fo'c'sle feeds itself

[Jdege]

I'm reading Arthur Ransome's "We didn't mean to go to sea", one of the Swallows and Amazons stories.

In it, the phrase "fo'c'sle feeds itself" is used several times, as if it were well-known aphorism. But I've never heard it, and I can find nothing with Google.

Has anyone heard it used? The books are 80 years old, and it may well have fallen out of usage.

[TeddyDiver]

More civilized way to say "shi* happens"?

[nigel1]

Wonder if it means the crew have to feed themselves, focsle being a place where crew berthed.

[Jim Cate]

Can't answer your query, but applaud your taste in reading material. Those books, read first as a youngster, kinda predisposed me towards sailing, even though it was thirty years later when I first stepped onto a sailing dinghy. Wonderful stories of a kinder, gentler era.

My favorites are the o ne you mention and Peter Duck.

Jim

[MarkJ]

Can you cut and paste a page with it in for context?

PS the foc'stle didn't feed itself. The cook did.

I'm interested in its meaning. I think it's more about rumors etc... See The Nig-ger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Forecastle by Joseph Conrad.

[pathetic when the forum software won't allow the N "word" when it comes to literature].

Mark

[nigel1]

I was thinking the crew might have to provide their own food, not cook it.

[nigel1]

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...itself&f=false

[Wotname]

I have always understood that it meant "one has to look after one's self, no one else will do it for you"; especially if you were part of the English lower class i.e sailors in the fo'c'sle.

But I dunno if this is correct, it just how I understood it...

[Seabeau]

The crew comprised a "mess" and as such bought and paid for there own food just as the officers "mess" provided for their own food. However I do not believe this was true in the Royal Navy. In the Royal Navy, only the officers provided their own food.

[boatman61]

Most flying fish were found on the foredeck to midships.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Most flying fish were found on the foredeck to midships.

The other day I woke up with one, it apparently had hit the open hatch so hard it killed it and if fell into the bunk with me, but dead so it didn't move and wake me up.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Jdege

In it, the phrase "fo'c'sle feeds itself" is used several times, as if it were well-known aphorism. But I've never heard it, and I can find nothing with Google.

You dinnae think that Google having no record of the phrase (other than in that one book by Ransome) is a clue?

Originally Posted by Jdege

Has anyone heard it used? The books are 80 years old, and it may well have fallen out of usage.

Or never been in general usage?

[JPA Cate]

It may also have to do with the story itself, as Alan suggests: the kids' provisioning arrangements, may have been supplemented by the younger ones on a fishing expedition of some sort.

I'm pretty sure that it doesn't have to do with British class structure at the time, but with the story, whose kids are definitely from somewhat privileged families....and allowed far more freedom than most of today's kids. I really have enjoyed the Ransome I have read as an adult, for me, it's sorta like time travel. For the same reason, I also enjoyed Arthur Upfield's little mysteries of an Australia long gone by, another pleasant surprise for someone out there in CF land.


Ann

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Can you cut and paste a page with it in for context?

I'm reading as ebooks, so page numbers are not reliable, but...

From Chapter III:

Mrs Walker and the others had gone to Ipswich to get stores . . . "The fo'c'sle feeds itself, of course," Mrs Walker had said . . . and Jim, Susan and John were sitting in the cockpit and keeping an eye on the shore

From Chapter VII:

"Four kinds of soup," said Roger.
"And five kinds of tinned fruit," said Titty.
"Yes, I know," said Susan, "but it's all for his cruise with his uncle."
"He said his uncle would be bringing lots more," said Roger.
"Mother said the fo'c'sle feeds itself," said Susan. "And we've got half those sausage rolls . . ."
"Sausage rolls still unhogged," said Roger, "but we'd better leave some for him. He liked them last night. And I bet he'd want us to have some of his soup."

[StuM]

Seems like an off-the-cuff remark that the kids in the fo'c'sle could sort out there own provisions rather than a repetition of a common saying.