Ships at Work

by Mary Elting

WHAT SEAMEN SAY

Here are some words that you haven’t met in the rest of the book. They are all part of seagoing language.

AHOY—a call given by men on one ship to greet men on another.

AVAST—an officer shouts “avast” if he wants a seaman to stop hauling on a line.

BELAY—to tie or make fast. A belaying pin is a short rod which can be stuck into a holder so that a line can be twisted around it. There were many belaying pins on old sailing vessels, and they made handy weapons at times.

DEEP SIX—when a sailor throws something overboard, he “gives it the deep six.” The expression comes from the days when sailors measured the depth of water with a leadline. The “deep six” was a place on the line which showed the water was six fathoms (36 feet) deep.

FOUL—Seamen use this word to describe anything that has gone wrong or got mixed up. A snarled line is foul. A ship’s hull covered with barnacles is foul. Bad weather is foul.

NORWEGIAN STEAM—seamen say they use “Norwegian steam” when they do heavy work without the help of machinery.

SCUTTLE BUTT—the drinking fountain on a ship. Because seamen often gather there to talk, the rumors and gossip that they pass on are also called “scuttle butt.”

SEA LAWYER—a seaman who likes to argue about rules and regulations.

SLOP CHEST—a room where seamen can buy clothes. Every ship is required to have one.

SLUMGULLION—a seaman’s word for stew that he doesn’t like.

TRAMP—a freighter that ties up anywhere and has no regular schedule.

WINDJAMMER—a sailing vessel.

Code flags make it possible for ships to talk to each other at sea. Each flag stands for a number or for a letter in the alphabet. The flags are used in combinations—not to spell out individual words, but to send a whole message. For instance, the two flags N and C flown together mean, “In distress. Need prompt aid.” No matter what language a seaman speaks he knows what this signal means. Some of the other messages he can read are IQ—“Do not pass ahead of me”; RW—“Where are you from?”; AG—“Shall not abandon my vessel.”

INDEX

[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [I], [J], [K], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [Q], [R], [S], [T], [U], [V], [W].

AB, [12], [26]
Able Bodied Seaman, [12]
accommodation ladder, [26]
amidships, [25]
anchor, [34-35]
athwartships, [25]
backstay, [28]
banana boats, [43-46]
basket boat, [40]
barge, [60], [80], [81]
barnacles, [50]
batten down the hatches, [27]
beam, [28]
bells, [14]
bilge, [28]
bireme, [33]
booms, [27]
bosun, [24], [29]
bosun’s chair, [29], [31]
bow, [12]
Bowditch, Nathaniel, [18], [19]
brightwork, [31]
bulkhead, [24]
buoy, [82]
canal, [62], [80], [81]
capstan, [22]
captain, [29]
chantey, [21], [22]
charts, [84-87]
Chips, [24], [25], [34]
Clermont, [58]
clipper, [75], [76]
City of Norfolk, [76], [77]
Coast Guard, [82], [83]
companionway, [24]
compass, [17], [18]
crow’s nest, [13]
davit, [46]
depth recorder, [57]
dhow, [33]
dock, [27]
draft, [28]
drydock, [50-51]
dugout, [32]
Egypt, [31-32]
engineer, [30]
engine room telegraph, [19]
fathom, [58]
fender, [54]
ferry boats, [78], [79]
fireboat, [81]
firemen, [30]
fishing vessels, [66-70]
forecastle, [10]
gantries, [44]
galley, [12]
galleys, [33]
Great Lakes Ships, [60-62]
handy billy, [25]
Hassler, Ferdinand, [84-86]
hatch, [27]
hawse pipe, [34]
heaving line, [53]
helm, [26]
helmsman, [26]
ice breaker, [62]
International Code flags, [91]
Jacob’s ladder, [26]
junk, [39]
jury rudder, [37]
keelboat, [58]
king posts, [27]
knots, [29]
leadline, [57], [58], [85]
leeward, [25]
lifeboat, [44-46], [73], [74]
lifeline, [38]
life raft, [41]
lighter, [40]
lights, [15]
limey, [65]
locks, [62]
Mark Twain, [58]
marlinspike, [29]
mate, [14]
merchant ship types, [64-65]
messmen, [31]
mizzenmast, [24], [29]
monkey fist, [53], [54]
navigating, [19]
oiler, [30]
oil tanker, [37-41]
Old Bay Line, [76], [77]
ore carriers, [60-62]
outrigger, [39]
paddleboats, [58], [80]
papyrus reed canoe, [32]
passenger ships, [70-79]
pea coat, [10]
pier, [27]
pilot, [26], [57]
pilot house, [26]
poop deck, [28]
port, [15]
purse seine, [68]
Queen Mary, [72]
quartermaster, [26]
radar, [56], [57], [77]
radio man, [31]
raft, [40]
SOS, [82], [83]
sailor, [12]
sailor’s palm, [21]
Samson posts, [27]
Santa Maria, [33]
schooner, [66], [67]
scrimshaw, [49]
sea anchor, [45]
Seatrain, [42]
sheepshank, [29]
shroud, [28]
sparks, [31]
standing watch, [10-19]
starboard, [15]
stay, [28]
steward, [31]
storm oil, [45], [46]
survey ships, [86-87]
taffrail log, [28]
tanker, [37-41]
tides, [88]
towboat, [54-59]
trawler, [69]
trireme, [33]
tugs, [52-59]
United States, [70-74]
United States Coast Guard, [82], [83]
United States Coast Guard and Geodetic Survey, [86-87]
Viking ships, [39]
watch, [12]
whaler, [48-49]
wharf, [27]
wheel, [17]
wheelhouse, [13-14], [17], [26]
wildcat, [35]
windlass, [35]
windward, [25]

