Pretention or culture?

[markpierce]

Originally Posted by Rakuflames

The bridgetenders here always address whoever is on the radio as "captain," but I think that's just so they don't insult the real captains by calling them "skipper."

No, they are merely addressing the one in-charge and responsible for that boat/ship, whatever. "Skipper" is cartoonish.

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by markpierce

No, they are merely addressing the one in-charge and responsible for that boat/ship, whatever. "Skipper" is cartoonish.

They use "skipper" on billion dollar warships.

Come to think of it, "CO" is used a lot too.

[Blue Stocking]

Originally Posted by mbianka

You mean "Hi I'm Bob I'm going to driving the plane today." doesn't do it for you?

It does if you are flying British Airways.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Tellie

Is it any more pretentious to always call the bathroom the head, or the kitchen the galley, pulleys the blocks, etc.?
Do something stupid like run your boat into a bridge or another boat and I assure you, pretentious or not, the local authorities will be calling you captain.

Not here they won't - there is no reference in legislation here that uses the term Captain - the term Master is used and defined as The master of a ship is the person having command or charge of the ship.

Licences are in Grades of Master - from Recreational Ship Master to Master class V Class IV and etc to Class I. But you don't need to have a licence to be defined as Master.

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Concerning calling your boat a yacht, it depends on where you're from. Around these parts, a yacht simply means a boat which is not a motorboat. Synonym for sailboat. A normal conversation might be: "Does he have a motorboat?" "No, it's a yacht."

In the US, maybe, the word "yacht" might imply something large and fancy, but in other parts of the world -- mostly not.

Almost true for here. In our Yacht club all the sailboats are yachts - but just over the water at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron a yacht is universally a large single hulled sailing vessel.

Originally Posted by mbianka

You mean "Hi I'm Bob I'm going to driving the plane today." doesn't do it for you?

Dont care if she calls herself late for breakfast, long as she does the job.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Capt Phil

Interesting thread... haven't thought of myself as pretentious but listening/reading to the comments of rebelheart and bobconnie both of whose opinion I respect, I'm now inclined to edit out reference to Capt in my profile even though I earned it and spent most of my life at sea. It is what folks have called me for close to 40 years both on and off the water. Those of us who are licensed know that we are held to a higher standard when driving a boat, in a bar, not so much. Capt Phil 'out'

Cap'n Phil - it's only the internet, and a very small corner of it at that. My guiding light is WTF works and I feel comfortable with in real life and not based on the mutterings of folks I likely will never meet......and I do include me on the muttering front .

Given that your qualifications sound more real than the price of a hat from West Marine I am sure you don't need me (or anyone else) to tell you that ......comments perhaps more aimed at my fellow members of the Peanut Gallery (The Peanuteers? ).

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

......comments perhaps more aimed at my fellow members of the Peanut Gallery (The Peanuteers? ).

Peanut David, I like the sound of that. Does it shorten up to NUT?

Does that title come with a certificate worth framing and putting on ones "I love me" wall? Does it involve renewal fees as I can always use an extra title.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Peanut David, I like the sound of that. Does it shorten up to NUT?

Does that title come with a certificate worth framing and putting on ones "I love me" wall? Does it involve renewal fees as I can always use an extra title.

I think that Rank comes with whatever you like and that possibly includes a hat .

[carstenb]

Here in DK, the term is "skipper", denoting the fact that you are the person in charge of the boat. Regarding the boat, the danish word is "lystyacht", which translates to "pleasure yacht". Lystyacht is only used by insurance companies and the like (tax department). Virtually everyone else says boat.

I will, tongue in cheek, refer to myself as Captain or my boat as a yacht, but that is only amongst friends or people who can tell I'm joking.

Captain (Kaptajn) is just almost never used unless the boat is a ship (when does a boat become a ship? Hey great thread) or the military is involved.

I've only referred to myself as skipper when asked by someone, as in Who's in charge? I'm the skipper (unless my wife is at the helm and then she's the skipper).

At all times, my wife is the Admiral in Charge (note the capital letters)

[Notyet]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Concerning calling your boat a yacht, it depends on where you're from. Around these parts, a yacht simply means a boat which is not a motorboat. Synonym for sailboat. A normal conversation might be: "Does he have a motorboat?" "No, it's a yacht."

In the US, maybe, the word "yacht" might imply something large and fancy, but in other parts of the world -- mostly not.

