You Favorite Mis-Used Naultical Jargon

[JumbleDuck]

"Pushpit" - evidently conceived as the corollary of 'pulpit'.
" Taffrail" is the correct term, according to the instructions for my trailing log.

I think a "taffrail" is the wooden top of railing. I refer to the thing at the back of my boat as the "rear pulpit" because it looks very similar to the front one. I must measure some time, because it may even be exactly the same. Ah, the joys of doublendedness.

 

[Poignard]

I think a "taffrail" is the wooden top of railing. I refer to the thing at the back of my boat as the "rear pulpit" because it looks very similar to the front one. I must measure some time, because it may even be exactly the same. Ah, the joys of doublendedness.

TAFFAREL, couronnement, the upper part of a ship’s stern, being a curved piece of wood, expressed by F F, in fig. 1. plate X. and usually ornamented with sculpture.

From Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine

 

[Hydrozoan]

… From Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine

I find in that reference: 'Quarter-cloths, bastingage, long pieces of painted canvas, extended on the outside of the quarter-netting from the upper-part of the gallery to the gangway. They are generally decorated with martial instruments, or allegorical figures.'

If we reverted to that usage, it would avoid any confusion between 'dodger = sprayhood' and 'dodger = canvas panel on guardwires'. Artful, eh?

 

[jbweston]

‘Supertanker’...

and one that really, really grates.

‘shipper’ when the Press (including the FT and the Economist, who really should know better) mean ‘shipowner’. The shipper is the seller of the cargo.

And 'freight' which is one of those words that's used differently in different trades and industries. On land, freight is stuff transported by lorry/truck or train/railroad. At sea (certainly in the English courts and the law) 'freight' is the payment for transport of cargo (or it always was when I was a legal nipper*). That leads to the interesting concept of 'sub-freights' - not as a landsman might imagine, cargo carried aboard a submarine, but rather the payment made by the shipper to a carrier who's the charterer of the vessel (rather than its owner).

*I assume 'nipper' is another nautical one.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I think a "taffrail" is the wooden top of railing. I refer to the thing at the back of my boat as the "rear pulpit" because it looks very similar to the front one. I must measure some time, because it may even be exactly the same. Ah, the joys of doublendedness.

My understanding is that the taffrail is an integral part of the framing of a wooden vessel, and is used as a strong point to secure rigging etc. It is analogous to a samson post, which also has an intimate connection with the framing of a vessel. A pushpit (a term that has been in everyday use since at least the 1960s) is a part of the guard rail system and is akin to a stanchion. The two are not synonymous, and I think that using "taffrail" to mean "pushpit" is incorrect. If I were to apply the term "taffrail" to my GRP boat at all, I would use it to mean the upper edge of the transom, not the pushpit.

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

"Graphic Images" !!!!!
All b!%&) images are graphic.

 

[ryanroberts]

The little seats you sometimes see fitted to the back of semi/trad stern narrowboats ended up being called 'taff seats' by builders. Mine, before adding cushions. About as not nautical as you can get. Comfy though.

 

[LittleSister]

"Graphic Images" !!!!!
All b!%&) images are graphic.

And so is text!

 

[Old Bumbulum]

"Graphic Images" !!!!!
All b!%&) images are graphic.

Just as virtually all foodstuffs (except salt and water) are organic.

 

[oldgit]

I just point and shout............works everytime.

 

[claymore]

I have a friend who says 'Avast behind' each time his wife climbs down the ladder onto their boat. She never has cottoned on!

 

[clyst]

Yacht for sale, 5 'birth'.

A bit of irony there !??

 

[Old Bumbulum]

'The Devil to pay' is seldom used correctly as it refers to difficulty in achieving a task due to unpreparedness/lack of foresight rather than merely an angry, contentious or unwanted outcome.