I was lying in bed the other night, thinking about how wonderful it was to have a storm board next to my rack (bed). A storm board is simply a board that sticks in next to your mattress to keep you from rolling out of your rack in heavy seas. I then went on to think about all the nautical terms that we deal with on the water. Heads, galleys, starboard, port, forecastle, boatswain, bow, stern, amidships, keel strake, skuttlebutt, skupper, fathom, lazerette, fantail and the list goes on for days. I started to wonder a little about the history of some of these terms and the "why" of the vocabulary, but without any Internet search capabilities at the time, I decided to come up with my own theory. Let me know what you think. My wife gives me a hard time because I have a couple theories here and there that I standby... 1. Wearing hats makes your bald, and 2. Regular Lotion keeps your skin moist and helps against sunburn. 3. There's a private underground company out there that helps musicians/stars fake their deaths when they get too overwhelmed with stardom.. (John Denver, Jim Croce, Elvis, Marilyn, Jim Morrison, Whitney, etc.... they are all still alive! I know I know... But why not have some fun theories to create controversy. :-).
When humans started to explore the seas and few days back, it was as if they were stepping onto a new un-inhabited land. The land of water. It had no language, and it had no people except for those brave soles venturing out to exploring it. We decided that this new land needed its own language like most other countries, so we soon developed words to explain things that had never been dealt with on land. The people, called "mariners" were part of this new "country" and they created their own language. We could have easily called a galley a kitchen, but why not have a cool fancy name instead, so be it. These new countrymen soon had their own language, their own rituals, folklore and traditions and history.
I love that some of the terms are spelled one way, yet pronounced completed different. Boatswain=" Bozun", Forecastle="Folksole" and that there are no ropes on a boat, just lines. A rope graduates to "line" status once it steps foot on a boat. I found some really good old salty vocabulary in "2 Years Before The Mast" (great book), and learned that hot tea was referred to by sailors as "Water Bewitched" back in "the day", and that "Soggering" is essentially "looking busy" but not really accomplishing much.
Some people believe in certain maritime superstitions, and I do as well, mostly for the sake of tradition. For instance, whistling on a boat is considered by many to be bad luck. Bananas, cats and even women were at one time considered to be bad luck on a boat. Black duffle bags and leaving port on Friday are considered by some to still be bad luck.
We've grown to accept many of these traditions and have also attempted to abide by numerous rules and laws in an attempt to create safer, and cleaner waters. Most people don't realize it, but its ok to dump trash at sea at a given point off shore. There are certain things that are never thrown over... chemicals, oils, fuels and plastics being the big no no's.
So, next time you step out onto the water, keep in mind that you are basically entering a whole different world. Ask questions about "why" things are called what they are. A good mariner will have answers about many of these wonderful terms. Many things on the water have really cool stories behind them that date back thousands of years. Port and Starboard for instance, used to be "Larboard" and Starboard, but they found that in noisy conditions, they sounded too alike. Since many of the boats would unload their cargo on the Larboard side of the boat in port, they would also refer to that side of the boat as the Port side, and soon they just referred to the left side of the boat as the Port side instead. If you have trouble remembering port and starboard, just remember that port and "left" both have four letters. Plus, port wine is red, so it's easy to remember that the left navigation light is red, the right is green.
I love being on the water because it's peaceful, but the rich history, traditions and crazy folklore is what lures me here. To belong to this odd group of people/countrymen is something that runs in your blood. Luckily for me, I was raised around the water and it comes naturally to me. Millions of people in the world will never have the opportunities that I've had to understand and be apart of this crazy land. For that alone, I feel grateful and privileged. I hope that somewhere along the line, someone who hasn't been around the water, will come across my ramblings and find some sort of inspiration that leads to some wetland exploration. Being out in the a large vast open pool of water really puts the rest of the earth into perspective.
That's all for now. My storm boards and I have a date.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment