Nautical Trivia

[ebs001]

TP, I think most Americans pronounce it the way you do, as do some Canadians. How do you pronounce "buoyed" as in :he was buoyed up by the team spirit" ?

[kennya]

Define the nautical use for escutcheon

[TrueBlue]

I know from being a practicing architect, that an escutheon is any plate used as a backer for hardware - such as the rose of a door knob or on a latch assembly. I would guess a ship's use of escutheon would be similar. Perhaps the backer plate used to enscribe the ship's name?

[kennya]

Displaying the name of the vessel, it usually was affixed to the stern of a sailing ship

[Giulietta]

So, so far no one has told me on what side should the handle of a coffe cup be ina Royal Navy's ship.

Ok, now to make it easier....on what side should the coffe's cup handle be on a US navy ship?????

[I-33]

Any coffee cup has a handle side and a non-handle side. So it is proper on a US Naval ship to have the handle on the handle side, while in the Royal Navy (since they are looking at it from the opposite side of the ocean) the handle side will be opposite the non-handle side, therefore the reverse should be true. :-)

[Giulietta]

Huhhhhh, no!

please, simple... on what side should the coffe's cup handle be on a Rn ship, and on a US Navy ship..

[CBinRI]

Originally Posted by Faster

Crowhurst entered the race on a trimaran, and was hyped as a favourite, esp considering the heavy cruisers the others were using. He set sail and his radio reports had him well in front, including details of what he did, the weather he was experiencing etc.

At some point, when he "was well along in the race" his reports stopped. After a lot of concern, his boat was found adrift in the Atlantic. There were two logs on board, one that he radioed the details of, and the other of what he actually did, which was to sail circles around the Atlantic. He was not on board. The story goes that he was unable to pull off the deceit and chose to step over the side.

"The strange voyage of Donald Crowhurst" is the title of the book. It's a good read.

I also read a somewhat recent book on the race, generally, that had a lot on Crowhurst, although the name presently escapes me. Something like a Race or a Voyage for Madmen or something like that. I liked it despite my bad memory.

[CBinRI]

Originally Posted by Faster

I think it's safe to say you're being too kind..... read the book, it's interesting - he left lots of data behind including evidence of a developing breakdown.

I seem to remember he might have radioed someone (maybe his wife or girlfriend) and confessed. (I could be making this up.) I recall that the boat was made out of plywood and started taking on water almost imediately out of port.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by CBinRI

I also read a somewhat recent book on the race, generally, that had a lot on Crowhurst, although the name presently escapes me. Something like a Race or a Voyage for Madmen or something like that. I liked it despite my bad memory.

The book was Voyage for Madmen by Peter Nichols. Great read, only finished it last week. Covers the Crowhurst debacle quite thoroughly.

Crowhurst didn't confess as such but from his log(s) it was obvious that he came to realise that his fantasy log would not stand up to scrutiny. Some members of the race committee, Francis Chichester in particular, were on record as having doubts about Crowhurst's veracity and had stated their intention to give the log of the Teignmouth Electron a good going over when Crowhurst returned to the UK.

The campaign was a disaster from start to finish. Half his supplies and spare parts were left sitting on the dock when he departed, his lines were so badly tangled that he had to be towed back in before he even crossed the starting line. Amazingly he even stopped in a small South American village for repairs. Because the Spanish official misread his name and so entered a false name in the documents Crowhurst though he had got away with it. (In Spanish if your name is Donald Frederick Crowhurst you are referred to as Sr Frederick not Sr Crowhurst. Frederick being your paternal surname, Crowhurst your Maternal. So he was cleared in under the name of Frederick.)

Cheers

Andrew

ps - Frederick was not his real middle name. I don't remember what it really was.