technical talk
The side of a vessel opposite to where the wind is blowing from is known as _______.
What is the lee?
Via linguistic evolution from the Dutch, this word for “freebooter” or pirate has made its way into U.S. political practice.
What is filibuster?
This preeminent Briton famously summed up life in the Royal Navy with the phrase “rum, sodomy, and the lash.”
Who is Winston Churchill?
During World War II, this media figure inspired a slightly naughty nickname among U.S. Navy men for their life jackets.
Who is Mae West?
This unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour, was once measured with a rope-and-wood instrument known as a “chip log.”
What is a knot?
This unit of measurement, now used metaphorically to mean “grasp” or “understand,” was often called a “mark” during the days of Mississippi steamships and measures the distance covered by outstretched arms, or roughly 6 feet.
What is a fathom?
The phrase “to turn a blind eye,” or deliberately ignore something, was inspired by this aggressive captain, who, knowing that his admiral was signalling retreat, put his spyglass up to his blind eye so he could claim not to have seen the order.
Who is Horatio Nelson?
This phrase, based on the boatswain’s signal to send crew below decks, is still used today to tell someone to be quiet.
What is pipe down?
This sailor’s oath, essentially calling for his ship to be shattered into bits should he break his promise, dates back to at least the 1300s and remains a great favorite on International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
What is shiver me timbers?
This sun is over this part of a ship when it’s time to have a cocktail!
What is the yardarm?
This unit of measurement equals 1 minute of latitude at the equator.
What is a nautical mile?
Having the ropes controlling your sails untied has given rise to this colorful way of saying that someone has had one too many cups of grog?
What is a three sheets to the wind?
This synonym for a melancholy mood seems to have arisen from the flags and trim used on a ship to note that the captain or another officer had recently died.
What is feeling blue? (Or the blues.)
This common synonym for “carefree” or “devil-may-care” originally described the unhappy situation that arose when the bottom portion of a sail became unsecured and flapped freely in the wind.
What is footloose?
A modern ship will use an anemometer to measure this.
What is wind speed?
Of the two terms “flotsam” and “jetsam”—used frequently but erroneously as identical—this one refers to items deliberately tossed off a vessel.
What is jetsam?
When ashore, a sailing ship’s cook would often collect the fatty runoff left in pork barrels and sell it on the side for extra money. This unofficial reserve came to be known as a _________.
What is a slush fund?
Another way of saying that something is “shipshape” is to refer to it as having been done in “_____ fashion,” after this famous port in England.
What is Bristol?
This three-word phrase, meaning to obey or conform, derives from the way sailors in the Royal Navy (and soldiers in the British army) assembled for inspection.
What is toe the line?
Legally speaking, your vessel is this if not “at anchor, made fast to the shore, or aground.”
What is underway? (Or under way.)
This synthetic language has served as the International Maritime Organization’s official form of spoken communication at sea since 1983.
What is Seaspeak?
The term “over a barrel,” meaning to be in some kind of trouble, does not refer to being dropped in with the pickles, or the apples, or whatever is being carted around. It comes from the preparation for this shipboard punishment.
What is flogging? (Or whipping, or the cat-o'-nine tails.)
Unless you are in the middle of a running gunfight, when your captain gives an order to splice the mainbrace, he is calling for this to happen.
What is doling out an extra ration of rum? (Or any reasonable equivalent.)
This 4-letter word, similar in spelling to a famous nautical greeting, describes a lopsided state of affairs, the opposite of shipshape.
What is ahoo?
Until about the 1840s, this term was frequently used by the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy as a synonym for the port side of a ship.
What is larboard?