Navigable waters cover almost three-quarters of the surface of our
planet, and they have been home to centuries of seafarers who,
being isolated from land for extensive periods, developed a
specialized language all their own. Their language is a complex
mixture of the strange and the familiar, including words taken from
many English dialects, coined words, slang words, words used by
mariners speaking other tongues, and words developed to identify
occupations, titles, equipment, or activities. With its many
intricate nuances, 'navalese' can be as esoteric and
incomprehensible to the layperson as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs -
but such a specialized language is vitally important to a
profession in which complex technical concepts need to be
communicated briefly and accurately from seaman to seaman. This
book is an alphabetical compendium of more than 9000 nautical terms
taken from numerous dictionaries, glossaries and other sources of
nautical terminology, including volumes on nautical customs and
traditions, ghost ships, paranormal maritime events, sea serpents,
and marine monsters. Many of the entries are brief and factual, but
when appropriate the author has inserted anecdotal material of
colorful or intrinsic interest. The volume should be a helpful
reference for researchers and laymen who want to understand
nautical speech and customs, but it should also be of use for
professional seafarers who cannot always be familiar with the
complex vocabularies of today's specialized maritime occupations,
let alone those of bygone ages. There is an appendix that discusses
real and speculative sea monsters, while 17 tables cover wind and
wave measurement, date and time notation, phonetic alphabets,
maritime signals, navigation rules, military and naval ranks and
ratings, and the process of boxing the compass.
General
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