The Oxford Companion is one of those reference books that it’s easy to get distracted by other entries on the way to what sent you there in the first place.
Here’s a couple I came across on my way to Buys Ballot.
This is a good alternative to the “we don’t need no stinkin’ compass” etc wrt some fisherman’s navigation methods in Alaska and elsewhere.
I’ve not heard anyone saying “blowing great guns” for a long time and don’t recall anyone saying the “small arms” part at all.
And Buys Ballot’s itself - The “rough and ready” is good.
Holy Shit! I own the first edition of something. It’s been on the shelf next to my tenth edition of Modern Seamanship (ca. 1942) since we emptied my grandparents house in the 1990s.
I always assumed that the copy of Knight’s dated to a great-grandfather’s WWI naval service but it’s inscription is “A. W. Smith, Elizabeth City Shipyard, Elizabeth City, N.C.” which indicates family history that’s lost to me.
Random Citation:
A-Burton; a term used in the storage of casks in the hold of a ship where they are laid athwartships, in line with the deck beams…
Random Fact:
The burton union was a early British industrial method of fermenting beer in interconnected casks shoreside. Never occurred to me that there was nautical history in my brewing hobby.
