I had to look up the term for the "lookout" in the crow's nest.
Barrelman is in reference to a person who would be stationed in the barrel of the foremast or crow's nest of an oceangoing vessel as a navigational aid. In early ships the crow's nest was simply a barrel or a basket lashed to the tallest mast. Later it became a specially designed platform with protective railing.According to a popular naval legend, the term ["crow's nest"] derives from the practice of Viking sailors, who carried crows or ravens in a cage secured to the top of the mast. In cases of poor visibility, a crow was released, and the navigator plotted a course corresponding to the bird's flight path because the crow invariably headed towards the nearest land. Some naval scholars have found no evidence of the masthead crow cage and suggest the name was coined simply because the lookout platform resembled a crow's nest in a tree. As ships grew in size and complexity, that station came to be mounted on the highest mast of the oceangoing vessel, and it came to be known as the crow's nest. The simplest construction to providing a lookout and setting course direction for the ship was to lash a barrel to the mast. A member of the crew experienced in the matters of navigation was charged with manning this perch and came to be colloquially known as a barrelman.
Here is The Mast-Head chapter from Moby Dick (with a tip of the hat to reader Bulletholes).
There is a whole chapter dedicated to mast headers in Moby Dick.
ReplyDelete"I take it, that the earliest standers of mast-heads were the old Egyptians; because, in all my researches, I find none prior to them. For though their progenitors, the builders of Babel, must doubtless, by their tower, have intended to rear the loftiest mast-head in all Asia, or Africa either; yet (ere the final truck was put to it) as that great stone mast of theirs may be said to have gone by the board, in the dread gale of God’s wrath; therefore, we cannot give these Babel builders priority over the Egyptians."
Excellent. Link added to the body of the post. Tx, Bulletholes.
DeleteYa, I’m nuts on Moby Dick. Ch 35 is a perfect prelude to the next chapter where Ahab calls everyone to the quarterdeck and announces:
Delete“All ye mast-headers have before now heard me give orders about a white whale. Look ye! d’ye see this Spanish ounce of gold?”- holding up a broad bright coin to the sun- “it is a sixteen dollar piece, men. D’ye see it? Mr. Starbuck, hand me yon top-maul…. “Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke- look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!”
And Ahab nails the coin to the mast
I remember reading that part in high school, and the junior numismatist inside me cringed, thinking of the damage done to that coin.
DeleteAye, and old Ahab never even flinched.
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_Coin
I wish I had more details, but I was told that as a boy one of my Irish ancestors hid in the crow's nest on a transatlantic voyage, seeking refuge as all hands were consumed in some kind of mutinous mayhem. Maybe this is a common, apocryphal yarn.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered how violently they were tossed around up there.
ReplyDelete