A boatswain's pipe or boatswain's call (pronounced "Bosun") is a whistle that is made of a tube, called the barrel, that directs air over a grape-sized metal sphere with a hole cut in the top. The player opens and closes the hand over the hole to change the pitch.
The historical use of the boatswain's call was as a signalling device on a ship. Because of its high pitch, it could be heard over the activities of the crew and bad weather. It is now used in the traditional color , sunset and other ceremonies of several navies, sometimes combined with other auditive features: ruffles and flourishes or even a gun salute.
It is also the Official badge of the Quartermaster in the Sea Cadet Corps
Fresh water economy aboard ship may dictate using as little water as possible. Hence, the navy shower; wet down, turn off the water, soap up, turn the shower on to rinse off. If a ship's fresh water making device, the evaporators (evaps) have problems, a ship may experience "water hours" in which no showers are allowed except at select times. Generally, the smaller the ship the more experience the crew has with Navy showers.
The origin of the word "scuttlebutt," which is nautical parlance for a rumour, comes from a combination of "scuttle" what make a hole in the ship's hull and thereby causing her to sink and "butt" is a cask or hogshead used in the days of wooden ships to hold drinking water. The cask, from which the ship's crew took their drinking water. Like water fountain was the "scuttlebutt".
Even in today's Navy a drinking fountain is referred to as such. But, since the crew used to congregate around the "scuttlebutt", that is where the rumours about the ship or voyage would begin. Thus, then and now, rumours are talk from the "scuttlebutt" or just "scuttlebutt".
Also, any ship board rumor or gossip. "Taking a long slow drink, the sailor announced to anyone who would listen, 'We're headed for Hong Kong. I heard it from the mess cook.'" Scuttle-butt passes through the ship rapidly, embellished and gaining in creditability as it spreads.
Piping as a ceremony with side boys is a custom evolving from the days when visitors were hoisted aboard by use of the boatswain's chair.
The pipe was used for the commands "hoist away" and "avast heaving." Members of the crew of the host ship did the hoisting. It is from the aid they rendered in tending the side that the custom originated of having a certain number of men, ("side boys,") present.
In time it became a courtesy for high ranking officers and diplomatic officials to honored by sideboys and piping ceremony
Side boys are a part of the quarterdeck ceremonies when an important person or Officer comes on board or leaves a ship. Large ships have side boys detailed to the quarterdeck from 0800 to sunset. When the side is piped by the BMOW, from two to eight side boys, depending on the rank of the Officer, will form a passageway at the gangway. They salute on the first note of the pipe and finish together on the last note.
In the days of sail, it was not uncommon for the Commanding Officers of ships sailing in convoy to convene aboard the flagship for conferences. It was also not uncommon for COs to invite each other to dine aboard their vessels. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to bring visitors on and off a ship while underway. And there was no dignified may for a high ranking officer to scurry up or down a rope ladder hanging down the side of a ship.
Often the boatswain's chair, a rope and wood sling, would be used to hoist the guest onto and off the ship. The Boatswain's Mate would control the heaving by blowing the appropriate commands with a whistle known as a Boatswain's Pipe. The number of "strong backs" needed to bring the visitor aboard depended upon the size of the "load" being hoisted. Somewhere along the line, it was noted that the more senior the visitor's rank, the more Sailors were needed to "man the side." Over time, the need to hoist visitors onto and off of Navy ships went away, but the custom of mustering the Sideboys and piping distinquished visitors aboard ship remains.
The term knot, or nautical mile, is used world-wide to denote one's speed through water. Today, we measure knots with electronic devices, but 200 years ago such devices were unknown.
Ingenious marines devised a speed measuring device both easy to use and reliable, the "log line." From this method we get the term "Knot." The log line was a length of twine marked at 47.33-foot intervals by colored knots. At one end a log chip was fastened. It was shaped like the sector of a circle and weighted at the rounded end with lead. When thrown over the stern, it would float pointing upward and would remain relatively stationary. The log line was allowed to run free over the side for 28 seconds and then hauled on board. Knots which had passed over the side were counted. In this way, the ships speed was measured.
The raven, or crow, was an essential part of the Vikings' navigation equipment. These land-lubbing birds were carried on aboard to help the ship's navigator determine where the closest land lay when weather prevented sighting the shore. In cases of poor visibility, a crow was released and the navigator plotted a course corresponding to the bird's flight path because the crow invariably headed towards land.
The Norsemen carried the birds in a cage secured to the top of the mast. Later on, as ships grew and the lookout stood his watch in a tub located high on the main mast, the name "crow's nest" was given to this tub. While today's Navy still uses lookouts in addition to radars, etc., the crow's nest is a thing of the past.
