KEELHAULING
Myth or Horror ? First, an apology. These are crushing news days to an old journalist. ICE and Epstein have built up a depression that slowed me. Dockwalloping posts faltered. I started this blog because the publishing world, as I knew it, is gone. I’ve lost track of how many books I’ve published, somewhere north…
SCUTTLEBUTT
Etymological Digression THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN A AND B is a straight line. But the trip is often dull. Granted that a scientific paper should make a bee-line from “If we accelerate atomic particles magnetically to near-cvelocity…” to “QED [See appendix for charts].” No stops at the tavern, no sidelights on the lab’s bill for liquid nitrogen, or how…
Nelson’s Blood
Dockwalloping #9 This is all your fault. I set out to describe a delightfully grisly bit of sea lore: Why sailors called their daily ration of rum “Nelson’s Blood.” The well-circulated story suggests that when Admiral Nelson was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar his body was returned to England for a posh funeral. To…
Little Nippers
Dockwalloping #8 Have you ever begun a project with a light, untroubled heart – “This will be a lark, no sweat.” – but a bit farther down the road you discover that you’ve navigated yourself into a swamp and the sun is dropping low? The usual subject of this blog is maritime heritage, which is…
JOLLY TARS
Sailor Talk on the Dock #7 JACK TAR was and is a general moniker for sailors, especially in the Age of Sail. What was so tarry about Jack? Jack lived in a world of tar. The barkie, itself, was waterproofed by caulking every plank seam with fiber dipped in tar, called oakum. Every item of deck…
Sailor Talk on the Dock #6
THERE’S A FELLAH somewhere in DC who has been given a dandy position and a swell office. He bought new ties and has his name on the door over Bob Gilka’s somber warning, “Wipe knees before entering.” I’m in mind to give this jasper a short cruise about half way across Penobscot Bay. This urban…
Shake a Leg!
HURRY UP! GET MOVING! SHAKE A LEG! Listen to yourself. How can I run if I’m trying to shake my leg? How did this quaint bit of diction fall on us? The derivation of this adjuration is simple but you must scrub it and dip it in disinfectant. It’s one of those linguistic idioms that…
Sailor Talk on the Dock #4
CATASTROPHE! CATACLYSM! CALAMITY! You tell me you’ve got trouble? You’re in dire straits, the proverbial pickle. Things look grim. You may be between the devil and the deep blue sea. It’s a venerable phrase, a portentous description of bad times. It sounds like something delivered from the pulpit, admonitorily, to a parish of sheep stealers. Certainly…
Sailor Talk on the Dock: 3
YOU CAN’T BEAT A DEAD HORSE. This self-evident factoid sounds terrestrial, because time-honored lore insists that sailors and horses are not easy companions. A pigtailed sailor up on an English saddle riding to hounds is a comical figure, though Captain Jack Aubrey of O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series would tell us to belay our levity (and add…
Sailor Talk On the Dock: 2
Most of life is vamping – a jazz term meaning jumping on a riff and trying to harmonize until you find the melody. Even if your life is regular and same-same, every day is infinitely different. Rain, breeze, squirrels on the roof, crows being sarcastic in your sycamore tree, different. But we’re good at vamping.…
Ahoy, shipmates!
I’ve wanted to create this blog for years, a source of maritime heritage, sailor talk, skills, legends, superstitions, voyages, heroes (male and female), boats, and connections. I’m the poor sod who writes and illustrates the four page “Skills 101” feature in each issue of WoodenBoat Magazine. Until last year it was an 8 page “Getting…
