Here’s what I think of when I’m thinking ‘Off Topic’ at LSC
One of 10 20 mm Anti Aircraft Gun mounts for a Destroyer Escort I’m building in 1:200 scale…
Fuzzy fer some reason…but this is a twin 40 mm AA mount…
and these are made of paper?..sheesh, you got some patience…
We got a place fer people like that!!
Andre’
Are you building the USS Peterson DE 152 ?
I have inside information on it , includeing which rack I slept in … , aft switchboard aye !
Ok…I gotta question fer ya ex Sailors…what sht difference between a Bitt and a chock? OK I can see the visual difference…but what are they used for?
Bart Salmons said:If memory serves, a bitt is used to apply friction to the hauser as the ship is being moored. The mooring hauser is eased through the bitt, or slack is taken up through the bitt, either by main force (man power) or by the wildcat (windlass). Once the desired effect is achieved in mooring, the hauser is left in place in the bitts, and then secured in the chocks.
Ok....I gotta question fer ya ex Sailors.......what sht difference between a Bitt and a chock? OK I can see the visual difference....but what are they used for?
Getting underweigh is the reverse, the hauser being eased out through the bitts. A team of three men can hold a ship until the hauser parts when it is wrapped three times through the bitts.
If there is a Bos’n out there who can fill in the parts that I left out, please do so.
SteveF
A “Bitt” is a huge cleat or crucifix ( a pair of iron or wooden heads set vertically to which mooring or towing lines are made fast. In small craft a bitt is a single vertical timber head, forward or aft, with a thwartship pin through it, around which mooring and towing lines are secured- Bradford’s Mariner’s Dictionary).
A “Chock” is a fairlead to prevent chaffing ( an iron casting which serves as a lead for lines to a wharf or other vessel. There are several types - open, closed and roller chocks. A roller chock reduces friction and wear on a line when working a vessel around the docks. A convenient block of wood for shoring up boats, weights, etc. The chocks of a whaleboat were formed in the stem which was grooved down vertically to carry the whale line. A chock pin of oak held the line in the chock - same reference )
For railroad content - you can chock the wheel of a railroad car so it won’t move ( a convenient block of wood for shoring the etc.)
Which Destroyer Escort are you building ?
John C Butler Class…I’m doing a theme on “Taffy III” and the Battle off Samar http://www.bosamar.com/ …Not sure if this one is gonna be the Butler DE 339 or the Samual B Roberts DE 413…either one will do… I have also planned a Fletcher Class Destroyer, and a Casablanca Class Escort Carrier…these will prolly be the HEERMAN DD 532 and Gambier Bay CVE 73 since their are commercial kits for them. Plan on doing some Navy Aircraft too. Definately a Helldiver, and a Wildcat…
To keep from “getting one of each” of everything availible I’m limiting myself to 3 themes…(1) Battle Off Samar (2) Pearl Harbor Survivors (3) Ships I’ve actually been on…Which fer now is just the North Carolina BB 55…but hope to hit the Alabama BB 60 this summer…
I had a feeling when I read your ,
And Now for Something Completely Different , topic header , and it really is !
How intersting , your quest .
Please keep us posted and pictures as you can .
Ric Golding said:
A "Bitt" is a huge cleat or crucifix ( a pair of iron or wooden heads set vertically to which mooring or towing lines are made fast. In small craft a bitt is a single vertical timber head, forward or aft, with a thwartship pin through it, around which mooring and towing lines are secured- Bradford's Mariner's Dictionary).A “Chock” is a fairlead to prevent chaffing ( an iron casting which serves as a lead for lines to a wharf or other vessel. There are several types - open, closed and roller chocks. A roller chock reduces friction and wear on a line when working a vessel around the docks. A convenient block of wood for shoring up boats, weights, etc. The chocks of a whaleboat were formed in the stem which was grooved down vertically to carry the whale line. A chock pin of oak held the line in the chock - same reference )
For railroad content - you can chock the wheel of a railroad car so it won’t move ( a convenient block of wood for shoring the etc.)
Thanks, Ric. I got Bitt right, but completely blew it on chock.
I had to be thinking of cleat. I’ll have to go to the Chief’s Club and make amends. 
On the fo’c’sle, the bitts are called “elephant’s feet.”
There are seven animals that live on the fo’c’sle of any US Navy ship. In this thread I’ve named two of them. Can anyone name the other five?
First, what the h*ll is a fo’c’sle?? And is it contagious?? Sounds like something you would catch on a South Asian port call…
Warren Mumpower said:Land Lubber.
First, what the h*ll is a fo'c'sle?? And is it contagious?? Sounds like something you would catch on a South Asian port call...:(
For the uninitiated, a fo’c’sle, is a contraction of the naval term “Fore Castle.” No, it is not what you are thinking. Get your minds outta that SouthEast Asian “ville,” and stay with me. :lol: The Fore Castle was called that to distinguish it from the “After Castle,” which it is not. Both “castles” were exactly that, fighting castles from which Marines fought opposing ships before cannons were developed of sufficient strength and weight of shot to do any damage to the other guy. The two ships would close to within musket shot range, and the sharpshooters would go to work, using the castles, both fore and aft, to take cover in. The last time that both after and fore castles were used was in Sir Walter Raleigh’s fleet when they kicked the butts of the Spanish Armada.
