Shiver me (trestle) timbers Did I miss talk like a Pirate day??
Well send me down to Davey Jones brothers locker Casey.
In my world X marks the CSX and the “RRRRR’s” is just another way to say RailRoad.
Good videos Steve.
The modern notion of “Pirate Talk,” except where Johnny Depp has updated it, came from Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney production of Treasure Island. He was from England, and had worked a lot to get rid of his West Country accent, but he thought it would give his performance as Long John Silver more flair, so he laid it on rather heavy. “Arrr Matie!” is entirely his invention.
Oh, yes. I love Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Tom , lad ,
When I were a boy , long afore 1950 , we kids chased each other with our wooden swords shouting
"Avast there , ye landlubbers " , and “I’ll make 'ee walk the plank , aaaaarrggh” and “Man the rollocks” ,
and other pre Robert Newton expressions .
We wuz tought this at school , aaarrrgh , by intelligent teachers who knew how to grab our attention and larn us 'ow to speak English proper , like . AArrrgh .
Like as not , 'twere us as taught Matey Newton .
Mike , pirate since birth . Arrrrrrrr .
Har de har , and smoggle me gringes ,
“Ard a starboard” 'e says , so they turns to port .
Flog 'em along the plank , by hook , feed the toothy dolphin ahind 'em .
Mike
ps Arr .
Mike Morgan said:
“Ard a starboard” 'e says , so they turns to port .
That has been known to happen. In the days of sail, to turn to starboard, you turned the top of the wheel toward port, opposite a car’s steering wheel. They started working the rudder the other way in steamships. This caused some mistakes.
Wonder if I got the wrong “Treasure Island” when I checked my facts before posting.
At local T Shirt shops I often see a pirate themed slogan and it always cracks me up.
It reads
“The beatings will continue until morale improves”
I think that pretty much sums up the British Navy back in the day.
I don’t know where you get these daft stories from Tom .
“Hard a’ Starboard” means turn the top of the wheel to starboard . Turning the wheel clockwise makes the ship turn clockwise .
Noah nearly lost it when his missus thought he said “hard a port” , and she turned left and nearly collided with Mount Ararat , when he actually said “Just had a port” . Note , Mrs Ark turned left .
You’ll be saying next that “Trim the tops’l” means “run up the ratlines armed with scissors” .
You see , we descendants of pirates know these things ; when I was on the good ship Venus , by gad you shoulda senus .
But that’ll be for another day .
Mike
Todd , remember the largest Empire the world has ever seen was built by the discipline of the rope’s end.
And for those of you who don’t know , the rope’s end took two forms ; mild flogging used a knotted rope end , less mild used the glowing end of the touch rope used to fire the guns .
"Flogging round the fleet " was reserved for serious crime . The guilty party was tied to a sort of crucifix in a whaler , and rowed round the fleet , stopping at each anchored ship for however many lashes had been called for whilst the crews were forced to look on . By the end of this , they would be flogging a lump of meat ; Nelson was instrumental in putting a stop to the punishment , he certainly forbade it in his own fleet . Waste of men , you see .
Today , one would hope that education would be better than that type of discipline , but it has been replaced in the less intelligent societies by beheading----by they who would rule the world . Shows how bloody backward they are .
Mike
Tom Ruby said:
Mike Morgan said:
“Ard a starboard” 'e says , so they turns to port .
That has been known to happen. In the days of sail, to turn to starboard, you turned the top of the wheel toward port, opposite a car’s steering wheel. They started working the rudder the other way in steamships. This caused some mistakes.
Wonder if I got the wrong “Treasure Island” when I checked my facts before posting.
In today’s sailing ships and boats that are rigged with a wheel, most are rigged so that if you turn the wheel to the right, the bow will point to the right. I hate being helmsman on those ships, because the steering is counterintuitive.
With a tiller, when the helmsman feel pressure on the helm as the ship wants to either turn up or down wind as the wind and sea act on the ship, he just counters the force he feels in his hand, and the ship steers straight. With the wheel rigged to turn wheel right, bow points left, the same thing happens. With wheel right, bow right, the helmsman can no longer have the feel of the ship. You notice, in the clip, the conning officer ordered “Hard A Starboard.” To accomplish this, the tiller was pushed to port, which forced the rudder to starboard.
I hope that I haven’t totally confused the issue.
I think that the actual movement of the vessel confuses things .
When you go hard a starboard , the stern of the vessel moves to port , because the rudder has turned starboard forcing the stern round to port .
On a tiller , you force the stern round by pushing the tiller away from the direction you wish to turn , so pushing the tiller left moves the stern left because the rudder has moved to the right .
I think that parallel parking confuses people for the same reason , there you are , calmly trying to get the back of your car into the kerb by thrusting the nose out toward the centre of the road . Counter intuitive innit ? Especially if you are looking backwards .Think on that next time you are teaching anyone of a delicate persuasion how to drive .
Don’t get me started about steering a parachute .
Mike
Try to teach someone to back up a trailer. The first time I had to preform that task was backing a Jeep and trailer combination into the bowels of a C-130. Fortunately, my number landed on the Fairy Godmother Desk.
all this talk of tillers, port and starboard… isn’t it nice that all we need to do is put our trains on the track and off they go.
Todd said
“and off they go.”
Unfortunate choice of words there , Todd.
Mike
Being an ex truck driver I can back up just fine using the side mirrors. But I have been scared by a few people who try it and get all messed up and start heading toward parked cars, usually at a higher rate of speed then I am comfortable with.
As for tiller versus wheel, I only tried to steer a small boat once with a tiller. I had it all bass ackward. My dad, being the kind hearted, gentle soul he was, yelled at me about being a dumb ___ and shoved me aside. So in that maybe 2 minutes of trying, in the middle of a very empty lake, I didn’t get the hang of it.
Having owned a travel trailer for over 5 years I’ve learned backing pretty well. I wasn’t always good; used to have my BIL park my 15 foot boat as I couldn’t get it down the driveway. Now I back a 30 foot trailer down the entire block (no room to turn around) then down my curving driveway with very little trouble. Only hit the mailbox once and that was going forward!
After years of practice, backing a trailer IS easy. But do you remember the first time? Or, that time you tried to teach your daughter? 
Mike Morgan said:
Todd said
“and off they go.”
Unfortunate choice of words there , Todd.
Mike
Guess I should have added “pun intended” I wrote that and thought it was pretty funny so I left it. In some cases especially when my trains hit a half eaten acorn they derail. Oh well.
As for backing a trailer I am pretty good backing my 20’ boat… most of the time. Before I moved to hte Cape I used to use a boat ramp that would frequently have a peanut gallery. Folks would bring their chais and coolers and make the day of it watching the shenanigans at the ramp. One time they actually had numbers that they held up to score the backing and launch/retrievel I would say. When I was done they held up an 8. LOL
Todd, what did the East German judge give you? 