What's in a word? is a question which it is held clever to quote and
wise to think unanswerable: and yet there is a very good answer, and it
is--a meaning, if you know it. But there is another question, and it is,
What's a word in? There is never a poor fellow in this world but must
ask it now and then with a blank face, when aground for want of a
meaning. And the answer is--a dictionary, if you have it. Unfortunately,
there may be a dictionary, and one may have it, and yet the word may not
be there. It may be an old dictionary, and the word a new one; or a new
dictionary, and the word an old one; a grave dictionary, and the word a
slang one; a slang dictionary, and the word a grave one; and so on
through a double line of battle of antitheses. Such is assuredly matter
for serious cogitation: and voluntarily to encounter those anomalous
perplexities requires no small amount of endurance, for the task is
equally crabbed and onerous, without a ray of hope to the pioneer beyond
that of making himself humbly useful. This brings me to my story.
Many years ago, I harboured thoughts of compiling a kind of detailed
nautical _vade mecum_; but a lot of other irons already in the fire
marred the project. Still the scheme was backing and filling, when the
late Major Shadwell Clerke--opening the year 1836 in the _United
Service Journal_--fired off the following, to me, unexpected
announcement:--
"A Nautical Dictionary, or Cyclopaedia of Naval Science and Nomenclature,
is still a desideratum. That of Falconer is imperfect and out of date.
We have heard that the design of such a work has been entertained, and
materials for its execution collected, by Captain W. H. Smyth, whom, we
earnestly recommend to prosecute an undertaking of such promise to the
service of which he is so experienced and distinguished a member--it
could not be in more competent hands."
This broad hint must have been signalled by the gallant Major in the way
of a stimulating fillip, and accordingly it aroused considerable
attention. Among those who were excited by the notification was my
friend Captain Basil Hall, who wrote to me from Paris a few days
afterwards--13th of January, 1836--in these words:
"I read a day or two ago, in the _United Service Journal_, that you had
some thoughts of preparing a Nautical Dictionary for publication; and
from your connection with that journal, or at least your acquaintance
with our friend the editor, I am led to fear that the report may be
true. You will understand the use of the word _fear_ when I tell you
that, for nearly three years, _my_ own thoughts have turned in the same
direction, and I have been busily preparing for a task to which I meant
to buckle to with a will, and to which I meant to devote some four or
five years of exclusive diligence. What I am anxious to know, as soon as
may be, is the fact of your having undertaken a similar work, _or not_.
For I assure you I am not so foolish, nor so insensible either to my own
peace of mind or my own reputation; nor am I so careless of your good
opinion and regard, as to enter the lists with you. I repeat, neither my
feelings nor my judgment would permit me in any way to cross your hawse,
if indeed, as I too much fear, you have got before me. There is one
other man in the service besides yourself, and only one, with whom no
consideration would induce me to enter into competition--and that is
Beaufort--but his hands, I presume, are full enough, and I had somehow
imagined yours were too. So much so, that you were one of the first men
I meant to consult on my return to England, and to beg assistance from.
I should not have minded the competition of any one else, but I am not
so vain as to suppose that I could do the thing as well as either of
you--and therefore, even if I were not restrained by motives of personal
friendship, I should never dream of risking my reputation for
professional, scientific, or literary attainments by a struggle in which
I should certainly be worsted."
To this hearty and laudatory interpellation, an immediate reply was
returned, stating that I had long held the subject in view, but that
other weighty avocations occasioned its hanging fire, and had compelled
me to suspend it _sine die_. Still I considered such a work necessary to
the current wants, as well those of seafarers as of the landsmen who
evince a taste for nautical matters; and that, from his profession and
literary prowess, I knew of no one better fitted for the task than
himself--adding that, under the emergency, my papers were at his
service, and I would occasionally give him such personal aid as might
lie in my power. This was acknowledged in a long explicatory letter, of
which the following are extracts:--
"I trust I know the value of a compliment as well as any man, and I can
say, with perfect truth, that in the whole of my career (such as it has
been), professional, scientific, or literary, no compliment--I may say
no circumstance--has occurred which has given me so much honest
gratification as your letter of the 3d. I know you are a man not to say
what you do not truly think, nor to express yourself strongly where you
have not observed carefully. I shall therefore not disclaim your
compliment, but rather seek, in a kindred spirit, to work up to the mark
which you assign me--and which I know but too well how far I am short
of.
