So I guess at the end of the day, we must work harder to improve English literacy across the globe. Especially since English is currently the international language of the sea. And maritime English is its own peculiar nomenclature, with various words and meanings that are sometimes archaic in other uses of English. It should also go without saying that if someone who does not speak English wishes to make a career at sea, they should w devour to learn it as best they can. While I don’t expect a hardworking fisherman in an impoverished country to be fluent, I should expect ship’s officers who’v attended their nation’s Maritime Universities. Unfortunately, it seems learning English lit, isn’t the priority at those schools.
Cable is also the method of making that larger rope (wire or fiber) by twisting three or more ropes together in the opposite lay.
Standard Maritime English are being thought at Maritime Schools worldwide. It is a requirement to have passed an exam in order to obtain COC per STCW’10 .
It would also be nice if those who has English as their first language would make the effort to use SMCP when communicating with those who do not have that level of proficiency.
Especially refraining from using local slang, terms and phrases that is not universally used among seafarers.
I have noticed an improvement in English proficiency on COSCO’s HLVs. I have been attending on board those, both as MWS and as Superintendent/Loadmaster, since their early days of operation. Usually the Master and senior Officers (sometimes also the Party Commissaire) spoke English while few of the crew had much English knowledge.
During loading/unloading I used to have one of the officers, (usually the R/O) with me to translate my orders to the winch operators, ballast control operator etc.
Sometime also a local person to translate orders to tugs and linesmen in the language used wherever the operation was performed.
Of course I had to make sure that my orders were in simple standard phrases to avoid confusion and mishaps.
That’s interesting. So it’s referring to a coil, the way it comes new. A fake is one turn round and flake is one layer. Similar to a layer or wrap on a towing winch.
So presumably a mariner would fake down a line because they would be putting down the line one row at a time not one layer at a time. But flaking works too.
My bad I cornfused coiled down with faked.
Oxford says a coil is the normal method for stowage of rope, it’s “laid up in circular turns known as fakes”.
So it’s fakes the noun. To fake, the verb, is to lay it down in rows, if the fakes are circular the line was coiled.
My favorite use of the term Flemish. At about 1:15
The Flemish wrap is supposed to be wound counter-clockwise with right-lay line. The wrap is paid out from the center.
On the subject of verbal communication, we are trying to get a message from the sender’s brain to the receiver’s brain. Unfortunately, the message in the sender’s brain goes through “filters” before it comes out of the mouth as words. Similarly, the words that reach the receiver’s ears go through “filters” before the brain interprets them.
It was best summarized by this expression: “I know you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard was not what I meant”.
I had to break into a radio conversation between the USCG and a boat having mechanical issues that had devolved into a “Who’s On First” comedy. The Coast Guard wanted to know if they were safely moored. The local tow boat had taken them to a marina.
“Moored? No we are are not moored”
“When do you think you will be moored”
“I am not sure if we can be safely moored here and the tow boat left”
“Can you call the tow boat back”
I had to break in at this point!
“All parties be advised that being tied up at the dock counts as safely moored in CG English, they do not mean you literally have to find a mooring buoy”
Heard on ch. 16 while at anchor in San Pedro, recreational boater called USCG to report they ran out of gas enroute from Catalina to San Pedro:
BOATER: We started out with 3 full cans of gas, we used 2 on the way there and…
USCG (interrupting): You ran out of gas half-way back?
BOATER: Yes. How did you know?
“We have to go back and hang those curtains right away!”
“Will the doctor please report to the Captain’s cabin…on the double.”
“Fulminate of mercury?!?”
One of my favorite movies.
“Shot” and “shackle” have the same meaning now so it’s It’s a distinction without a difference but the origins are a little different.
A “shackle” is the length of chain between shackles which was 12.5 fathoms but was officially changed by the British Navy in 1949 to be 15 fathoms. A shot on the other hand is 15 fathoms of anchor chain, similar to the unit of a “bolt” of canvas which aboard ship was 49 yards.
American Merchant Seaman’s Manual 6th ed.
Fake - To lay down a length of line so that it will run out rapidly without kinking. The coils are laid down with ends over the ends of each preceding one.
The meanings of “To flemish down” and “To fake down” are given but not “flake” or “flaking”.
Cable is a type of rope lay. Three 3-strand right hand lay (hawser laid) ropes laid together left is a cable laid rope.
Um, 0.4 NM is, by definition, a fraction of a nautical mile.
At the same time, 0.4 NM is also 740 meters and 2,424 feet. There’s no way around that, it’s how reality works.
Any interaction between people involves social skills, that includes Maritime Communication.
Bugge seems to believe that a portion of a whole expressed as a fraction in the Imperial system can only be expressed as a ratio such as 1/2 or 1/4 and that a matching portion of a whole presented in the decimal system can only be expressed as a percentage such as 0.5 or 0.25. The assumption is false as both describe a matching portion of a whole.
You’ve got to admit that an ESL speaker lacking complete comprehension of the key terms being discussed in an argument and splitting hairs with a knowledgeable native speaker is a special kind of ironic.
Last week his argument was that a cable’s distance was different when measured by an American than if measured by a European because Americans are laggards using feet instead of meters. He’d be a real fun guy to work with…
No of course not, who would be so dumb.
Not to split hairs or make it overly complicated. Yes a portion of a whole can be expressed as fractions or in decimals of the whole.
To keep it simple here is explanation of fractions and decimals for kids:
http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/qr/d/decimalSystem.html
And fractions can be converted to decimals and v.v.:
https://www.mathsisfun.com/converting-decimals-fractions.html
BTW; Percentage (Per Hundred) can be expressed thus: 50% = 0.5 = 1/2, 25% = 0.25 = 1/4
All describes the same part of whole and are equally understandable to me.
BTW; Part of an Imperial units can be expressed in decimals as well as in fractions; 5 1/2" = 5.5"
PS>Those in the oil industry are used to Casings described in inches and fractions. If you told them the diam. (OD) in mm. (I.e 9 5/8" casing = 244.48 mm.) it probably would draw a blank look.
Although there are conversion tables available:
http://oilproduction.net/files/002-apicasing.pdf)