Navy Facts and Trivia

Colleges & Universities United States Naval Academy (USNA)
81

<p>**BRIDGE (n) ** - The command center, located high and forward on a vessel, in which the officer of the deck is stationed, and from which maneuvering orders are issued. </p>

<p>**BRIG (n) ** - A space aboard ship designated for the detention of personnel guilty of offenses requiring incarceration. </p>

<p>**BROWN WATER NAVY (n) ** - US Navy small gunboats patrolling coastal waters, the Mekong River, and other rivers of South Viet Nam during the war. </p>

<p>**BULKHEAD (n) ** - The naval term for “wall”. Aboard ship,and even at a naval shore installation, naval designations are expected from all hands. A ceiling is an overhead, a floor is a deck, a hall is a passageway, a bathroom is a head, a stairway is a ladder, a kitchen is a galley, and so on and so forth. </p>

<p>**BULL (n) ** - Senior, as in the “Bull Ensign”, meaning the one with the most seniority.</p>

82

<p>**CAPSIZE (v) ** - To turn upside down, and usually, to sink. There is no vessel so large that the largest ocean wave, taken broadside, cannot capsize. </p>

<p>**CAPTAIN (n) ** - The person in sole command of a Navy vessel or establishment. This title is applied to the person in authority, whatever his rank. There are few jobs in the world which carry such concentrated responsibility as that of a command at sea. Accordingly, the authority vested in that one person is almost without limit. </p>

<p>**CARRY ON (v) ** - When a senior commissioned officer enters a space, those present are expected to stand at attention, as a mark of respect, unless doing so would interfere with assigned work. The entering senior then gives the command “Carry On”, or “As you were”, as permission to resume ongoing activities. </p>

<p>**CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS (n) ** - This many-stranded lash was used in the Old Navy (days of wooden ships and iron men"), to effect physical punishments, which were the order of the day. Many old hands now feel that too much “progress” has been made in the field of discipline, so that outlawing physical punishment, and restricting confinement and loss of pay as punishment, has produced a diminution in respect for authority. *An illustrative anecdote of this feeling is the following: In the old days, two SA’s (Seamen Apprentices) were shooting the breeze on the fantail when one said cockily, "So, I told that Chief off! I said "Chief, Go crap in your hat! Wow!, said the listener, expecting next to hear how long the braggart had spent in sickbay. The present- day version shows the change: Two SA’s are chatting on the fantail, when one says cockily, “So I told that Chief off!.” I told him “Chief, Go crap in your hat!”. Whereupon the listener said in boredom, “And then?”. *</p>

83

<p>**CHIPPING HAMMER (n) ** - Bane of the seaman apprentice’s existence, this device doesn’t look like a hammer at all, but is simply a strip of steel bent into an “L” shape and sharpened into a blade on the short end. Its purpose is to remove the battleship gray paint which covers all Navy vessels. This removal is frequently necessary because of the caustic effects of sea water, which seeps under the paint and begins to eat away the steel of the hull. On a major ship there may be a million square feet of painted surfaces-- a never-ending job! </p>

<p>**CHIT (n) ** - A note, voucher, or permit, as in “Chief, I need a chit to draw a replacement pair of dungarees”. </p>

<p>**CLOSE-ORDER DRILL (n) ** - Not only soldiers and marines, but all sailors, too, receive training in formation marching, called “close-order drill”. This is where the recruit becomes familiar with the terms “Fall In!, “Attention!, Parade Rest! Shoulder Arms!, About Face!, Forward, March!, etc. Although little such marching is done aboard ship, it is Navy policy to give everyone this type of practice in instant obedience to commands, on the ground that such habits will save lives and win battles in situations of stress. </p>

<p>**COMBAT INFORMATION CENTER (CIC) (n) ** - Spaces on a ship which contain the concentration of radar, radio telephone, sonar, message receivers, and plotting displays. Information about the whereabouts and movements of the ship itself, other ships in the area, and of aircraft within range of these instruments is received, displayed, evaluated, and digested for transmission to the bridge. The concentration of so much data coming in all at once is, indeed, awesome, and it has led to the nickname of CIC as “Christ, I’m Confused!”</p>

84

<p>**COMPARTMENT (n) ** - Civilian equivalent is “room”. </p>

<p>**CONN (n) ** - Temporary maneuvering command of the ship, exercised from the bridge when underway. The Officer of the Deck, or “OD”, normally maintains this control. Even if the Captain is on the bridge, he must specifically relieve the OD of the Conn if he wishes to direct the ship. This is so that there is no doubt as to whose primary responsibility is the maneuvering of the vessel. </p>

