Trafliques & Discoveries
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Swigging Off Karl Kortum' s lifetime study ofnautica l usage, wh ich abounds in subtle distinctions , led him to continuous conespondence with sailors fi¡om all types of vessels.from sail to steam and diesel. A couple of terms not readily understood by today' s sailor are discussed below. COME UP BEHIND: A very fam ili ar term , spoken by the forehand man, pursuant to an order from the Mate to TAKE A TURN; it instructed the " tailers" to move toward the fore hand man w hile keeping a secure grip on the line, thereby givi ng him a bit of slack to take a turn o n the bitts , belaying pin or cleat. He took a turn, not a hitc h. At thi s point the Mate might say , "Now a coupl e of yo u SWIG OFF on it" where upon one or two men wo uld reach as high as possible, perhaps jump up on pin or fife rail in order to get a better purchase. They wo uld heave perpendicular to the fa ll and then , in a sw ing ing downward motion , render the amount gained down to the forehand man . I suppose SWIG OFF was a corruption of SWING OFF; Falconer does not li st it but de Kerchove does. KK ~
j ..-,.A.
Com e Up Behind
Swigg ing Off
John A . Noble' s 1949 !ithograph "Tug Procession-Four Generations of Tu gs off Staten Island," commissioned by the Dalzell Towing Company, In c. The tug in the foreground is Dal ze llaird; 10 rh e lej i is J. J. Timmons. (From Hulls and Hulks in theTideo fTime: The Li fe and Work of John A. Noble , by Erin Urban (The John A. Noble Collection, Staten Island, New York , 1991 ))
A Boy on a Boat: Tugboat Days in New York Harbor At that time of li fe when one has more memori es than ex pectation s, one becomes a connoi sseur of experience, treasuring certafn events of the past above a ll others as the landmarks of a life. For me, such are the occasions when , during my days as a Staten Island hi gh-school student, I spent many Saturdays aboard several tugboats of the Dalzell fleet: the Dalzel/ace, the Dalzellance, the Dalzellaird, the Dalzellea; all WWI wooden shippin g-board boats with coal-fired scotch boilers and condensing compo und steam eng ines; and the John 1. Timmons, a smaller and o lder vesse l, wh ich had a singul ar non-condensing "steepl e" compound engine (and whose engi neer, I remember, was fo r some reason in a continua l rage at the captain). Us uall y I would meet the tug early in the morning at some pi er in St. George, Staten Island, (by arra ngements made by my father with the di spatcher) and spend most of the day aboa rd it along the Kill van Kull , as the tug assisted with the movements of the many tankers on that waterway. The professional skill of the crews on these boats was spectac ular. Coming alongs ide a huge mov ing tanker to put the skipper aboard to direct the docking (via a long wooden ladder steadi ed by the deckhand) was no mean feat, but these men co uld handl e the ir severa l hundred tons of hull and mac hinery with the de licacy of a knife and fork. One in stance in particular is engraved on my memory when a tug made a bow-on landing at a pi er to pick me up. The proced ure was for the boat to just touch the pi er and immediately back off, but this time I was a bit slow in stepping aboard via the bow fender, and found myself starting a "sp lit" with one foot on the pi er and the otheron the retreating boat. Incredibly, the captain , with several bell s and a jingle in signal to the engineer, was ab le to stop and reverse the direction of thi s mass ive object in what must have been fractions of a second and save me, at the very least, from a very nas ty ducking. Later, as a graduate nava l architect, I came to understand the adva ntages of the ready torque of a slow-speed steam engine, coupled with the mass ive thrust of a largediameter wide-bl ade propell er! Another sk ill was demonstrated by the cook-a lso much appreciated by a growing adolescent with an appetite sharpened by so much briney fresh air. Thi s cu linary master, working in the forward end of the deckhouse, served bounteou s multi -course mea ls of roasts, vegetables, potatoes, breads, pies and coffee at the Lshaped seatin g aro und the table across from hi s bi g black stove. The assoc iated odors , in my memory , a ll blend w ith those of soft-coa l smoke, wet steam , hot o il , and brackish water, to form the wonderful aroma of "eau de tug. " T hese are the souvenirs of a 16year-old boat-struck boy, in the New York Harbor of 1936. -
SEA HI STORY 76, WINTER 1995-96
PHILIP THIEL
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