"I do hope, indeed, that as you say, 'we may row in the same boat
without catching crabs;' but of this I am quite resolved, not to cross
your hawse, nor to interfere with your project, which you have alluded
to as having already commenced. That is to say, I shall not interfere
unless I can be of use to it and to you, and with your full concurrence,
and, as I hope, your companionship. * * * *
"What I should propose would be, that you should furnish the
professional technicalities in all the different branches, and that I
should endeavour to popularize them. Here and there--as in the matter of
Navigation--I also might intrude with some few technicalities. But
generally speaking it would be you who should provide the real solid
stuff, and I who should attempt to dress it up so as to be intelligible
_beyond_ the limits of the sea-service; and also to be intelligible to
those young persons whom it is very important to instruct in general and
even popular views, but for whom it would be needless to write a new
elementary treatise. * * * *
"This is a sketch of my plan. What think you of it? I must add one
thing, however, that you must be the senior officer on the occasion. I
shall act in all this matter, and in the most perfect good faith, as
your subordinate."
In responding to this full and frank overture, I entered into a few more
particulars respecting my progress and purpose in the projected work;
and invited him--on his return from France--to come at once to Bedford
and ransack my papers.
Accordingly, in the autumn of 1836, Captain Basil Hall and his
family--the whole of the Schloss Handfeldt party--arrived at my house,
where he was located in a quiet library, with all my materials for the
Naval Dictionary before him. Here he remained in close examination of
them during two days, when he promised to send me his ultimatum in
writing after due deliberation. He required time for this, seeing I had
fairly warned him that my onerous undertakings would necessarily throw
the heavier share of our performance upon his shoulders. On the 27th of
November I received a letter from Edinburgh, in which he made this
statement:--
"With respect to the Marine Dictionary I think we have come to a clear
understanding--namely, that for the present it is standing fast. _I_
certainly had a notion that I was an interloper, and as soon as I saw
the vast deal you had done in the way of preparation, that it became me
as a man of fair dealing, to back out. This does not, however, appear to
have been your wish, but on the contrary that we may still make a joint
work of it by-and-by, when we have leisure, both of us, to engage in it
heartily--tooth and nail. I shall therefore keep it in my thoughts, and
endeavour to shape my future plans so as to meet this view, and, should
I see occasion, I can write to you about it. My present notion is, that
if ever we do set about it, I must come to Bedford for a season, and
give myself entirely up to the work, under your direction. The work, to
be worth a straw, or at all what would be expected from you and me,
would require no small labour on our parts, for a considerable length of
time."
We consequently lay upon our oars for some time, but occasionally
pulling a stroke or two to keep to the station, and be ready for
head-way when required. While thus prepared, in 1842 my excellent and
highly accomplished friend was most unexpectedly assailed by an
afflicting malady, which at once reduced a brilliant mind to a
distressing fatuity, which--after two lingering years--closed his
valuable life, and clued up our arrangements.
Meantime our plan had oozed out, and too great an expectation was evoked
in certain quarters, the inquiries from whence were frequent reminders.
At length in 1865, most of my undertakings having been completed, and
out of the way, I made an overhaul of the bulky ribs and trucks of the
scheme in question. Both my judgment and feelings united in showing that
it is now too late in the day for me to think of setting about such a
work as was contemplated thirty years ago; yet finding myself still
capable of application, and fully knowing all the bearings of the case,
I feel assured that a comprehensive and useful "word-book" may be made
from the shakings. On the whole, therefore, the foregoing particulars
seem to be a necessary prelude to this introduction.
Doubtless a well-digested marine dictionary would be equally beneficial
to the country and to the service, for the utility of such a work in
assisting those who are engaged in carrying on practical sea duties is
so generally admitted, that it is allowable here to dilate upon its
importance, especially when it is considered how much information a
youth has to acquire, on his first going afloat, in order to qualify him
for a position so totally different from what he had hitherto been
familiar with. In this case such a volume might justly be deemed one of
the most useful of his companions, as it would at all times answer his
questions, and aid that ardour of inquiry which some of his shipmates
might not find it easy to satisfy. It would quicken the slow progress of
experience, and aid those who take a pleasure in the knowledge and
discharge of their duties. But a work of this description must
necessarily require constant additions, and revised explanations, to
enable it to keep pace with the wondrous alterations and innovations
which are now taking place in every department of the naval service. The
future of all this is utterly inscrutable!
Nor has this province been neglected, as the efforts of Captain John
Smith (of mine own clan), Maynwaring, Boteler, Blanckley, Falconer,
Young, and many others, testify; and however they may fall short of what
naval science demands, they are full of initiative training. Indeed they
may all be advantageously consulted, for honey is not the less sweet
because it is gathered from many flowers; and I have freely availed
myself of their various works, as far as they go, though I have adopted
no term without holding myself responsible for its actuality. Such a
vaunt may be considered to savour of the _parturiunt montes_ apothegm,
but the reader may confidently rest assured that whatever shortcomings
he may detect they are not the result of negligence.