<p>**COURSE (n) ** - The direction in which, generally expressed in (true) degrees, a vessel is proceeding. </p>

<p>**COVERED (adj) ** - Wearing a hat. Naval practice differs from that of the other services in that the hand salute is to be rendered only when covered. Informal etiquette requires removal of the hat when entering a bar. Failure to remove it causes the bartender to sound a bell and to invite the house to have a drink at the expense of the offender.</p>

85

<p>**DAMAGE CONTROL (n) ** - Every Navy vessel has a damage control officer and a damage control party. These members of the crew have the critical duty of identifying, reporting, and repairing, with due haste, the effects of any fire, explosion, or significant water leak. It is ironic that in the present days of steel, not wooden, ships, that the greatest danger of any modern vessel is that of fire. </p>

<p>**DAVIT (n) ** - A vertical, rotating support on a ship which supports a lifeboat and which serves as a crane to raise and lower the boat. </p>

<p>**DEAD RECKONING (v) ** - The process of determining the approximate position of the ship, by plotting out the ship’s known course and speed (including changes in same) for a given period of time, commencing from a known point. </p>

<p>**DECK APES (n) ** - The members of a deck division, also known as swabby. The latter term is derived from the Navy’s name, swab for a mop, and the practice of swabbing decks frequently.</p>

86

<p>**DESTROYER (n) ** - A naval warship, often called a “smallboy" or “tincan”. These ships are the workhorses of the Navy. They carry 300-400 men, and are speedy, well-armed vessels. Their primary duty has evolved from scout to ASW. </p>

<p>**DINGHY (n) ** - A small boat often carried aboard small yachts, etc., to provide transit from anchorage to shore, or for emergency use. </p>

<p>**DISPLACEMENT (n) ** - The weight in tons of the seawater displaced by a vessel afloat. This number may range, for naval vessels, up to 100,000 tons, and even larger for the newest supertankers carrying oil. The landlubber is often surprised to learn that such a mass of steel can float, and that ships can be made of concrete! So long as the vessel itself and her voids (empty spaces) within a vessel, and whatever cargo she is carrying, together weigh less than the water displaced, the vessel will float. </p>

<p>**DIVISION (n) ** - One of the working departments aboard ship, such as deck, gunnery, engineering, navigation, supply, operations, etc. A carrier may have 13 divisions, and smaller ships only a few.</p>

87

<p>**DOGWATCH (n) ** - Aboard ship, most activities must continue uninterrupted 24 hours every day. Duty periods, therefore, are usually divided into 4-hour watches. To avoid the monotony or hardship of having the same work hours every day, the period between 1600 and 2000 is often divided into two 2-hr watches called the first and second dogwatches. </p>

<p>**DRAFT (n) ** - The distance between a vessel’s waterline and the lowest part, or keel This, plus a safety factor, represents the minimum water depth in which a vessel may operate. For a small, flat-bottomed boat this may be only a few inches, up to 40 feet for the largest vessels. </p>

<p>**DRYDOCK (n) ** - The submerged part of any vessel eventually becomes covered with barnacles, which greatly increase fuel consumption due to increased drag through the water, and protective paint is lost to the corrosive action of salt water. The only solution available is to put the ship into a floating container larger than the ship, called a “drydock”, and pump out the water, leaving the ship resting upon form-fitting blocks, high and dry, with the whole hull accessible for necessary work. Anyone who has not viewed a major vessel in drydock would be amazed at first look, because a ship which is a monster when seen floating, suddenly becomes about one third larger, when seen in its drydocked entirety. </p>

<p>**DUNGAREES (n) ** - Enlisted’s working uniform trousers of heavy blue cloth. The term is of East Indian origin, and dates back to the days of sail.</p>

88

<p>**ELECTRONICS TECHNICIAN (n) ** - Enlisted rating given to personnel charged with maintenance of electronic equipment. With the recent sophistication of the Navy’s advanced weapons and communications gear, this rating has come to bear enormous responsibility. Abbreviated ET. </p>

<p>**EM’s (n) ** - Enlisted men (or women), often further specified as EM1, EM2, EM3, (i.e., Seaman Recruit, Seaman Apprentice, and Seaman) etc. </p>

<p>**ENSIGN (n) ** - The rank of a commissioned officer immediately above that of a warrant officer. Equivalent to an Army Second Lieutenant. Also, a national flag. </p>

