Saturday 23 July 2016

Nautical Terms II

Recently, I listed "Nautical Terms" in Poul Anderson's The Merman's Children. This is what I am learning from SM Stirling's Island In The Sea Of Time (New York, 1998), pp. 12-13:

"Nor'easter at twenty knots."
mast captain
royals
topgallants
doused
struck
clew up
tacks
sheets
pinrail supervisor
clewlines
buntlines
bunt-leechlines
the yards
sea furl
ratlines
Dacron
Benin bronze (not nautical)
quarterdeck
yards sharp-braced
prow
cutwater
forecastle
hawseholes
scuppers
windjammer (see image)
stern
main and foremasts
forward lookout
bows
shoal water
sandbars
tacking
rigging
wind southing
"Brace them sharp..."

Now I could google that entire list but why not let page viewers do that this time if they want to? Meanwhile, what is happening in the sky? We will get to that soon. Anyone else reading the novel right now will be way ahead of me.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

This listing of nautical terms reminded me of something Jerry Pournelle said about wind powered sailing ship technology: that obsolete does not mean SIMPLE. That is, the technology of pre-steam powered was as sophisticated as anything used by modern ships today.

Sean