Quelques histoires du vocabulaire maritime

Keelhaul
faire passer sous la quille

[Source : Naval Orientation, US Navy Training Manual, 1991]

To be keelhauled today is merely to be given a severe reprimand for some infraction of the rules. As late as the 19th century, however, it meant the extreme. It was a dire and often fatal torture employed to punish offenders of certain naval laws.

An offender was securely bound both hand and foot and had heavy weights attached to his body. He was then lowered over the ship’s side and slowly dragged along under the ship’s hull. If he didn’t drown, -which was rare- barnacles usually ripped him, causing him to bleed to death.

All navies stopped this cruel and unusual punishment many years ago and today any such punishment is
forbidden.

Dog watch
To dodge : échapper à, esquiver

[Source : Naval Orientation, US Navy Training Manual, 1991]

Dog watch is the name given to the 1600-1800 and the 1800-2000 watches aboard ship. The 1600-2000 4-hour watch was originally split to prevent men from always having to stand the same watches daily. As a result, sailors dodge the same daily routine, hence they are dodging the watch or standing the dodge watch. In its corrupted form, dodge became dog and procedure is referred to as “dogging the watch” or standing the “dog watch”.

Master at arms
Le capitaine d'armes

[Source : Naval Orientation, US Navy Training Manual, 1991]

The master-at-arms rating is by no means a modern innovation. Naval records show that some “sheriffs of the sea” were keeping order as early as the reign of Charles I of England. At the time, they were charged with keeping the swords, pistols, carbines, and muskets in good working orders as well as ensuring that the bandoliers were filled with fresh powder before combat.

Besides being chiefs of police at sea, the sea corporals, as they were called in the British Navy, had to be
qualified in close order fighting under arms and able to train seamen in hand-to-hand combat. In the days of sail, the MAAs were truly “masters at arms”. The Master at Arms in the US Navy can trace the beginning of this rate to the Union navy of the Civil War.

Wardroom
Le carré officiers

[Source : Naval Orientation, US Navy Training Manual, 1991]

Aboard the 18th century British ships there was a compartment called the wardrobe, used for storing booty taken at sea. The officer’s mess and staterooms were situated nearby, so when the wardrobe was empty they congregated there to take their meals and pass the time.

When the days of swashbuckling and pirating had ended, the wardrobe was used exclusively as a officers’ mess and lounge. Having been elevated from a closet to a room, it was called the wardroom.

Dead horse
Le cheval mort

[Source : Naval Orientation, US Navy Training Manual, 1991]

British seamen, apt to be ashore and unemployed for considerable periods between voyages, generally preferred to live in boarding houses near the piers while waiting for sailing ships to take on crews. During these periods of unrestricted liberty, many ran out of money, so the innkeepers carried them on credit until they were hired for another voyage.

When a seaman was booked on a ship, he was customarily advanced a month’s wages, if needed, to pay off his boarding house debt. Then, while paying back the ship’s master, he worked for nothing but “salt horse” the first of several weeks aboard.

Salt horse was the staple diet of early sailors and it wasn’t exactly tasty cuisine. Consisting of a low quality beef that had been heavily salted, the salt horse was tough to chew and even harder to digest.

When the debt had been repaid, the salt horse was said to be dead and it was time for great celebration among the crew. Usually, an effigy of a horse was constructed from odds and ends, set afire, and then cast afloat to the cheers and hilarity of the ex-debtors.

Today, just as in the days of sail, “dead horse” refers to a debt to the government for advance pay. Sailors today don’t burn effigies when the debt is paid, but they are no less jubilant than their counterparts of old.

He knows the ropes

[Source : Naval Orientation, US Navy Training Manual, 1991]

When we say that someone knows the ropes we infer that he knows his way around at sea and is quite capable of handling most nautical problems.
Through the years, the phrase’s meaning has changed somewhat.
Originally, the statement was printed on a seaman’s discharge to indicate that he knew the names and primary uses of the main ropes on board ship.
In other words, “this man is a novice seaman and knows only the basics of seamanship”.