<p>**EVAPORATORS (n) ** - Equipment aboard ship designed to make pure fresh water out of seawater. It is necessary to heat the brine to boiling and cool it to condense out purified, distilled water. This water is essential not only for drinking but especially required for consumption by the ship’s boilers, which make steam that powers the turbines, primary propulsion for most ships. </p>

<p>**EXPANSION JOINT (n) ** - Very large vessels are constructed with such flexible joints so that the ship can actually bend under heavy swells. If a 1,000 ft.-long vessel were a perfectly rigid beam, and the ship encountered large swells of 1,000 feet separation, the torque created by such waves might very well break the ship in two. The principle is the same as that of the palm tree, which bends with a gale, while the rigid oak is shattered by the same wind.</p>

89

<p>**FANTAIL (n) ** - Stern area of the main deck. </p>

<p>**FATHOM (n) ** - Nautical measure of length, equal to six feet. Usually used in measuring depth of water. A length of light line attached to a lead weight is dropped to the bottom and the result in fathoms announced. From this measure, the ship’s draft ,plus a safety factor, is subtracted to assure that there is sufficient water under the keel. This practice, by the way, provided Samuel Clemens with his pen name of Mark Twain, for he was a Mississippi riverboat pilot, and he always wanted to be sure that the leadsman’s call of “Mark Twain” (two fathoms) meant that his sternwheeler could safely pass. Modern days, of course, an electronic fathometer performs this function, especially in deep water.</p>

<p>**FATHOMETER (n) ** - An electronic device which bounces impulses off the bottom and records the depth in fathoms. </p>

<p>**FID (n) ** - A conical-shaped form of wood or metal by means of which the strands of a heavy line or cable may be manually separated for splicing.</p>

90

<p>**FLAG (adj) ** - Refers to"flag rank", i.e., that of an admiral. When a fleet commander, for example, moves his headquarter, it is said that “the flag” has moved. </p>

<p>**FLAGSTAFF (n) ** - A slightly raked staff or pole arising from the ship’s stern, from which the national ensign is flown while the vessel is moored or docked. </p>

<p>**FLYING DUTCHMAN (n) ** - The fabled ghost ship, dating from the 17th century, which is fated to sail forever without ever being able to make port. Sailors love the sea, of course, but the idea of never going ashore is enough to frighten the most grizzled old salt. </p>

<p>**FOUNDER (v) ** - To sink. </p>

<p>**FREEBOARD (n) ** - The distance between the surface of the water and the gunwale, or open edge, of a boat.</p>

91

<p>**FREEDOM OF THE SEAS (n) ** - Civilians in general are not very likely to have thought very much about this very old and very important principle of maritime law. It specifies that all vessels, domestic or foreign, have the right to peaceful passage through any nation’s waters. The importance of this principle to Navy men is to be seen in the case of the USS Pueblo, which was boarded in international waters and seized by the North Koreans, and her crew imprisoned and mistreated. While it is true that the Pueblo was, in fact, an intelligence gathering ship, this happened during the cold war, at a time when ships belonging to Russia, China, and others were operating close aboard US coasts doing exactly the same thing, with impunity, because of our Navy?s respect for the law. </p>

<p>**FRIGATE (n) ** - A modern naval warship in size between a destroyer and a cruiser carrying a full complement of guns, rockets, torpedoes, and even a helicopter. </p>

<p>**GALLEY (n) ** - The ship’s kitchen. Navy chow is routinely quite good, but that does not protect ship’s cooks from a barrage of bitc*ing. </p>

<p>**GENERAL QUARTERS (n) ** - Emergency alarm, sounded either by boatswain’s whistle or bugle call, or both, and the announcement that all hands are to proceed with all haste to their battle stations.</p>

92

<p>**GREATCOAT (n) ** - A long, lined, heavy blue wool topcoat worn in extremely cold weather as part of the officer’s uniform. </p>

<p>**GROG (n) ** - The British Navy still has the custom of a daily ration, or “tot” of grog, which is a watered-down drink of rum. Although the US Navy has retained a great many customs derived from its origins under the Brits, the USN policy of no alcohol aboard ship is strictly enforced. This may explain, in part, the reputation that sailors ashore have of being a hard drinking lot. </p>

<p>**GUNNER’S MATE (n) ** - Abbreviated GM. Enlisted rating assigned to personnel responsible for the operation and maintenance of the ship’s guns. </p>

<p>**GUNWALE (n) ** - (Pronounced “gunnel”) The above water edge of an open boat. In the case of a rowboat it is this edge into which are fitted the oarlocks or pintles Any time water comes over the gunwale in quantity, the boat is in jeopardy.</p>

