectious disease. As commerce grew, it became the custom for the masters of departing ships to request a certificate that both the port of departure and the ship itself were free of infectious disease. This was known as a "clean bill of health."
When the wind was howling and sailors were high in the rigging (often more than 100 feet above the deck), it was impossible for the vocal commands of the boatswain mate to be heard. In order for these sometimes very precise instructions to be completely understood, the bos’n used a small whistle, called a boatswain’s pipe. Each instruction had a different pattern or cadence and the pipe’s shrill, high-pitched tones could be heard above the din. The last signal each evening, the one that required all unnecessary noise to stop, was accompanied with the command "pipe down."
Because there is such a wealth of sailing terms that have entered our daily parlance, there will be plenty more for the September column. Despair not, mateys!
Ray Wichmann, is a US SAILING-certified Ocean Passagemaking Instructor, a US SAILING Master Instructor Trainer, and a member of US SAILING’s National Faculty. He holds a 100-Ton Master’s License, was a charter skipper in Hawai’i for 15 years, and has sailed on both coasts of the United States, in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Greece. He is presently employed as the Master Instructor at OCSC Sailing in the Berkeley Marina.
