Some "Whaler Talk" circa 1770 . . .

[Gil Weiss]

A British colleague of mine sent the following email message yesterday"

"Good on ye, Shipmate. I'll be tyin' up alongside ye when I get me sea legs back - fouled a snag wi' th' topping lift o' me larboard stun'sl boom, and I'm hull-down wi' me deadlights stove, mizzen halyards froze to the jackyard top'sl, and oakum sprung to the catheads.
Arrrrrrrrrr....splice the mainbrace!"

Thought this might be of interest here to the sailing crowd. Some great terminolgy for the sea fari'n group. After some analysis of the terminolgy me thinks my friend was telling me he was drunk and/or hung over. For some interesting info Google the term "deadlights stove".

Aye boys . . .

[Craig Weis]

On glass portals a protective cover, usually a cast piece, is hinged at the bottom of the portal and in times of foul weather these are slapped up and dogged down in place. Ready to take against the sea.

When the sea wins and 'stoves in the deadlights' all hope is lost and the hull begins to fill as nothing...not the glass nor the cast cover are stopping the sea from coming in.  :cry: Hey mate? Language is fun. skip.

[Gil Weiss]

Aye, language is fun . . .I am involved in a project here at work for a new museum in Virginia dealing with George Washington. The exhibit in  question deals with people fishing for Red Herring in the Potomac River back in George's day. They used nets and we need to find out what their words meant for the different parts of the fishing nets like the 'spreader line", the "hauling line", and the "slack line" etc.

So far Google has not been any help . .