#nautical terms

We know these two terms today in a different context, but we'll come to that later. First of all, we are dealing with both terms in the area of punishments, whether at sea or on land, but definitely with a military background. However, it can be said that they have been used in nautical language since the 1600s. But what exactly is meant by it, well when it was said let the cat out of the bag it meant that someone would be flogged.

Now not every warship was a space wonder and had a lot of space available and since all of the crew had to attend this event, the space was even tighter, and the " kitty cat " (not a cat in the true sense of the word but the cat o nine tails - the whip) we are talking about here was very long in the 17th century (later much shorter) and in order to swing it reasonably you needed space to hit the person to be punished reasonably. Hence the expression when it was too narrow - there wasn't enough room for the cat.

For Fic Writers and Fans of Our Flag Means Death

The historical Stede Bonnet’s Revenge was a sloop-of-war, one of the smaller types of men-of-war, or fighting ships. Unlike merchant ships, they carried multiple guns (i.e., cannons); merchant vessels were usually also armed, but not as heavily.

Basic Nautical Terms

fore: The front part of the ship.

aft: Towards the back.

bow: The frontmost part of the ship’s hull.

stern: The backmost part of the ship.

starboard: If you’re facing forward, this is the side of the ship on your right. If you’re facing aft, it will be on your left.

port: If you’re facing forward, the side on your left. If you’re facing aft, it’s on your right.

hull: The outer body of the ship. What you scrape barnacles off (assuming you’re not flirty enough to get out of the job).

So I'm just joining the lovely tumblr HP fandom from AO3, and I'm hoping to gauge interest in an Age of Sail/Pirates AU! I've started plotting and written a few short scenes for this fic, which will be longform and mostly gen (with a few canon pairings featuring). Marauders and Auror gang will be the main POV characters, with other POVs making appearances here and there. But I'm not well-read outside my usual pairings! Has this been done to death already? Am I missing out on pirate shenanigan fics?

Who am I kidding, I'm writing this anyway. Here's an excerpt, see you soooooon

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The waters were calm under vivid magenta skies.

If Tonks had learned anything from her years at sea with the Ministry service, it was not to trust Muggle superstitions about harbingers of good weather. The ocean was a fickle thing.

The magenta was quite nice, though, and worth trying out.

It was just a moment later, with her nose scrunched up and her hair shifting from acid green to deepest pink, that something on the horizon caught her eye.

She gripped the wooden railing with one hand, fumbling inside her scarlet Auror’s coat with the other. Once the telescope was in her grasp, she aimed it across the water and peered at the offending object with a frown.

A smooth-sailing brig ambled along the horizon, her white sails set aglow by the radiant pink of the setting sun. From the stern staff, blowing gently in the patient evening breeze, a flag of crimson and gold was stitched with strange, unfamiliar designs.

“Captain!” Tonks called back to the quarterdeck, where her commander was stationed at the wheel. “A ship, on the larboard side.”

The step-thump, step-thump of Captain Moody’s approach echoed over the noise of Dawlish up on the quarterdeck, scrambling to see what Tonks had caught sight of before him.

“Bearing?” grunted Moody as he drew level with Tonks and drew his own telescope.

“Two points abaft the beam, sir. I don’t recognize their colours.”

“Hm.” Moody’s scarred lips pursed. “Whatever that daft flag is, it doesn’t look like any Muggle ensign I’ve seen.”

He switched the telescope from his regular left eye to the swiveling electric blue one, metal touching upon glass with a disconcerting clink. Tonks had always wondered how well the eye’s penetrating abilities functioned through the lenses and mirror of a telescope, but Moody had never given her a straight answer.

“Not a Death Eater flag either, though,” she said, peering through her own scope again at the strange ensign. It looked handmade, and overly complicated in design, like a futzy crest of arms overpopulated with creatures of some kind. Dogs, maybe, and…were those antlers?

“Their heading is the same as ours,” Tonks added. “North-east toward Founder Isle.”

“Porting in Rowena,” said Moody.

“Maybe with prizes in their chests,” said Tonks, nodding.

Moody snapped his telescope shut with a frown. “Not without running them past us. Admiral Scrimgeour’ll have a bloody fit if he sees any more pirate booty smuggled through our port.” He stomped toward the hatch that led down to the lower decks. It was habitual for him, whenever they encountered a new ship, to retreat to his great cabin so he could inspect his foe glass and at least one sneakoscope.

“Dawlish!” he cried, already halfway down the ladder. “Hail the vessel a-larboard. Tonks, set course to intercept.”

“If they make a run for it?” asked Tonks.

Moody paused, gnarled hands just visible around the edges of the ladder, and his face twisted into a frightening half-smile as he looked up at her.

le tribord:                           starboard (right side on a ship))

le bâbord:                          port (left side on a ship)

la marmite:                        cooking pot

le mât de hune:                 topmast

à brûle-pourpoint:           unexpected; point-blank

la palourde:                       clam

le surcroît:                         extra/surplus

le dessein:                         design/aim

un sectateur:                      sect/cult member

une déambulation:             stroll/meander

un cachalot:                       sperm whale

un fanon:                            whalebone

subit:                                   sudden/unexpected

s’emparer de:                      to seize something

tâter:                                    to feel/try

un bâtiment:                        ship/vessel

un armateur:                        ship owner

une frénésie:                        frenzy

quantième:                           the date/on which day

obéir au doigt et à l’œil:        to do exactly as you are told

la dunette:                           poop deck

un sillon:                              groove/furrow

un pilon:                               leg (of poultry)/drumstick

la tarière:                              auger

le hauban:                            shrouds (nautical term)/guy wire

éblouissant:                         dazzling

la bordée:                            salvo/battalion

le linceul:                            shroud

la niche:                              kennel

tituber:                                to stagger/stumble

la vigie:                               look-out post

Even twins don't always see socket-to-socket on all issues.

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An Albatross around one's neck: Encumbering, inescapable liability. In Coleridge's the Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) the mariner tells of an occasion when his ship became ice-bound and was visited by an albatross, greeted as a bird of good omen. The ship was freed from the ice but for some unknown reason the mariner shot the albatross. A curse fell on the ship, the dead albatross was hung round his neck as punishment and the rest of the crew died. While watching beautiful water snakes around the ship the mariner found himself blessing them; the albatross fell from his neck, the ship was no longer becalmed and his life was saved. He must wander the earth telling his tale and teaching reverence for God's creation, 'All things both great and small'. In the metaphorical expression to which this story has given rise the albatross is, strictly speaking, a symbol of personal guilt from which freedom has to be earned. In practice it is used of any oppressive influence that is difficult to escape from.

Heeeeeeeey I'm not dead! I know it's been a bit but here's a little update for you. I say little but it ended up almost 3k so maybe not so little.

Warnings: none really