Pooped
Posted By Russ Emerson on July 21, 2005 at 9:49 am
In naval parlance from the age of sail, the term “pooped” is used to describe what happens when a ship is struck from the rear by a large wave – travelling faster than the ship itself, obviously – which breaks over the poop of the ship.
Ha-ha-he-said-poop. Grow up, people. Think “poop deck.”
In those days of yore, being pooped could be a disastrous occurrence. The wave could break through into the stern galleries (which were usually lightly-built glassed-in enclosures, like this) and flood the ship, doing rather a lot of damage along the way.
Not only could the mass of water damage the stern – invariably the weakest part of the structure of the hull – it could also push the ship’s stern sideways, slewing the ship around, leaving it broadside to the next oncoming wave.
This is the deadly part. Since the only time swells or waves were likely to be higher than the stern of the ship was during a storm, the next wave striking the ship broadside had a very good chance of being big enough to actually lay the ship on its side, if not completely capsize it.
With the ship laid over, cannons weighing 5500 pounds or more could break free from their lashings – thus becoming the proverbial “loose cannon” – and severely damage the internal structure of the ship or, more dangerously, punch a hole through the side. If the ship happened to be laid over by a wave and a cannon went out through the side, water would rush in and the ship would be doomed.
Even if the cannons’ lashings held, and even if all the other heavy objects aboard stayed in place, the framing and planking of the hull could be sprung loose, allowing seawater to flood through the gaps. The ship would be doomed.
Clearly, being pooped was an exceptionally bad thing.
This is the kind of thing you think about when you’ve gone all night without a wink of sleep.
Man, I’m pooped.
Update: Wow, it’s a regular link-o-rama around here. Be sure to check out all the fine blogs that have tracked back.
Update 2: Welcome, MSNBC visitors – take a look around; lots of good stuff in the blogrolls.
And if you feel compelled to hit the Amazon or PayPal tipjars, I’m not going to stop you.
Addendum: If you’d like to learn a little bit about the “Age of Sail” without cracking open a book, I’d highly recommend giving this movie a viewing.
And Now For Something Completely Different
If you would like to get away from real news for a moment, TacJammer has a lovely piece devoted to poop….
Poop
Read about it.
Heh
He said poop.
Heh
He said poop….
Heh
He said poop.
http://www.itsapundit.com/2005/07/heh_he_said_poo.html
Heh. He said poop.
As promised, your reward for winning the Blog Sabbath Caption Contest!
Bishop of Yesterday Morning
Today’s dose of NIF – News, Interesting & Funny … It’s Stop the ACLU Thursday (and one day closer to Friday)
If it wans’t full of spoilers I’d trackback from my Half Blood Prince post. But it is, so here’s the bit that your post brought to mind (it’s not a spoiler, just amusing):
Forget about You-Know-Who!
Get U-No-Poo!
The constipation sensation that’s sweeping the nation!
Heh-heh-heh-heh
He said poop. Heh-heh. Heh-heh. Heh-heh. [Pass it on.]…
Heh-heh Heh-heh Heh-heh
He said poop. Heh-heh. Heh-heh. Heh-heh. [Pass it on.]…
Prepare the Poopy Deck, Mr. Christian
Avast. The Dread Pirate TacJammer says poop. Heh. Heh. Indeed. Pass it around.
All about poop
[snicker]She said poop! (and Jeff & Linda think the way I say it is amusing, with my Suthun accent)…
Wow, bet you never imagined you were so popular!
Never had a clue.
So It Begs The Question…
a la “Fried Green Tomatoes” – what kind of manuevers have you been executing?
Gluppit the prawling springle, I always say!
*if you are an Aubrey/Maturin fan, you know…
I put in a trackback, but for some reason it hasnt shown up yet.
NEVER mind!!! ‘Puter is acting goofy today…
Bet you didn’t think that post would make the rounds, eh?
How could you tell with MSNBC? Surely not more then 5 or 6 people actually read their website ;)
The number of hits I’m seeing via MSNBC would seem to refute that :-)
I figured. I actually like MSNBC on the web. Good layout, fast loading. And not impossible to find stories. I do not really like CNN or FoxNews on the web.
Damn! I guess I ought to start entering caption contests, huh?
And yeah, MSNBC’s “Clicked” is Kool.
I’ll have to look around for more Naval lore, such as “Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey”.