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Old 29-11-2005, 18:26   #76
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You got it! Lowering the colors was the accepted method of surrender. Nailing the colors to the mast (quite literally) was to prevent surrender, and more importantly make the statement that victory or death were the only options.
As for the nails, I will accept the correction with one caviat. Me great grandmother was Irish. As she told it, the men used to make business deals in the pub. by the bar there was an iron nail. the tradition left that payment was to be put on the nail until the deal was done. If the tradition started in Bristol, So be it.
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Old 30-11-2005, 20:49   #77
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ship hi in transit

is a myth. But it sounds good.
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Old 05-12-2005, 10:26   #78
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"The Bitter End". I know what it means but where did it come from?
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Old 05-12-2005, 10:52   #79
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not sure but

When letting out the anchor rhode and you see the end go overboard, you will proabably be very bitter.....
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Old 05-12-2005, 11:07   #80
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The 'Bitter End' might be an expression describing the end of a cable attached to the "bit".

The OED provides this citation, "1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 103 A ship is 'brought up to a bitter' when the cable is allowed to run out to that stop. When a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to be let go..."
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Old 05-12-2005, 17:17   #81
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The way this thread has snowballed, forgive me if I am repeating one.
Howabout "Starboard"?
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Old 05-12-2005, 19:07   #82
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Starboard

A lady had a rooming house. On the left lived a hooker, on the right lived a nice clean cut teacher who paid the rent on time. So the Starboarder lived on the right.
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Old 05-12-2005, 19:30   #83
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Well, on our first boat, the galley was on the left side, and I told my wife that is where the port is kept, leaving the other side as starboard. To this day, she gets confused on boats with the galley on the starboard side.
But...I think I am after something a bit more nautical.
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Old 06-12-2005, 00:40   #84
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There are two stories to the Port and Starboard side of vessels. This particular Port one maybe a little more like the Brass monkey tale. But I like it. In this tale, port was indeed determind by which side the Alchohol was kept on. In the very early days of english sailing, many of the sailors were not running off to join a sailing life. You know, see the world, meet lots of interesting people, yadda yadda. For a Captain to gain a crew, it was often a case of getting men drunk, and knocking them out and dragging them to a ship. They would wake up the next morning and be slightly out of swimming distance from the sight of land. Of course, education was rather on the light side, and many couldn't even tell their left hand from their right. So to teach men that had limited knowledge, terms that they could easily understand, names were given to things on the boat that made it hard to get it wrong when the chips were down. Hence a line tied to a sail being called a sheet.
Anyway's, on with the port story. By the way, for the right hand of the boat, the word starboard was not the original term. I will come back to that one unless someone wants to jump in, feel free.
On the left side was were the barrels of port for the men were kept. Pretty easy to place that one to memory. Turn to port Helm. Port??... um???... booze!!... oh yeah! turning to port Capt.
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Old 06-12-2005, 11:32   #85
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starboard

I've heard a couple of versions:
1) In days of old the ship's rudder was more like an oar and generally on the right hand side of the boat - this was the "steer board". So as not to damage said rudder boats would be put port side to the jetty and the port or door was positioned on that side accordingly. This was the lading side or lade-board (larboard) side.
2) I don't speak Italian, so if anyone wants to refute this, feel free, but the terms starboard and larboard come from "sta borda" (this side) and "la borda" (that side). Don't know whether port had to do with doors or drink then.
But sort of on the topic - where does "posh" come from?

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Old 06-12-2005, 11:40   #86
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Port Out Starboard Home (from Brittain to N. America) to be on the sunny Southern exposure both ways.
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Old 06-12-2005, 14:03   #87
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posh

That's the version I've heard Gord.
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Old 06-12-2005, 16:10   #88
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Starboard does come from the steering oar as seen on viking ships and early Mediterranean boats. By custom, the steering oar was on the right hand side of the boat.

Port seems to have been adopted relatively recently, like in the 19th century. At least as late as the Napoleanic wars, the left side of the ship was called Larboard in the British Navy. I heard they changed to port because of confusion in shouted commands. Easy to mistake star and lar on a wild and stormy deck.

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Old 06-12-2005, 18:15   #89
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Roverhi, you are the closest. Vikings refered to the sides of a ship as the Board. The steering oar (or "star") was located on the Rt side of the vessel, hence the term, starboard. This also gave name to the "lar board" side of the ship. I believe you are laso correct about the reasoning behind the term port, but am not sure on that one.
Although my personal experience does give some credence to Wheels' definition.
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Old 07-12-2005, 13:28   #90
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Quote:
GordMay once whispered in the wind:
Port Out Starboard Home (from Brittain to N. America) to be on the sunny Southern exposure both ways.
I heard similar but that it was for the Britain to India voyages (post-Suez Canal,, but pre-air conditioning). P.O.S.H. meant you were on the shady side of the ship both ways so your stateroom stayed cooler.
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