93

<p>**HOLYSTONE (n) ** - A porous volcanic rock, fashioned into a sort of grinding mop (See swab) which was used daily in the days of wooden decks, with a generous application of elbow grease by a crew of sailors (see deck apes) to remove the nightly encrustation of salt from the deck. </p>

<p>**HOSPITAL CORPSMAN (n) ** - Abbreviated HM. Only major Navy vessels carry physicians, but all have enlisted hospital corpsmen, who are often called “Doc” by the crew. These sailors receive medical training adequate for the care of routine illnesses and injuries; more serious cases are transferred to major vessels or to hospital ashore. *As sailors will be sailors, a good deal of the corpsmen’s time is taken up with the treatment of venereal diseases. In fact, there is a longstanding custom ,especially when in certain foreign ports, to hold “short-arm inspection” three days after sailing (to give, e.g., gonorrhea, time to develop symptoms). As the “Doc” presides over this unpopular ceremony, he is often also called a “pecker checker”, or a “chancre mechanic”. *</p>

<p>**JUMP SHIP (v) ** - To leave the ship in a foreign location, without authorization.</p>

94

<p>**KEEL (n) ** - The lowest longitudinal strength member of a ship, which runs the fore and aft length of the ship. This is usually the first piece laid, in the construction of a vessel. *There is an oft-told tale that when a certain sailor requested a leave so as to attend to the birth of his child, he received the following negative response: "Your presence is required for the laying of the keel, but for the launching of the vessel, you are superfluous! Request denied! *</p>

<p>**KING (n) ** - Title given to a person in charge of a particular function aboard ship, as “oil king”, (person responsible to see that fuel tanks are kept at appropriate levels, leak-free, and contaminant -free). *The “water king” on a particular ship once became a very unpopular fellow, when someone in his crew opened a wrong valve, and allowed a small quantity of fuel oil to enter into the ship’s drinking water supply. Fortunate landlubbers have been spared the experience of actually tasting even a drop of this foul stuff, and complaints around the scuttlebutts were frequent, loud, and almost as foul as the taste of the water. I have to give the snipes a lot of credit for group loyalty, however, for when an engineer was seen to take a drink of this horrible water, he would first grimace in shock, quickly wipe the expression off his face, and then say loudly, "Boy, that’s good!’ *</p>

95

<p>**LAY (v) ** - To proceed to, as in ,“Now, the Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch, lay up to the quarterdeck.” To “get laid”, of course, is quite different, and it is certainly a primary goal for the lonely sailor coming into a foreign port. If any credence at all is to be accorded to his tales of conquest during a single night ashore, the US sailor puts Casanova in the shade! </p>

<p>**LEADSMAN (n) ** - A sailor designated to stand near the bow of a vessel when navigating in shallow waters, and cast overboard a lead weight attached to a cord and marked off in fathoms. He then calls out the depth of the water for the information of the OOD. </p>

<p>**LEAVE (n) ** - Permission to be absent from the duty station for a period longer than a few days, (or, the period of time covered by this permission), as opposed to liberty, which term covers short periods. </p>

<p>**LEE (adv) ** - On the side of the shipaway from the wind. Also, “Alee”, or “leeward”. The opposite of leeward is windward. *Oft said of a new recruit, “He’s so green he would **** to windward!” *</p>

96

<p>**LIFELINES (n) ** - These lines are erected all around the weather decks to prevent personnel from falling or being swept overboard. </p>

<p>**LIGHTS (n) ** - The lights which maritime law requires every vessel to display at night follow a strict code, and spell out for the attentive mariner a great deal of information about the vessel, which may be invisible except for such lights. For example, all vessels must carry a red light (shielded so as to be seen only from forward) on the port side of the ship, and a green light, similarly configured, on the starboard side, when under way. Such lights (requirements for which are spelled out in maritime law under Rules of the Road) reveal the direction the ship is headed, whether it is anchored or underway , and in some cases, what type of vessel it is, and in what activity it is engaged. *I recall a session of instruction on lights, in which the instructor would draw on the board a pattern of lights displayed, by a mystery vessel, and ask the class to describe the ship, whether it was underway, and its activities. As a lark, the class then drew a pattern of lights on the board- three vertical red lights over one white light, plus the usual red and green running lights. When the puzzled instructor admitted that he was snowed, the class cutup said, “That’s the harbor cathouse, Sir, and she is indeed under way; she’s hauling Ass!” *</p>