It has been pronounced that such lexicography may be too diffuse; that
to describe the track of every particular rope through its different
channels, however requisite for seamen, would be useless and
unintelligible to a landsman. But surely nothing can be considered
useless which tends directly to information, nor can that be
unintelligible which is clearly defined. Moreover, such a work may be so
carried out as not only to be instructive in professional minutiae, but
also to be a vehicle for making us acquainted with the rules which
guided the seamen of former times, thereby affording an insight into
those which are likely to direct them in their own.
From the causes already stated, my project of a full sailor's dictionary
fell to the ground; yet in course of time, and at the age of
seventy-seven, finding leisure at last on hand, I thought it feasible to
work my materials into a sort of maritime glossary. The objects of such
a digest are to afford a ready reference to young or old, professional
or non-professional, persons, who by consulting it may obtain an instant
answer to a given question. Now although many of the explanations may be
superfluous to some seamen, still they may lead others to a right
understanding of various brackish expressions and phrases, without
having to put crude queries, many of which those inquired of might be
unable to solve. Nor is it only those afloat who are to be thus
considered; all the empire is more or less connected with its navy and
its commerce, and nautical phraseology is thereby daily becoming more
habitual with all classes of the lieges than of erst. Even our
parliamentary orators, with a proper national bias, talk of swamping a
measure, danger ahead, taking the wind out of an antagonist's sails,
drifting into war, steering a bill through the shoals of opposition or
throwing it overboard, following in the wake of a leader, trimming to
the breeze, tiding a question over the session, opinions above or below
the gangway, and the like, so rife of late in St. Stephen's; even when a
member "rats" on seeing that the pumps cannot keep his party from
falling to leeward, he is but imitating the vermin that quit a
sinking-ship.
This predilection for sea idiom is assuredly proper in a maritime
people, especially as many of the phrases are at once graphic, terse,
and perspicuous. How could the whereabouts of an aching tooth be better
pointed out to an operative dentist than Jack's "'Tis the aftermost
grinder aloft, on the starboard quarter." The ship expressions preserve
many British and Anglo-Saxon words, with their quaint old preterites and
telling colloquialisms; and such may require explanation, as well for
the youthful aspirant as for the cocoa-nut-headed prelector in nautic
lore. It is indeed remarkable how largely that foundation of the English
language has been preserved by means of our sailors.
This phraseology has necessarily been added to from time to time, and
consequently bears the stamp of our successive ages of sea-life. In the
"ancient and fishlike" terms that brave Raleigh derived from his
predecessors, many epithets must have resulted from ardent recollections
of home and those at home, for in a ship we find--
Apeak, Cat's-paw, Driver, Hound, Rabbit, Stays,
Apron, Cot, Earings, Jewel, Ribband, Stirrup,
A-stay, Cradle, Eyes, Lacings, Saddle, Tiller,
Bonnet, Crib, Fox, Martingale, Sheaves, Truck,
Braces, Crow-foot, Garnet, Mouse, Sheets, Truss,
Bridle, Crow's nest, Goose-neck, Nettle, Sheepshank, Watch,
Cap, Crown, Goose-wing, Pins, Shoe, Whip,
Catharpins, Diamond, Horse, Puddings, Sister, Yard.
Cat-heads, Dog, Hose,
Most of the real sea-terms are pregnant with meaning; but those who
undertake to expound them ought to be tolerably versed in the topic.
Thus perhaps there was no great harm in Dr. Johnson's being utterly
ignorant of maritime language, but it was temerariously vain in that
sturdy lexicographer to assert that _belay_ is a sea-phrase for splicing
a rope; _main sheet_, for the largest sail in a ship; and _bight_, for
the circumference of a coil of rope; and we long had him on the hip
respecting the _purser_, a personage whom he--misled by Burser--at once
pronounced to be the paymaster of a ship; as the then purser was, in
fact, more familiar with slops, tobacco, pork, dips, biscuit, and the
like, than with cash payments--for, excepting short-allowance dues, he
had very little meddling with money matters. But the Admiralty have
recently swamped the well-known and distinctive nautical title--despite
of its time-honoured claims to repute--and introduced the army
appellative, PAYMASTER, in its stead.
The pithy conciseness of the brackish tongue renders it eminently useful
on duty. In some of their sea-phrases the French, our great rivals, use
a heap of words more than we are wont to do. An instance is
given--supposing a ship of the former met with one of ours, and they
should desire to salute each other, the English commander would sing
out, "Man ship!" but the French captain would have to exclaim, "Rangez
du monde sur les vergues pour donner des cris de salut!" By the way,
there is a _ben trovato_ respecting the difficulty of doing our naval
tidings into French: a translator of note made quite a mull of a ship
being _brought up_ by her anchors, and of another which was stranded
from _borrowing_ too much; while "a man-of-war riding easily in the road
at Spithead" was rendered "Un homme de guerre se promenait a cheval a
son aise sur le chemin de Spithead." Some of the French terms, however,
are recommended by their Parisian stamp, as in calling iron bilboes "bas
de soie"--the waist-netting "Saint Aubinet"--the quarter-gallery a
"jardin d'amour:" but similar elegance was not manifested in dubbing the
open-hearted thorough-bred tar "un loup de mer."
