Heads - to complete your Headucation

[harry potter]

Head

If you were (unlucky?) enough to be on a ship during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, you’d have had to go to the toilet at the head (or bow) of the ship. So, another word for toilet was born. The toilet was located in this part of the ship as the waves would rise up against the bow, washing the waste away.

The first known use of the term was in 1708, when Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas, wrote ‘head’ to refer to a ship’s toilet in his book, A Cruising Voyage Around the World.

What are Some Alternative Words for Toilet and Where do they Come From?

 

[harry potter]

Head

If you were (unlucky?) enough to be on a ship during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, you’d have had to go to the toilet at the head (or bow) of the ship. So, another word for toilet was born. The toilet was located in this part of the ship as the waves would rise up against the bow, washing the waste away.

The first known use of the term was in 1708, when Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas, wrote ‘head’ to refer to a ship’s toilet in his book, A Cruising Voyage Around the World.

What are Some Alternative Words for Toilet and Where do they Come From?

 

[RichardS]

Does Governor Rogers have anything to say about where the smell comes from?

Richard

 

[RichardS]

Errrrr ........ not again, surely?

Richard

 

[KeelsonGraham]

Not sure you’re right. The heads were located at the bow because ships could only sail downwind.

 

[oldharry]

Why have you posted this twice. Are you trying to get something in to our heads.....?

 

[Moderator]

Merged

Mod.

 

[oldharry]

Not sure you’re right. The heads were located at the bow because ships could only sail downwind.

No, the wind is always heading you on passage - we all know that! Hence the saying from the days of the sailing Navy that the wind is always fresher before the mast - the officers quarters being downwind of the crew and the heads.

See Eric Newby's account of using the heads in his book 'the Last Great Grain Race', how with any sea running they became 'self flushing' to the hilarity of onlookers when someone was caught.

Also in submariners parlance, 'getting your own back' stemmed from wrong operation of a submarines heads while submerged. Open the valves in the wrong sequence and external water pressure would blast the bowl contents back in your face, reportedly with some force!

See also Haydn's famous post 20 years ago of a holding tank that got pressurised and 'exploded (its contents) with roar' across the cabin .

 

[Irish Rover]

Also in submariners parlance, 'getting your own back' stemmed from wrong operation of a submarines heads while submerged.

I'd safely say there were foolish people pissing against the wind long before my fellow Clare man John Phillip Holland took to exploring the depths.

 

[KeelsonGraham]

“No, the wind is always heading you on passage - we all know that! Hence the saying from the days of the sailing Navy that the wind is always fresher before the mast”

I can’t see how this can be true for an old square rigger. Also, if you take a look at old oil paintings of square riggers under sail, the masthead pennants are flying forwards.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The first known use of the term was in 1708, when Woodes Rogers, Governor of the Bahamas, wrote ‘head’ to refer to a ship’s toilet in his book, A Cruising Voyage Around the World.

The OED thinks 1712:

 

[Daydream believer]

I went aboard an old gaffer moored in the creek by the Thirslet buoy when I was a young lad. It had a long counter & I noticed a 9 inch hole through to the sea, well aft of the tiller. It took a while, but I finally worked out what it was for. At least it would never get blocked.

 

[Bilgediver]

I went aboard an old gaffer moored in the creek by the Thirslet buoy when I was a young lad. It had a long counter & I noticed a 9 inch hole through to the sea, well aft of the tiller. It took a while, but I finally worked out what it was for. At least it would never get blocked.

There is a square rigger in Amsterdam. It has a Posh one in the Captains quarters back aft. on the side overhang. Was told by an expert in such matters it felt draughty.

 

[Charlie Boy]

I always thought that ”going to the loo” was the act of going to the leeward. I’ve often heard old salts pronounce it ”looward” and if you needed to pee then you would obviously go to the leeward of the vessel.

 

[JumbleDuck]

I always thought that ”going to the loo” was the act of going to the leeward. I’ve often heard old salts pronounce it ”looward” and if you needed to pee then you would obviously go to the leeward of the vessel.

 

[Charlie Boy]

Yes, I’ve seen various learned items on the word but none have quite the same appeal (to my ear) as the idea that a sailor might say the he is ‘going to the loo[ward]’ when he needs a piss