Boat jargon........why?????

[Capt. Tobb]

1) I always thought a cockpit was where you drive, like a plane.
2) Bridge, that is the thing that we call on ch. 13 to open....on a boat....it is where you drive (kinda like a cockpit)???
3)bow pulpit.........I am still looking for the priest????
4)bow dodger ???
5)head(toilet).......just think about that one for a while......
6)I am ok with calling them lines,But, ........put an anchor on it and it turns into a rhode....right there in your hands!!!!

If there is anyone who can help me understand all of this, I would appreciate it. P.S. You drive on a parkway, park in a driveway....the guy who came up with that one must have been a boat guy....

 

[drburke]

In general, the nautical terms greatly predate the ones you are
used to because traveling the seas is an ancient practice. The
real question to ask is why call an area where one pilots an
airplane "rooster hole".

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Cockpit- area to fight cocks (male chickens, or roosters) for sport,
evolving to mean any area of combat.

Bridge- area for piloting a vessel, arising in the mid 1700s for
the athwartships structure very much like a footbridge stretched across
the ship.

Pulpit- from Latin pulpitum "scaffold", "platform", "stage". It
is technically a small elevated platform, but almost exclusively now
used where a member of the clergy stands. The use in a nautical sense
derives from the early technical meaning. There is also the concept of
a "stern pulpit" in addition to our more common "bow pulpit".

Dodger- Actually, "spray dodger", canopy, usually made of acrylic canvas
stretched over a framework of stainless steel tubing, that provides shelter
for the crew (you would know if you have been sailing when you dodge
that water!

Head- Arises from early practice of locating toilets in the forward
portion of a vessel (the head) where small openings permitted seawater
to continiously flow in and then exit along with the waste.

Rope is a material, it's function determines the name:

line- item to tie a boat to a dock
sheet- attaches a sail to a boat
rigging- affixes mast and other structures to boat (standing or running)
stay- locates and holds mast into position (now wire rope) "stay there"
rhode- connects anchor to vessel/chain (roughly)

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For more fun: http://www.welshharpboatstation.co.uk/knowledge/terms.htm

There are many, many terms in the language which are nautical in origin,
for example, "three sheets to the wind" refers to being so out of control that
multiple sail lines are flapping in the breeze, which is an out of control,
haphazard ship, for sure!

Too often we lose track of how terms are applied, and therefore miss the joke.
An airplane cockpit is one example, and I should not have to explain
why "joystick" arose from the nearly exclusive male pilot era. Consider
the term "kid" for human children, which actually means immature goat.

DAN

ps "way" means how you get someplace, such as "the way there", thus a
freeway is a road without cost, or the opposite of a tollway, a highway is
an elevated road, indicating usually an inland path as opposed to a
coastal road (low country). In boating, a passageway is exactly what it
says: a path for passing through.
A parkway is intended to convey a road through a scenic area, and obviously
a driveway is for automobile passage, but it's ok to stop there if you
own it

 

[Brian Degulis]

I'm with you Tobb Why bother things are complicated enough right left back front etc. would be just fine with me. Isn't it great when you get someone on your boat who's a non boater and ask him to go up front and grab a rope. Then you find out he studied before showing up and wants to know why your not using the nautical lingo?

" THE DEVIL TO PAY" came from the days when boats where beached for maintence. Paying is putting in the compuond over the caulking that term refered to the garboard plank because it was the last exposed by the falling tide and had to be Payed before the tide rose. It was then adapted to cover anything that was critical and must be done quickly.

Brian

 

[drburke]

I'm with you guys. It seems blowboaters really seem to care, and will
give a lecture at the drop of a hat, since they somehow have some
ego invested.

Them: "Avast, sasquatch off the larboard bow, maties!"

Me: "Grab that flying ropey thingy before we all die, you moron!"

Too much lingo, while pleasantly and historically amusing, sometimes gets in the
way of getting the job done, IMHO.

DAN

 

[Boss Lady]

Nautical jargon and military jargon, make for efficient communication for those trained and learned in the field. The military uses the term nomenclature. Nomenclature refers to a set or system of names or terms, as those used in a particular science or art, in this case the military art. Nautical terms have been handed down for centuries, hence there seeming remoteness to everyday terminology.

The reason that blow boaters take great pride is their sailing vessels require a great amount of study and familiarity just to be able to operate them, contrasted with our current generation of Sea Ray owners, who think it is just like owning a car.

The "Rules" require a certain amount of understanding nautical terms. What do you do if you are the give way vessel or the stand on vessel? The same think happens to the hapless who do not understand what can happen to your vessel when you make that call to SeaTow, if your vessel requires more that a tow or a can of gas under Maritime law. SeaTow ain't triple A (AAA) road service. LOL

We posted some of our favorite books/required reading, Here is an old link http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4035&highlight=books

 

[MikeP]

Admittedly, a lot of if seems arcane but in many ways the nautical "jargon" makes things easier to describe and use.