As ship design improved, along with cannon design, it was discovered that the sail area of the fo’c’sle severely limited the ship’s ability to sail into the wind, so the fo’c’sle, or Fore Castle, as a fighting fortress was done away with, to be replaced with a one deck high “Deck House” in which the “hands” lived. This led to the phrase, “sailing before the mast.” The officers, of course, lived aft of the mast, where the motion of the ship was much less, and dryer, too. In ships of war, the sailors lived amongst their guns, on the gun deck, while the officers still lived in the “After Castle.”
In todays steel ships, the fo’c’sle is still one deck above the main deck, but now houses the ships ground handling machinery. Note, in aircraft carriers, the flight deck is not the main deck. It is actually 3 or 4 decks above the main deck, but that story is for another time. The crew lives below decks, well aft of the Fo’c’sle, where the ship’s motion is generally less, while the officers live amidships, main deck and above, in a place called the “wardroom,” where the ship’s motion is generally magnified. I’ve never understood that, unless the Naval Architect is a former enlisted who wants to get back at the wardroom. Curiously, I note that most antiship missiles are targeted “amidships, main deck and above.” Hmmmmmm.
Well, now you know more about “fo’c’sle” than you ever wanted to know. Now let me tell you about that young lady I met in Change Alley in Singapore. Eh? What’s that? Time’s up? Oh, well.
Has anyone come up with those other 5 animals, yet?
Warren The Fo’c’sal is a basterdization of the term Forecastle, its a carryover from the pre gunpower days when ships had raised structures or “castles” at each end of the ship. The Fore Castle was at the the front over the bow, the After Castle was at the stern. These were used in battle so soldiers carried could fight with some protection, the idea being if you were in these raised castles, you could chuck spears and shoot arrows down on your enemy and down onto the deck of your own vessal if your enemy had borded it. The Fore Castle became compresed over the centuries into the Fo’c’sle which traditionally even in those days housed the crew, and the After Castle simply became known as Aft, and traditionally housed the captain and his officers. Its also how we got Fore and Aft as nautical terms. A good example, a Carrack
Bart Salmons said:If I can put my two cents in, please do the Sammy B. She has a place of high honor among US Navy sailors.
John C Butler Class.......I'm doing a theme on "Taffy III" and the Battle off Samar http://www.bosamar.com/ .......Not sure if this one is gonna be the Butler DE 339 or the Samual B Roberts DE 413.....either one will do......
To see why, go here
Chief,
Being a shallow water sailor and confined to small boats, I’ll take a stab at some of the top of my head.
You said -
Elephant’s feet
Wildcat
I can add some right away -
Monkey’s Fist
Cathead - that might be the same as Wildcat.
Hatch Dogs
Something Horse (drawing a blank)
Why did you ask this? I’ve got work to do and now ya got me thinkin of this stuff.
acockbill
bear
blue pigeon
booby hatch( I guess birds don’t count)
buffalo rail
bullnose
bulls eye
camel
cat block
cat davit
cat holes( that’s at the stern)
colt
cow hitch
coxcomb
crab
crane
crow foot
crow’s nest (birds again)
deck horse (that’s what I was thinking of)
I’ve got to get back to work, did I hit any of them?
Of the ones I was thinking of, you hit on:
Hatch dog, or dogging wrench
Bull Nose
Monkey fist.
Three more to go!
Note: There may be others, this is just what I was taught by the Bos’n aboard USS MCCLUSKY (FFG-41)
A camel is that small barge-like device that holds the ship away from the pier so it doesn’t get damaged by wave action throwing it (the ship) against the bollards.
Crow’s nest was the lookout’s post high up on the main mast of sailing ships.
The other terms I am not familiar with in a nautical sense.
Why did I ask it? Because Warren asked what a fo’c’sle was, and that started my pea-brain working. It hurt, too.
There are a lot of those types of terms, some local to an area and/or I’m sure branch of service. Since, the largest ship I was aboard was USCG Sumac and that was a 265 foot bouy snatcher on the Mississippi River, push boat with barge, I’m limited on some of that foredeck type of equipment. Almost always “Black Hulls” (work boats) and, of course, never far from shore. Did work the USCG Yankton out of Portland, Maine, but man that was another life time, back in 1974. Fun ship, 110 foot harbor tug and fire boat. Diesel electric with 6 power plants and 1 shaft. Wheel sat partially down in a well on the bridge or pilot house and docking was a skill. I digress.
The other three I was thinking about was a pelican hook which is used as a stopper on an anchor chain; mousing, small stuff that is used to secure the pelican hook to make sure it does not come open when you don’t want it to; and a rat tailstopper, an unraveled bit of mooring line that is used to increase friction on the mooring hauser. It is wrapped around the hauser before it goes through the elephant’s feet (bitts)
I can just imagine what might happen if the mousing let go during a storm. First the pelican hook opens up, then the wildcat can no longer hold the strain and lets go, and the anchor falls into the sea, dragging the chain with it, to the bitter end. There is no more hopeless feeling than watching the last two fathoms of anchor chain run out of the hawse pipe at warp speed, knowing there is no force on earth that can impede its journey to the bottom.