Ma r i t i M e tr i v i a
Lowtide
Why do we sail “before the mast?” Landlubber doesn’t mean “lover”.
Because when a man goes to sea as a
By Br y a n He n r y
Rather, it’s from the Danish lobbes,
common seaman, he is quartered in the meaning a “clown” or “bumpkin”. So
forward part of a ship—literally, before the term means a person who lives on
the mast. land and is inexperienced or awkward
The first log was actually made aboard a ship.
The term “high seas” means all the
of wood. Starting about the time of
waters which are not the property of a
Columbus, sailing ships kept track of The word “Limey” for a sailor in the
particular country - that is, those beyond
their speed by means of a log - a thin British Navy goes back to 1795, when
the three-mile limit. The word “high”
quadrant of wood, loaded to float upright lime juice was issued by the Admiralty
indicates that the seas are public, just as
and connected to a line wound around a as an anti-scorbutic. The sailors were
highway means a public way.
reel. The record of distance traveled was originally called lime-juicers and then
kept in a log book. “limeys.”
The expression “all in the same
boat”, a term meaning equality of
opportunity - or lack of it - stems from
being shipwrecked. When a ship was
wrecked and had to be abandoned, all
distinction of class was abandoned, too.
Each person had to accept and share
their common fate - thus they were all in
the same boat together.
The word lemon in lemon sole
has nothing to do with the fruit lemon.
Rather, it’s a translation of the French
word limande, meaning any kind of flat
fish (like sole or flounder).
German submarines were called
U-boats because the German word for
submarine is unterseeboot - so the “U”
stands for “undersea.”
The flag of the United Kingdom is
properly known as the Union Flag. It
is only called the Union Jack when it’s
flown from the jack mast of a ship.
The term “in the swim” originates
from fishing. Anglers called a gathering,
or school, of fish, a “swim”. It eventually
took on the meaning of social gatherings
of large groups. So to be a part of such
gatherings was to be “in the swim”.
The expression “keeled over”
to describe someone knocked flat is
nautical and implies that a ship turned
over by the wind is keeled over, since its
keel is above water.
The term larboard is from the Old
English lade-bord, meaning “loading
side.” Since the steering oar of early
sailing vessels was on the starboard side,
the opposite side was brought to dock
for loading.
48° No r t h , Se p t e m b e r 2009 pa g e 35
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