Naval terms…

And their origins… 🙂

Every profession has its own jargon and the Navy is no exception. For the Navy, it’s bulkhead, deck and overhead and not wall, floor, and ceiling. Some nautical terminology has found its way into everyday use, and you will find the origins of this and Navy terminology below.

Log Book-In the early days of sailing ships, the ship’s records were written on shingles cut from logs. These shingles were hinged and opened like a book. The record was  called the “log book.” Later, when paper was readily available and bound into books, the record maintained its name.

Long Shot-Today it’s a gambling term for an event that would take an inordinate amount of luck. It’s origins are nautical. Because ships’ guns in early days were very
inaccurate except at close quarters, it was an extremely lucky shot that would find its target from any great distance.

Mayday-“Mayday” is the internationally recognized voice radio signal for ships and people in serious trouble at sea. Made official in 1948, it is an anglicizing of the French
m’aidez, “help me”.

No Quarter-“No quarter given” means that one gives his opponent no opportunity to surrender. It stems from the old custom by which officers, upon surrender, could ransom themselves by paying one quarter of a year’s pay.

Pea Coat-Sailors who have to endure pea-soup weather often don their pea coats, but the coat’s name isn’t derived from the weather. The heavy topcoat worn in cold,  miserable weather by seafaring men was once tailored from pilot cloth – a heavy, course, stout kind of twilled blue cloth with the nap on one side. The cloth was sometimes called P-cloth for the initial letter of “pilot” and the garment made from it was called a p-jacket – later, a pea coat. The term has been used since 1723 to denote coats made from that cloth.

Port holes-The word originated during the reign of Henry VI of England, who insisted on mounting guns too large for his ship and the traditional methods of securing these
weapons on the forecastle and aftcastle could not be used. A French shipbuilder was commissioned to solve the problem. He put small doors in the side of the ship and
mounted the cannon inside the ship. The doors protected the cannon from weather and were opened when the cannon were to be used. The French word for “door” is “porte”
which was later Anglicized to “port” and later went on to mean any opening in the ship’s side.

Now you know… LOL

 

Comments

Naval terms… — 9 Comments

  1. Hey OldNFO, any idea how the term “head” became the word for the restroom? They didn’t teach us that in Marine boot camp.

  2. From brighthubengineering DOT com: “In the days of sailing ships, the forerunner of today’s marine toilet was known as the head or heads as there were normally two of them, some of them being enclosed in a shelter like our old outhouse toilets.

    They were located on each side of the bowsprit, which was an integral part of the ship’s bow, overlooked only by the figurehead at the head of the ship, and this is how the marine toilets become known as the head. Incidentally, the word head came from a Roman galley, where the prow with the armor and battering ram was sometimes referred to as the beak’s head.”

    • They were at the bow because they are downwind of the ship.

  3. You forgot skivvies. My little sister got in an argument with one of the neighbor kids over the name of said article of clothing.

  4. I learned a lot of interesting naval terms during my enlistment, but it would be impolite to use them here.

  5. Any words of wisdom on the current, frequent use of *sir referring to a female officer? Seems contrary to the Army usage I remember. Is it Navyism?

  6. The skipper of the ship kept a small, stainless steel lock box which he opened every morning, glanced briefly inside, then locked back up. He had the only key, and would never reveal what was in the box. He kept this up for years, never telling anyone the content of the box.

    One night he passed away quietly in his sleep. The ship’s officers, being curious, got hold of the key and opened the box. What they found astounded them.

    In the box was a parchment, carefully lettered:
    Port = Left
    Starboard = Right