Something that is on the starboard side of the boat, for example, doesn't change sides depending on which way you are facing.

 

[Boss Lady]

Just imagine if airline pilots just decided to dispense with jargon? Or doctors, or engineers? In the military we use terms like affirmative or negative for yes and no. Clarity and precision are needed where life and limb are at risk. That is also why nautical terms are just that, precise and clear. The military weighs in heavily in the maritime arena as well. Operating a sailing vessel required a well disciplined crew, operating a large powered ship does also, especially a warship.

The navigation rules do not differentiate between a raft and an oil tanker, or a tall ship. The time to find out what a nautical term means is before you operate on the water, otherwise you may find out what it means in court if you are lucky, or at the pearly gates if you are really unlucky. LOL

 

[Trojan]

OK how about a chart and a map? They both do the same thing.

BILL

 

[Passages]

What is the difference between a chart and a map?


A chart, especially a nautical chart, has special unique characteristics including a very detailed and accurate representation of the coastline, which takes into account varying tidal levels and water forms, critical to a navigator. A map, on the other hand, emphasizes land forms, including the representation of relief, with shoreline represented as an approximate delineation usually at mean sea level.

A chart is a working document. It is used to plot courses for navigators to follow in order to transit a certain area It takes into account special conditions required for one's vessel, such as draft, bottom clearance, wrecks and obstructions which can be hazardous. Way points are identified to indicate relative position and points at which specific maneuver such as changing courses, must be performed. A map on the other hand is a static document which serves as a reference guide. A map is not, and can not be used to plot a course. Rather it provides a predetermined course, usually a road, path, etc., to be followed. Special consideration for the type of vehicle is rarely a consideration. Further, maps provide predetermined points-road intersections-to allow one a choice to change to another predetermined direction.

Charts provide detailed information on the area beneath the water surface, normally not visible to the naked eye, which can and is very critical for the safe and efficient navigation. Maps merely indicate a surface path providing no information of the condition of the road. For instance a map will not provide information on whether the road is under repair (except when it is a new road) or how many pot holes or other obstructions it may contain. However the driver is able to make a visual assessment of such conditions.

 

[Capt. Tobb]

DrBurke, that is intersting stuff.... I was cracking up about the thingys....
I understand the importance of knowing different terms , I wanted to see where some of them came from.

 

[Boatsb]

laughed so hard I forgot what I was going to say. Oh yea. leave the blowboaters alone. The need to talk about something and they don't have real engines or much in the mechanicals like us.

 

[Trojan]

I've never seen anything about water depth when I use the chart to fly.. If the chart had predetermined routes. Would it then be a map? Triple A gives you an in depth road chart, map. Maybe because you must chart your course and the map has done it for you. I'm I going to chart my map, OR I'm I going to map my chart. . Now I know why I have a GPS or is it a navigator?

BILL

 

[Passages]

I think the key is a chart is a working document used to plot routes where a map is more of a static, reference document.

On that basis, makes no difference whether you're in the air or on the water.

 

[Brian Degulis]

Here's an observation I spent many years running tugs and working with people in that field. The guys that really knew the jargon really took it seriously couldn't run a boat worth a crap.

Brian

 

[bigbill]

i still ain't figured out why a boat has fenders and a car has bumpers. bigbill .

 

[krush]

Here's an observation I spent many years running tugs and working with people in that field. The guys that really knew the jargon really took it seriously couldn't run a boat worth a crap.

Brian

So true. The good guys usually know the jargon, but they don't get hung up on it as long as communication is occuring.

The FAA Air Traffic Controllers have to use specific phrasology and pilots are encouraged to follow but it's not enforced.

 

[spartonboat1]

My tiny knowledge and that may be wrong:
Rope- before one or either ends are made fast.
Bight- the loose loop hanging from your hand that you are not holding.
Bitter End- what you are holding in your hands and manipulating to create a knot.

Make one end of a rope 'fast' to a bit or cleat, and you have a 'line'.

Falling overboard, you are between the 'devil' and the deep blue sea.

The term devil is based on the very bottom planks of a wooden ship, where the plank meets the keel and creates a 'seam'. The process of driving the cotton batten into this seam (or any ship's seam) is 'paying' the seam. The worst, back breaking, lowest seam on a big ship was called the "devil's" seam because it was so difficult to reach. So when you are in the water, below this lowest seam, the devil's seam, you are hence between the devil (devil's seam) and the water's surface (deep blue sea).

P.s., since you are paying a seam, and if the shipyard assigned you the devil's seam for the day you, ahem, had "the devil to pay"!.

Salon- the ship's/boat's/yacht's living room. Originally called a 'saloon', but when all the bars on shore in the glory days of sailing started to be called saloon's as well, they gave the ship's saloon's a bad name. So the ship's saloon became the 'salon' to remove the bad connotation, or so I understand.