NAUTICAL TERMS. Origin of the Words Caboose, Cuddy. and Forecastle,

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 197, 2 April 1887, Page 3

NAUTICAL TERMS. Origin of the Words Caboose, Cuddy. and Forecastle,

'•Caboose" was formerly the name of the galley or small kitchen of small merchantmen. Falconer spells it "coboose," and describea it aa a sort of box or house to cover the chimney of some merchant shipa. Previous to the introduction of the caboose the furnaces for cooking were, in three-deckers, placed on the middle deck, in two-decked ships in the forecastle, and, adds my authority (an anonymous author of a treatise on shipbuilding, w»itten in 1701), also in all ships which Lave forecastles the provisions are there ihe?sed." "Chady" is a forcible, oldfashioned word that haa been replaced by tho mincing, affected term "saloon." In the last century it signified " a sort of cabin or cook room in the fore part or near the stern of a lighter or barge of burden." It is curious to note the humble origin of a term subsequently taken to designate the gilded and sumptuous fir3tclass cabin accommodation of tho great Indian, American and Aus-fcralian ehipa. "Forecastle,*' again I fiud defined by old writers as "a place fitted foe a close light on the upper deck forward." The torm was retained to denote the place in which the crew live. The exploded expressions are numerous. A fehort list may prove of interest. •' Hulling" and " trying " were tho words which answer to what we now call fl hove-to." "Sailing large," having the wind free or quartering ; this expression is dead. "Plying" was the old term for " beating "— " we plyed to windward," ie., " we beat to windward." The word is obsolete, as is "spooning," replaced by " scudding " For " veering "we have substituted "wearing." Some good, strong, expressive words have vanished. Nobody nowadays talks of "clawing off," though the expression is perfect as representing a vessel clutching and grabbing at the wind in her efforts to haul off from a lee shore. For "shivering" we now say "shaking." "The topsail shivers to the wind." In these days it "shakes.' We no longer speak of the "topsail strip," but of the topsail hoisted or tho yard mastheaded. "Hank for hank," signifying two ships beating together and always going about at the same moment, so that one cannot get to windward of the other, is now " tack for tack." We have ceased to "heave our staysails ;" they are now loosed and hoisted. The old " horpe " has made way for the " foot rope," though we Btill retain the term "Flemish horse" for the short foot rope at the topeail yard arms. The word " horse " readily suggests the origin of the term "stirrup," a rope* fitted to the foofcrope that it may not be weighted down too deep by the men standing on it. It is plain that " horse " is owing to the peamen "riding" the yard by it. Anything traversed was called- a " horse." The term is still used. The " round house or " coach " yielded to " cuddyl" as "cuddy" has to "saloon." The poop remains; but the "poop royal" of the Fiench and Spaniards, or the "topgallant poop" of our own shipwrights— a short dock over the aftermost part of the poop — has utterly disappeared.