The movement of the horizontal flow of the sea is called streams. These streams when related to the rise and fall of the local tide are called tidal streams. It usually flows in and out of harbour and along the coast. The tidal stream that flow into a harbour with a rising tidal is called the “ingoing tide”. The one that flow in with a falling tide is called the “outgoing tide”. When it is off-shore, they are called according to the direction in which they flow i.e. “eastgoing” or “westgoing”. Tidal streams flow fastest where the water is deeper or the channel narrower.
Causes
Tidal streams are caused in response to the tide rising forces. It’s movements are affected by current which are caused by the differences of water temperature, barometric pressure or wing and irregularities in the seabed. It does not cause any net transfer of water with its flow.
Fathom was originally a land measuring term derived from the Ango-Saxon word "faetm" meaning to embrace.
In those days, most measurements were based on average size of parts of the body, such as the hand (horses are still measured this way) or the foot (that's why 12 inches are so named).
A fathom is the average distance from fingertip to fingertip of the outstretched arms of a man — about six feet. Since a man stretches out his arms to embrace his sweetheart, Britain's Parliament declared that distance be called a "fathom" and it be a unit of measure. A fathom remains six feet.
The word was also used to describe taking the measure or "to fathom" something. Today, of course, when one is trying to figure something out, they are trying to "fathom" it.
Naval Coastal Battery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. It was also used as observation posts for soldiers who guarded the harbour.
It has been held as a general rule of thumb, that one shore-based gun equalled three naval guns of the same calibre, due to the steadiness of the coastal gun which allowed for significantly higher accuracy than their sea-mounted counterparts. Land-based guns also benefited in most cases from the protection of walls or earth mounds which gave the guns an added measure of protection.
The use of coastal artillery expanded during the Age of Discoveries, in the 16th century; when a colonial power took over an overseas territory, one of their first tasks was to build a coastal fortress, both to deter rival naval powers and to subjugate the natives. The Port Siloso at Sentosa is an excellent example of a widely used coastal fort which mounted defensive artillery, in this case muzzle-loading cannon. During the 19th century China also built hundreds of coastal fortresses in an attempt to counter Western naval threats.
Three Mile Limit
The original three-mile limit was the recognized distance from a nation's shore over which that nation had jurisdiction. This border of international waters or the "high seas" was established because, at the time this international law was established, three miles was the longest range of any nation's most powerful guns, and therefore, the limit from shore batteries at which they could enforce their laws. (International law and the 1988 Territorial Sea Proclamation established the "high seas" border at the 12-mile limit.)
Manning and Cheering ship as a collective mark of respect in honour of a person or of another ship is a very old custom. In the days of sail the yards and shrouds were manned as well as the decks, but now a days only decks are manned. Some example of occasions on which this mark of honour is paid are: visit of Sovereign to the Fleet, the entry into port of ships which have shared a victory, the final departure of a ship from a foreign station on her way home to pay-off.
It is the custom for the youngest member of the ship's company to "ring out the Old Year and ring in the New" by striking 16 bells at midnight on the New Year's Eve.
Next in line, and still within the orbit of the "happy ship," comes the navigator. With the ship at sea and under way "The Pilot" seldom leaves his navigating bridge. In harbour there are his charts to correct and a number of small jobs such as checking range-finder ranges which help the gunnery officer. He also has charge of the ship's chronometers - and here again tradition steps in.
Time was when a ship's chronometer, used for determining by calculation the ship's precise longitude at any moment, were one of the most important items of her equipment. Latitude, the other geographical dimension, could always be found from the sun at noon, or the Pole-star at night; but to find the longitude necessitated a very accurate time-keeper which was never allowed to run down and of which the error on Greenwich time was known accurately to a second from day to day.
Since in the knowledge of a ship's position at sea lies the safety of the ship the responsibility for the care of and the regular winding of the chronometers was always paramount - not only for the officers, but also for the men.
And how easy it is to forget to wind a watch or a clock - we all know that, But chronometers must not be forgotten - and, moreover, they must be wound at the same time each day. So the problem of clock forgetfulness was overcome by the simple process of requiring a Colour Sergeant, to follow the navigating officer (whose duty it is to wind the chronometers) like a shadow from eight a.m. onwards until the job has been done. Once they are wound, the "shadow" reports to the captain – "Chronometers wound" - a simple report but one which, in the old days before the advent of wireless time-signals, held in its grasp the safety of all on board. Even to-day, with wireless pips" going almost every half-hour from one station or another, the tradition of safety is maintained and the report continues.
