It is becoming abundantly clear that Americans “allies” and the rest of the world “collides”.
Not literally of course, just legally.
I first heard the term “allision” in 1997 when a Kirby Marine tank barge allided with the Old Mississippi River Bridge near Baton Rouge. As it has on the Forum, the use of the word always cranks up the same discussion.
Discussion at a site called Language Log.
well actually:
one ship: a-lision
two ships: dilision
three ships: trilision
four ships: quarlision
five ships: quilision
six ships: sexilision
The notion that Americans “allies” and the rest of the world “collides” is incorrect, as the word and term allide is widely used to describe a vessel striking a fixed object. Mariners and fishermen in Maine, where I come from, used the term allide or allision when describing a vessel striking a ledge, wharf or a moored vessel; so I learned the term at an early age.
I’m 68, 52 of those as a professional mariner with close association to foreign mariners and I first ran away to sea in a prawn trawler and I just heard of it. That was my point. I don’t care if it’s common anywhere, if I used it in my professional mariner circles I’d get a quizical look and they’d turn to each other (knowing I’m a stickler for correct terminology) and ask, as if concerned for my mental wellbeing, what he’s talking about.
I might try it just for fun.
Collisions require at least two manned underway vessels. Unlike automobile accidents where one driver could be found 100% at fault, the Coast Guard will never apply 100% blame to one vessel. Even if you are completely run down after attempting to avoid “collision” and you were being overtaken, the CG feels you share some of the blame just because you were there to be hit. My own recollection of allision usage came from bridge strikes or other “marked” permanent objects being struck. In both cases it requires operator error.
Last I saw Main was still part of the US. Any plans of seceding??
So can we conclude that the term “allision” is common in the US and may be spreading, but still not in common use in other part of the world?
Used in the UK too!
The Coast Guard does not assign proprtionate fault (i.e. percentages). This is however, done by Courts in admiralty matters. See e.g.United States v. Reliable Transfer Co.
In Noah Webster’s 1831 Dictionary of the English Language it’s listed as “a striking against, as the allision of the sea against the shore”.
In the Oxford Universal Dictionary of 1933 (an abridgement of the O.E.D. in one volume) it’s listed as obs(olete? olescent?) first used in 1631. Same definition as Webster without the example.
It’s listed (spelling only) in Picket’s Juvenile Spelling Book of 1823.
It’s listed in Louis Chambaud’s A Grammar of the French Tongue of 1823 as being the same word in French as English.
Volume 9 of The Merchant’s Magazine and Commercial Review of 1843 says:
“In the discussion of this subject we apply the term collision to all cases of vessels running foul though the terms allision and collision are not exactly synonymous The term allision applies to the act of one vessel striking against another and the term collision to the act of two vessels striking together But the inquiry upon a claim for damages in cases is not so much whether either ship be active or passive as whether the act was occasioned by accident or by the negligence or the design of one or both of them.”
I note that the above sense, confined to the striking of one vessel against another, is the same as that given in de Kerchove’s 1948 International Maritime Dictionary
It’s not surprising that non native English speakers don’t speak English correctly. I’m amazed you keep pointing out the faults of the rest of the maritime world like this.
Then I’d question the professionalism of your circles.
I thought you were American not native English??
Americans are native English speakers…
There is a difference between Native (British) English and American English:
There are also a lot of different dialects of English spoken by native English people. Even more when we look at other places where English are widely regarded as their mother tongue, like Scotland, Ireland, Australia, NZ, most of Canada and the majority in USA.
But now we are getting into an entirely different subject from Allision/Collision.
Manned? What about when two autonomous ships hit each other? How do you apply the Pennsylvania Rule to unmanned vessels?
Hopefully arrest the CEO of the company.
Arrest the armchair ship drivers in the fancy Roll Royce space age control facility.