Leaving ship for the night in a yard in Korea and asked by the night shift sup’t about the work order to replace a kingpost cleat with a bent horn. “A new one, just like that one.” We came back the next morning to find a brand new cleat, with a bent horn just like the one that was replaced. We assumed it was obvious why the cleat was being replaced, but apparently not.
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A buddy of mine in Singapore ordered new 50 gallon drums he intended to fill with solvent. On a diagram, he wrote down where he wanted skull and crossbones to be stamped on the drums. Sure enough when he took delivery, the words ‘skull and crossbones’ were painted in block letters on the drums.
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Yes that is correct:
I have never heard anybody using the terms “n.miles” or “cable(lengths)” to describe how much anchor chain/cable is, or to be paid out.
My quote was about the term “shackles” to be used to convey the length of anchor cable chain “in the water / in the pipe / on deck”.
A “Shot of chain” is the same length as a “Shackle”, but the majority of seafarers are familiar with “shackles” as the term used to communicating length of anchor cable paid out.
PS> Before the days of Walkie-Talkie this was conveyed by the number of bell rings.
(How the cable was “showing” was conveyed by hand signals)
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My mistake, I didn’t understand your point about the use of cables as distance… For a U.S. mariner it’s 1/10 of a nautical mile.
Both nautical miles and cable lengths are for distance. The same way a “ship length” is a distance. The amount of chain would be a length.
No dispute there, but in shackles, or shots, not in n.miles.
That is not entirely true. I have worked worldwide, and the “shot” has a more predominant use than “shackle”, but I found them to be used interchangeably in many locations… I just completed a shipyard in Vietnam where one group of people referred to shackles and another group to shots. Apples and oranges, I think.
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On another thread I used “flake’” for laying out line but “fake” apparently is the more common term. In The Oxford Companion “flake” refers to laying out an anchor chain for inspection.
That depends on where you are and who you are talking to.
I have heard both “Shots” and “Shackles” being used, or simply “5 in the water” without specifying either.
A lot of shipyard specs refer to “ranging” out the chain for cleaning and inspection. That may not be so much a nautical term for anchor chain but an engineering term for an operation that could be applied to any similar assembly. Was commonly used everywhere I had worked.
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Plenty of flaking takes place during unrep evolutions. No time for faking 
I recall it being flake as well. Also the end of each bight was turned rather than laying flat. IIRC that was called figure eight but I can’t find a reference.
As far as fake/flake - I did a quick google search, both terms are used. The oldest reference I have here is a 1940 edition of the Bluejackets Manual, it only has “fake”.
Either way, I wouldn’t go down on deck or on the drydock waving an encyclopedia; when in Rome… better to just use the same term that in use on that particular ship.
That is fine if it is a conversation, or order given internal on the ship, especially if the crew members are of the same nationality.
If it is communication between ships involving safe navigation, safety or security it is important to use terms that is “universally” understood.
That is what SMCP is trying to accomplice, but with not much success, so far.
PS> Most ships today have mixed nationality crews, regardless of flag.
De Kerchove (1948) has both fake and flake as nouns rather than verbs. Flake – one layer of a coil. Fake – one of the circles or windings of a rope as it lies in a coil. One complete circle of rope is a fake. A number of such turns makes a tier, and several tiers a coil.
Figure-eight fake – a method of coiling rope in which the turns make a series of overlapping figure-eights advancing about one or two diameters of the rope at each turn.
Catch fake – an unseemly doubling in a badly coiled rope.
French fake – a peculiar method of coiling a rope by running it forward and backward in parallel bends so that it may run freely and readily. It is often adopted for rocket lines or in other similar instances where great expedition in uncoiling is necessary. The long fake is similar to the French fake except that the turns lead from the end instead of the side.
Flemish fake – a fake or coil of rope in which the separate turns are concentric and lie flat on the deck without riding over each other.
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The people in charge of an operations should give instructions in a way that will be understood. That’s the whole point of communication. If there are two standards, one for aboard ship and another for ashore / other ships the appropriate one should be used.
If the captain gives instructions / commands to the mate and then passed on to crew member at each step the the meaning should be clear.
This is not some esoteric concept, it’s just basic social skills.
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I was arriving in a port in the Netherlands last year and ships were being told to rig their pilot ladder one foot above the water. I was surprised to hear them using imperial measurements in the Netherlands.
They were probably using it because saying one foot is more convenient than saying 30 centimeters.
es·o·ter·ic
adjective
intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest.
I’ve always enjoyed the looks from green deckhands when telling them to coil the lines in shipshape and Bristol fashion.
Even if it is nearly 150 years since Norway officially became a metric country (20 May 1875) there are still some things where imperial units are commonly used. (Not officially)
One of those are to describe smaller pleasure boats, especially older wooden boat.
Most people can “see” a “Tresfjord 28 footer” by their inner eye:
If they were defined as “8.52 m. Tresfjord” most (older?) Norwegians would go; Hæææ???
I have a deck nomenclature question that has puzzled me for years. I worked with captain whose experience was on working on the Mississippi river on push or tow boats. When coming to dock he would call anything other than a cleat a timber head, Anyone one have any idea what a timber head is or where that term came from?
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Yes order/instruction should be given in a clear, simple language, easily understod by the other party.
In today’s reality that more often than not, means somebody that do NOT have the same first languish as you.
It is most important when communicating by VHF (or other electronic means) with other vessels and when the communication may also be useful to other vessels to avoid dangerous situation.
It doesn’t just mean to “Speak Slooowly and LOUDLY”:
It is important for safety that all orders, instructions and warnings use words and phrases that the other party are familiar with. That is the purpose of Standard Maritime Communication Phrases (SMCP)
PS> It has nothing to do with social skills either. That is for a social setting, like talking to somebody in the messroom etc. Maritime communication is not a social event.