The word room was familiar to English speaking seamen in
various capacities when Drake ruled the waves.
As Admiral Smyth notes in The
Sailor’s Word Book, the word was interchangeable – or perhaps stood in the
stead of – the more modern term large in regard to sailing. The term going room, according to the
Admiral, was documented in England
as early as 1578. Used in this sense,
the phrase meant the same as going large: sailing “with the wind free when
studding-sails will draw.” This might
also be expressed as rooming or running to leeward.
Larger ships of old and to some degree to this day, had
rooms. They were, of course, not proper
rooms as in a home or even cabins per se, depending on the type, but were
nonetheless referred to as rooms. In no
particular order, and doubtless with a careless omission or two, one might find
in a frigate or particularly a man-of-war such rooms as:
Cook room: another, more ancient, term for the galley.
Sail room: generally on the orlop deck, an enclosed space
where spare sails can be kept clean and – in particular – dry, thus free of
mold. In very large ships more than one
sail room might be kept.
Light room: attached to the powder room or magazine, this
was where flints and slow match would be kept for the great guns.
Powder room: where the volatile black powder was kept for
guns and small arms. Like the sail room,
dry conditions here and in the light room were absolutely necessary.
Gun room: located on the after-gun deck of larger ships,
this was where gun deck officers and/or warrant men would take meals. In frigates and smaller ships, this room
might be located in steerage.
Ward room: generally above the gun room, this was where
lieutenants and midshipmen slept and ate.
Bread room: another dry room often lined with sheeting of
some kind and used to store bread and ship’s biscuit.
Spirit room: often located next to the bread room in the
hold, this room contained the ship’s liquor and was frequently kept under lock
and key, for obvious reasons.
The term sea room, still used today, indicates a ship
running along free of seen or unseen dangers such as shore, shoals, reefs
etc. In such case, she is said to have
“good offing”.
Happy Saturday, Brethren, and a mug of grog to y’all.
Header: Lee Shore by
Edward Hopper via American Gallery
4 comments:
Happy Saturday, Pauline. I like the term "going room". I might have to use that one for some other purpose.
But now, I'm all for a mug of grog...
Plus, Ms. Monroe on TCM is helping our Saturday quite a bit... Huzzah!
Have been reading a nautical tale chock full of sailing lore Cooper's Homeward Bound or the Chase. Worth a read: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9826/9826-h/9826-h.htm
Also did some digging into my hometown's namesake LaSalle's Griffon shipwreck:http://www.lasalle-griffon.com/
Thank you so much for those suggestions, T. I will definitely look into both!
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