{"id":2256,"date":"2023-10-14T11:33:16","date_gmt":"2023-10-14T18:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/?p=2256"},"modified":"2023-10-14T11:35:42","modified_gmt":"2023-10-14T18:35:42","slug":"nautical-terminator-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/general\/nautical-terminator-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Nautical Terminator – Animals!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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You can\u2019t help but notice how common it is that things related to seafaring are named after animals. In a house you\u2019ll find a table, chair, bed, cupboard, bookcase, rafter, gable, and joist. But aboard a ship in the great age of sail you\u2019d hear the terms gooseneck, crow\u2019s nest, crowfoot, duck, cat, cathead, cat hole, wildcat, catboat, cat-rig, catwalk, cat-o-nine-tails, ratlines, horse, dead horse, Flemish horse, saddle, cow hitch (which is the same thing as a lark\u2019s head), sheepshank, leg-o\u2019-mutton, knee, jackass, camel, horns, bridle, bullnose, bullrope, bull\u2019s eye, cockpit, cockbill, cockboat, fox, dog, doghouse, dog vane, dog watch, and hounds. An old boat can lose its shape and become \u201chogged,\u201d and \u201cpig-ballast\u201d was molded in forms called \u201csows.\u201d A \u201cDonkey\u2019s breakfast\u201d was the term the old seamen used to describe their straw mattress. The \u201cmanger\u201d is the space immediately inboard of the hawse pipes. Then there\u2019s the monkey fist, monkey jacket, monkey\u2019s blood, monkey bridge, monkey chain, and monkey rail.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\ncourse, not everything on a boat has a metaphorical name; we have masts and\ncleats and lines. Yet, when the old sailors sought a colorful moniker for a\npiece of gear, they looked to familiar and friendly animals. It is notable that\nthere is a scarcity of sea creatures among these names. We do have a\ndolphin-striker, and a pelican hook, and a fish-plate, but no shark-widgets;\nand the crow\u2019s nest is named after a land bird, not a gull or albatross. We\nalso don\u2019t see fearsome animals like wolves and tigers represented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humans\nevolved on land as hunter\/gatherers and then farmers, and until this century\nthe majority of the people of the world situated themselves in rural areas, not\ncities. Before then, most people lived and worked in the countryside, in close,\neveryday contact with the animal kingdom, both domestic and wild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nlong ago, at least 50,000 years in fact, humans took to the sea. We are\nchallenged to comprehend the courage and imagination required to be the first\nto sail away from the sight of land, hearth, and home, into that alien\nenvironment, removed from everything recognizable. Did the homesick sailor, now\nin a fearsome, barren wasteland far from the familiar things of life, construct\nthe mental furniture of his surroundings out of his companions\u2014the comforting creatures\nhumans have known forever\u2014in the unconscious effort to place himself at home? Well,\nmaybe he did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t help but notice how common it is that things related to seafaring are named after animals. In a house you\u2019ll find a table, chair, bed, cupboard, bookcase, rafter, gable, and joist. But aboard a ship in the great … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-nautical-terminator"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2256"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3368,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2256\/revisions\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tradewindssailing.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}