The saltiest thanks of the author and artist go to the following who, in one way or another, have helped make this book possible: Margaret Gossett; R. L. Jones of the Old Bay Line; Inez M. DeVille of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Penelope Spurr of the United Fruit Company; Arthur L. Pleasants, Captain, USN; Samuel S. Yeaton, Colonel, USN, Ret.; the Cleveland, Ohio, Chamber of Commerce: the Lake Carriers Association, the Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Virginia; the National Maritime Union, CIO; the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce; the Pennsylvania Railroad; the State of Washington; Department of Fisheries; the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; Seatrain Lines, Inc.; the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey); the State of New York, Department of Public Works; the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; the United States Coast Guard; the United States Lines; and finally to a modest AB and to many people who have written careful, enthusiastic books about ships and seafaring men.

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$1.50 SHIPS AT WORK By Mary Elting Illustrated by Manning deV. Lee Here is the colorful, exciting life of the sea—the men, the ships they sail, the work they do, the cargoes they carry to the far corners of the world—all vividly presented. Freighters, tankers, ferries, tugs, and the many unusual ships that do highly specialized jobs are shown in action. The work, the sailor’s language, the kind of life a seaman lives, the use of recent inventions (such as radar) all contribute to this fascinating picture of SHIPS AT WORK. The newest and proudest of ocean liners, the “United States,” is pictured and described as well as the humblest dugouts and sailing vessels of ancient times. The illustrator, famous for his marine paintings, has combined beauty with clear, sharp detail. His many full-color pictures in this book give added interest to your seafaring knowledge. You will find this book an exciting companion to TRAINS AT WORK, TRUCKS AT WORK, MACHINES AT WORK.

Garden City Books Garden City, New York

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MACHINES AT WORK By Mary Elting Illustrated by Laszlo Roth There are machines to dig, to hammer, to push—to do every kind of heavy job and to make work thousands of times easier and faster. On farms, in the mines, in cities where huge buildings are built and out in the woods where powerdriven saws slice through great trees, many kinds of special machines do many kinds of remarkable jobs. Can you imagine a giant shovel so huge that it took 45 freight cars to haul it from factory to mine? Do you know that there is a machine that plucks the feathers off chickens, ones that pick corn, dig potatoes? Inventors of machines work on everything—they even had fun making a mechanical mouse that can sniff about until it finds a piece of “cheese” and then “remember” and run straight to it next time! As marvelous and complicated as all these machines are, the author points out that no inventions will ever be as wonderful as the men who invented them—and the men who make them work. Garden City Books Garden City, New York

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