Out at Sea

Out at Sea Archive

A Jonah

Jonah sailed to Tarshish instead of preaching against the evils of Nineveh... [Article]

A Sea Legend

In Icelandic legend the story is told of a clergyman named... [Article]

	Lightning Never Strikes Twice, St. Barbara

	Lightning not only strikes twice in the same place, but is... [Article]

America's First Great Merchantman: The Grand Turk

The Grand Turk should be familiar to many Americans if only because... [Article]

Captain Outrageous

Many pirates chose to live under... [Article]

Cootie

There have been attempts to link this little louse (not flea) with the word cute... [Article]

Dead Men Discovered the Northwest Passage

North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean called the Northwest Passage... [Article]

First to Sight The Pacific Ocean

The little Spanish vessel making its way from Uraba to Panama... [Article]

Fish That Fish For Fish

Fish have developed some interesting ways of catching prey, but it is unlikely that any fish hunting for food can... [Article]

Gob

Gob... Back in the twenties the U.S. Navy banned the use of gob... [Article]

Handy Jones - Long Island Pirate

This oldest of pirates flourished off Long Island... [Article]

Hobsonize

To kiss, from the only person in history whose name the... [Article]

Holystone

Soft sandstone, often used to scrub the decks of ships... [Article]

Hook, Line and Sinker

An extremely gullible person who swallows a fantastic yarn... [Article]

Horse Latitudes

These regions of calms, found at 30 degrees N and S latitudes... [Article]

	How To Name A Ship

	Many ship names have been used scores of times. The Revolutionary... [Article]

Hulks

The Hulks were old dismasted vessels anchored and used as prison... [Trivia]

Hydroplane

Almost as soon as the airplane became a reality in the early twentieth... [Article]

It's All Plain Sailing

Plane sailing in technical nautical parlance means determining a ship's position... [Article]

	Last of the Old Time Pirates

	The last pirate known to be hanged in the United States was Captain Nathaniel Gordon, captured... [Article]

Loaded to the Gills

Someone loaded to the gills “drinks like a fish” or has drunk alcohol “like a... [Article]

Longshoreman

The longshoreman, who helps load and unload ships, gets... [Article]

Loose Lips Sink Ships

This World War II slogan urging sailors and others not to talk about war-related... [Article]

Lusitania

The British liner Lusitania is one of the most famous ships in history because her sinking by a German sub started America in the direction... [Article]

Mae West

sailor or airman who invented the term Mae West is... [Article]

Making Both Ends Meet

the expression to make both ends meet derives from the practice... [Article]

	Midshipman Fish - Talking Fish

	Common to mainland America, the midshipman fish... [Article]

	Moby Dick - Mocha Dick

	Mocha Dick, "the stout gentleman of the latitudes, the prodigious terror whale... [Article]

Nautical Flag Firsts

John Paul Jones did not hoist the first stars-and-stripes aboard the Ranger... [Article]

Naval War Slogans

An informal survey suggests that the following seven... [Article]

Navy Colors

Navy ships haven"t always been battleship gray with black trim... [Trivia]

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Legend has it that the famous White Star liner Titanic went down while... [Article]

Noah's Ark

It is safe to say that everyone over the age of six is familiar... [Article]

Noah's Brig

A tiny rockbound island in the Hudson River, Noah's Brig is... [Article]

On The Rocks

Here the allusion is to a ship grounded off a rocky coast... [Article]

Out Of The Marsh Came Hateful Grendel

Beowulf in about the eighth century A.D. described a man-eating creature... [Article]

	Oysters 'R Always Good

	Although Americans alone consume millions of dollars worth of oysters... [Article]

Phoenix-like Fish

The Alaskan blackfish (Dallia pectoralis), important in the diet of Alaskan Indians, is... [Article]

Pieces of Eight

Famous as pirate booty, pieces of eight were Spanish... [Article]

Pirate Vengeance

To the people they plundered and murdered, the Vikings... [Article]

Play It Again, Blackbeard

It sounds like something out of the movies, but... [Article]

Plural Names for Marine Animals

Following are the proper plurals or collective names for a number of marine... [Article]

Port

About three centuries ago port began to replace larboard as the word for the... [Article]

Portholes

All windows on a ship are called portholes even though half... [Article]

	Portuguese Man-of-War

	Physalia pelagica was derisively named the Portuguese man-of-war... [Article]

Posh

A favorite story about posh says that it is an acronym for port outward... [Trivia]

PT Boat

Prohibition rather than war prompted the invention of PT boats... [Article]

Quaker Guns

The dummy guns on ships have long been called Quaker guns... [Article]

Requiem Shark

Tiger sharks and other tropical sharks of the family Carcharhinidae are often called requiem sharks... [Article]

Rudderless

Rudderless, in reference to the absence of a ship’s rudder... [Article]

Scow

Scow is another nautical word born in America; its parent... [Article]

Scuttlebutt

Scuttlebutt - The Old French word escoutilles, corrupted to scuttle in English, first... [Article]

Sea Urchin

Sea Urchin - The English, who have often been poor at spelling French words, stumbled... [Article]

Ship Christenings

Icelandic sages tell us that human sacrifices were lashed to the... [Article]

Slush Fund

James Fenimore Cooper made mention of a slush fund in one of his sea novels back in 1842... [Article]

Snorkel

Introduced during World War II, the snorkel was at first only a retractable... [Article]

The First To Row Across The Atlantic

Carrying no sail or motor to tempt them, George Harpo and Frank Samuelson... [Article]

The Half Moon

For a little 60-ton "yacht," as her class ship was then called, the Dutch Half Moon... [Article]

The Last Hymn Played on the Titanic

Legend has it that the famous White Star liner Titanic went down... [Article]

The Last Voyage of the Leon

Although slave ships generally had to be burned after a few voyages - so that... [Article]

The Mark of Great Voyagers

According to author Tristan Jones, a small blue tattoo... [Article]

The Narwhal

The narwhal of arctic waters, a whale that grows up to twenty... [Article]

The Ninth Wave

An old nautical superstition holds that waves become... [Article]

The Oarfish

Often mistaken as a sea monster, the oarfish (Regalecus glesno)... [Article]

The Shark

Ironically enough sea sharks take their name from land sharks, rather... [Article]

The Stormy Petrel

Because they feed on surface-swimming organisms – small shrimp and squid – petrels fly close... [Article]

To Launch a Vessel

Launch is an old word deriving from French, its... [Trivia]

To Pour Oil On Troubled Waters

Pour oil on any waters today and... [Article]

To Sail Under False Colors

Pretending to be something you aren’t, to be a hypocrite. We all know the... [Article]

Weather Rhymes

Seamen of old were often able to predict the weather... [Article]

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Out at Sea Archive