<p>**LINE OFFICER (n) ** - The most broadly trained, and the first in line of authority, of the various types of Naval officers, as contrasted with specialized ranks, as Engineering Officer, Supply Officer, Medical Officer, etc. The line designation, which appears at the cuff of both sleeves on the uniform blouse, and above the stripes of relative rank, is a gold star. On the khaki uniform, the line officer wears a rank insignia (e.g., one gold bar for an ensign, one silver eagle for a captain etc.) on each collar wing, while specialized officers wear one rank insignia and one specialty designation (e.g. a caduceus for a medical officer).</p>

97

<p>**LOG BOOK (SHIP?s LOG) (n) ** - Everything of consequence which happens aboard a Navy ship is entered in the ship?s official record book, or log book, by the quartermaster of the watch. Always included are the (24hr Navy) time, the ship?s position, course, and speed, the name of the Officer Of The Deck,and who had the Conn, if not the OOD. </p>

<p>**MASTER-AT-ARMS (n) ** - Usually a boatswain’s mate or a gunner’s mate, this person is charged with administration of the ship’s brig, and by direction of the Captain, can arrest and confine in the brig any person guilty of crimes aboard ship. </p>

<p>**MAYDAY (n) ** - The official voice radio signal (since 1948) for distress. Modern radio practice is now mostly voice, as against the original Morse telegraphic code transmitted in dots and dashes. The long-standing Morse distress call is SOS; or, dot, dot, dot; dash, dash, dash; dot, dot, dot; still handy to know if voice transmission is not available.</p>

98

<p>**MESS DECK (n) (or Chow hall) ** - This is the space wherein meals are served to enlisted personnel. </p>

<p>**MILITARY TIME (n) ** - The system (in use by all the services) of designating time in a 24 -hour cycle, instead of the civilian 12-hour cycle, to avoid the possible confusion of AM vs. PM. In this system, midnight is the starting point, named 0000 (zero hours and zero minutes). One minute after midnight is 0001, one minute after one P.M. is 1301, etc., When describing the end of the day, midnight is termed 2400, (twenty-four hundred), and the same instant is called 0000 (zero zero zero zero) when speaking of the beginning of a new day. It may interest the landlubber to know that there places in the world (such as parts of Australia), in which the local time does not differ by an even number of hours from that in Greenwich, England, where the military time system originated. When the British first arrived in Saudi Arabia, they found that the local system of time directed that every day when the sun went down was twelve o’clock, so that there was very seldom a coincidence of Saudi and Western time. When asked if he would care to adopt the custom of the rest of the world, His Majesty King Saud said, “No, any time system used here must originate here, not in England , so that instead of Greenwich plus three hours, which would be complete conformity, Saudi Arabia will quote time as originating here!” As a consequence, persons may be seen in that country wearing three watches, so as to know the time, whether Greenwich time, the original Saudi time, or the (quasi-conforming) Saudi time. </p>

<p>**MUSTANG (n) ** - A commissioned officer who was formerly enlisted. </p>

<p>**MUTINY (n) ** - An uprising of military personnel intended to overthrow appointed authority, as the captain of a vessel.</p>

99

<p>**NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICER (n) ** - NCO. Also called petty officer.</p>

100

<p>**OFFICER (n) ** - A person of authority in the Naval Service. Some confusing similarities exist between the grades, or ranks, of officers in the US Navy, US Coast Guard, which are similar, and of the and those of the US Marines, US Army, and US Air Force, which latter three are generally similar. Note that a Navy Captain is commensurate with an Army Colonel. The terms are further confused by the fact that Navy usage refers to the person in command of any vessel as the ?Captain?, irrespective of the formal rank he/she holds. The Army also has a rank of Captain, which is formally commensurate with the Navy?s Lieutenant. Nowhere on this list appears the title of Midshipman, which denotes an officer-in-training, or cadet. </p>

<p>**OFFICER OF THE DECK (n) ** - Abbreviated OOD. The Captain of a Navy ship is in absolute command of his vessel (except for limitations on his authority placed upon him by the Uniform Code of Military Justice). As it is not physically possible for him/her to be in active charge of the vessel twenty-four hours a day, he must have a surrogate in command, who is called the Officer of the Deck, and who is in charge of all others on board during the time he holds this temporary title. </p>

<p>**ON THE DOUBLE (adv) ** - Adjunct to a command, meaning “with haste”. </p>

<p>**OVERHEAD (n) ** - The ceiling.</p>