What Merchant Mariners See In You

Roger that. Not what I would do transiting the Straits of Gibraltar, eh…

Never heard anybody use those terms. Just port and starboard. And yes, tugs… maybe there are regional differences

If you sail out of Long Beach you probably never will.

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Long Beach, Los Angeles (San Pedro) is my home port. Yeah. But I’ve sailed with tug guys with a whole lot more experience on tugs etc than I will ever have and I’ve never heard them use that. What’s the region where this is common?

Gulf of Mexico and most of the east coast. Interesting to me to find out it doesn’t jump over to the west coast but the example lee shore gave is about as accurate as it gets in my opinion.

Do your tug guys over there use terms like “hook it up” when they’re pushing full ahead?

Now I’m interested in the different regional US maritime dialects.

A post was split to a new topic: Different regional US maritime dialects

That sounds more like U.S. inland type situation, a confirmation of a obvious passing situation.

“What are your intentions” would be more applicable to a pre- RULE 34 situation: (d) When vessels in sight of one another are approaching each other and from any cause either vessel fails to understand the intentions or actions of the other.

I’ve heard it used offshore on a regular basis in the Gulf too. Show of hands, how many of you OSV guys have heard something along the lines of “M/V Coullion, outbound at the candlesticks, see all inbounders on the one.” Rabbit field and hole-in-the-wall are outside the demarcation line, but they’re still using it there… I’ve heard it used well offshore (50+ miles) too.

That’s a product of the lack of professionalism you see among a lot of the OSV operators. “I’m just a boat driver, no college degree here.”

Using colloquialisms are a purely situation thing, or at least they should be. Dealing with another vessel from your AOR, who is going to understand you? Sure, that’s fine. Dealing with a foreign ship? Clear, consicse and by the book. It’s not that hard. You don’t have to be Norwegian to get it.

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The world would be a better place if we could all be Norwegian. No more ship collisions, wars, poverty, or famine.

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Amen to that.

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All language is local. Most of us travel the world beyond our homes. We hear English spoken as a first language we can hardly understand. (Ever been north of London?) That doesn’t mean those speakers are unprofessional or uneducated.

The trick to communication is to speak in a way that communicates your ideas, not peppering your speech with highfalutin gobbledygook.

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Here is the one I was looking for, but I didn’t find the actual cartoon:

Example of philosophical reasoning terminating in a logical conclusion:

Britain and America are two countries divided by a common language. (Bernard Shaw)

North London? Nothing special there. You mean northern England?

And that’s not even counting Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Though even those countries have varying regional dialects within them. Some more decipherable to foreigners, some not.

So what do you propose? That all mariners the world over be mandated to speak in a taught dialect? Transatlantic English perhaps? The problem is often nonnative English speakers not being well versed enough in English, and not having a wide ranging enough vocabulary. The vocabulary doesn’t need to be standardized any further. It already is, all one needs is a dictionary. I’m all for world wide maritime schools/academies to have better English instruction and requirements for proficiency.

That we be sure to teach all foreigners the CORRECT use of the word “kindly”.

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