Indeed. For example, in the Netherlands the word 'sailboat' means sailing dingy, something small and floating without a cabin. But if it has a cabin and approximately reaches 8 meters or more, it's a 'zeiljacht' (sailing yacht). Nothing pretentious about it. But about the captain thing - in the Netherlands you're a total loser if you call yourself like that, except for when you're the captain of a really big ship.

[Notyet]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Concerning calling your boat a yacht, it depends on where you're from. Around these parts, a yacht simply means a boat which is not a motorboat. Synonym for sailboat. A normal conversation might be: "Does he have a motorboat?" "No, it's a yacht."

In the US, maybe, the word "yacht" might imply something large and fancy, but in other parts of the world -- mostly not.

Indeed. For example, in the Netherlands the word "sailboat" means sailing dingy, something small and floating without a cabin. But if it has a cabin and approximately reaches 8 meters or more, it's a "zeiljacht" (sailing yacht). Nothing pretentious about it. But about the captain thing - in the Netherlands you're a total loser if you call yourself like that, except for when you're the captain of a really big ship. And then just as in: "Hallo, I'm such and such, the captain of the ship."

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by dsmastern

Kind of like a headstone; if you didn't do anything worth remembering in your life, why should anyone care to know who you were when you are dead?

Leave a legacy, or just fade away.

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

In recent years I have put much pondering into such things - what I have puzzled out that whilst there are no rules (my kinda rules )........nonetheless there does seem for many (albeit not all) an inherent human desire to mark the passing of another in some way. Historically often also acheived by a form of physical marker, whether a Mausoleum, a Pyramid or a pile of stones.

Obviously there can be an element of pretention by the deceased themselves, but as Ozy found out the physical markers do tend to have a time limitation (and even the Pharaohs didn't exactly nail an undisturbed final resting place!)..........but I think that is not all there is to it.

One of the cool dead people innovations I saw recently on TV was in Denmark - where folk who are by a graveside can get info about the deceased on their mobile phone!, not sure if that includes any Youtube but no reason why not......the purpose? Well, apart from for any relatives others will not be greatly interested - except perhaps in future generations or centuries. In the old days the History was more about the great and the good (because they wrote it!) whereas the lives (including the hopes and dreams) of the "ordinary" folk were ignored, despite the fact that they likely were more interesting.........imagine being able to read about WTF someone in Captain Cook's crew actually thought about him and the voyage . In future generations folks will be able to read stuff like that. Living(?!) history .


Meself is still puzzling over how to deal with the bones of da Missus (still sitting on my sideboard )......because she wanted something permanent (for reasons I won't go into)........the favourite option is to build her a Pyramid bigger than any the Pharaohs had and designed and built to last longer!.........obviously a certain cash flow problem with that ambition, but I think that minor problem is curable - by making a profit . Probably never happen of course. But it might.............

.......Ozymandias - stick that in yer pipe .

[Svanen]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Part of my eyerolling about this whole thing is related to being in the Navy and meeting *real* captains. Guys with 20-30 years of experience being on the water more than half their lives. Combat operations, rescue operations, no-**** crew management, knowledge of vast complexity and solid seamanship skills on top of it.

In civilian settings, they introduce themselves by first name.

That matches my experience, too.

FWIW, I was taught that the title Captain was properly reserved for those who have both (i) an Master Mariner / unlimited master's certificate and (ii) significant actual command experience at sea, in a vessel at least 3,000 GT. The lack of the latter criterion is why Robin K-J has never been styled Captain K-J.

But that is merely convention. If someone with a USCG 200-ton ticket or an RYA Yachtmaster C of C chooses to call themselves "Captain", they are (IMO) pretentious but they are not "wrong".

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

Costa Concordia had a Captain in command Jus' sayin'

That unlamented individual, who I think of as "Il Douche", was hardly "in command".

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by ksanders

Using capatin in your greeting (unless you're chartering and meeting your guests) is pretentious.

So is calling your boat a yacht.

That IS cultural. In New Zealand and (I think) OZ, a sailboat of any size is a yacht, while a powerboat is a launch.

So you can have a 13-foot yacht and a 300-foot launch, I guess.

Connemara

[Auzzee]

Absolutely agree with Connemara. In Oz a yacht is a boat with sails and if Bill Gates pulls into Sydney in his 300' motor boat and calls it a yacht, we would reckon he's a pretentious wanker. However, I guess if you have umpteen squillion dollars, there is no such thing as pretention.