In the work before us, the nautical import of the terms is duly
considered, and the orthography, as far as feasible, is ruled by
authority and custom, with an occasional slight glance at the probable
etymology of the words--slight, because derivation is a seductive and
frequently illusory pilot. Our language is said to have been arraigned
by foreigners for its hissing enunciation; but, regardless of the
rebuke, our pundits have, of late, unnecessarily increased the whistling
by substituting the sibilant _s_ for the vocal _z_, in all sorts of
cases. Happily this same _s_ not being yet acclimatized to the galley,
Jack will continue to give tongue to an enterpri_z_ing crui_z_e after
Portugue_z_e merchandi_z_e, and there anent.
The plan of our work may be said to comprise the treating _de omnibus
rebus nauticis_, for many branches of knowledge are demanded of the
intelligent seaman. Thus in Naval Architecture, the terms used in the
construction of ships, the plans and sections, and the mechanical means
of the builders, are undoubted requirements of a sea word-book. So also
in Astronomy, or that portion of nautical science constituting
observations which are necessary to the determinations of the navigator.
In Mathematics, especially the branch distinguished as practical, the
doctrine which teaches whatever is capable of being numbered or
measured, requires verbal elucidation, not so much for the educated
youth, as for him who labours under difficulties--who is
"In canvass'd berth, profoundly deep in thought,
His busy mind with sines and tangents fraught."
Many of the words in our columns are not _de facto_ sea-terms, but as
they are in rife and familiar use on ship-board, they obtained a
lodgment; whence it becomes rather a difficult matter to mark a
boundary for nautic language. Various expressions are also retained
which, though unused or all but obsolete, occur so frequently in
professional treatises and antiquated journals, that their exposition
may often be welcomed by a general reader: they are here introduced, not
as worthy of revival, yet as necessary to be understood when fallen in
with. And it should be remembered, that--especially during our last
conflict with France--so many combined enterprises occurred, that the
most general naval and military phrases pertained, in a manner, to both
arms of the service.
What may be termed mere galley-slang also demands explanation, since
even officers are sometimes ashore--I was going to say at
sea--respecting its purport; and I recollect at a court-martial holden
on a seaman for insolence to his superior, the lingo used by the shrewd
culprit was liable to be thought respectful or otherwise according to
the manner of utterance, and he was admitted to the benefit of the
doubtful meaning. Still it must be admitted that all vulgarisms, as far
as practicable, should be indignantly spurned from our noble English
language--a language unequalled for excellence in fluency, capacity, and
strength. A stern critic may also, and in truth, aver that terms are
included on our roll the which are not altogether of maritime usage.
This we have admitted, but the allegation will be greatly weakened on
scrutiny, for they are here given in the sense entertained of them in
nautic parlance. Such are generally illustrative of some of the lingual
or local peculiarities of sea-life, or borne on its literature, and
therefore are necessarily admitted as having a footing in maritime
philology. Some of our misused words and archaic phrases are, by
influence of the newspaper magnates, brought across the Atlantic, and
re-appear among us under the style and title of Americanisms: after
which fashion, in the lapse of time and the mutation of dialect,
vocables once differing in origin and meaning may become identical in
sense and sound.[A]
[A] As for example the word _alarm_, _alarum_, a bell, from the German
_laerm_; but the military _alarm_ on a drum is the Italian _all'arme_.
Finally, Natural History, a taste for which is a substantial blessing to
the sailor, is too vast a department for our professional pages.
However, a few requisite definitions of the familiar products of the
air, earth, and water are introduced. Numbers of marine birds and many
fishes--so often misnamed--are entered upon the muster; and especially
those which the blue-jackets vote to be very good eating; yet, as a
reverend author has well observed, we should, in such cases, recur to
the probable state of their appetites at the time of experiment. The
most general nautic dishes and refections are likewise cited, to the
making of which most of our sea-cooks are competent--there being no
puree, entremet, or fricandeau to trouble them. But though they are at
times libelled as being sent from the infernal regions, they are pretty
fair in their way; and though no great shakes in domestic chemistry,
they can enter the lists against any white-aproned _artiste_ at
pea-soup, beef-steak, lobscouse, pillau, curried shark, twice-laid, or
savoury sea-pie. Still, a more luxurious tendency in this department is
casting its shadow before; and there are Sybarites invading the ocean to
whom the taste of junk is all but unknown.
[Illustration: Signature of W. H. Smyth]