From Good Old Boat, August 2003
A-B-Sea: A Loose-footed Lexicon, by Jack Lagan (Sheridan
House, 2003; 352 pages; $19.95).
Review by Karen Larson, Minneapolis, Minn.
Jack Lagan has written a delightful nautical dictionary
(or sorts) best described in his own words as a "loose-footed lexicon: a
foot-loose, fancy-free and fore-and-aft alphabetic list of all the words
known by Jack Lagan about the sea, seafarers, and seafaring."
Since Jack is British, the U.S. reader must beware of
the usual spelling anomalies -- such as colour and realise -- but this
book isn't meant to be used as a spelling guide anyway. Instead it's a
compendium of interesting and useful nautical information and trivia which
Jack felt compelled to include. He offers quotes from classic nautical
literature, tables and formulas of interest, and a touch of humor (oops,
make that humour).
With this book you learn that one toilet on a British
yacht is referred to as the "heads" (and that in his opinion the head or
heads is the nadir of plumbing expertise). You learn that jabs are shots
(the immunization variety), a kicking strap is a vang, and that crosstrees
are spreaders. Armed with that sort of knowledge alone, you might be able
to discuss sailing with a British friend without the occasional
torch/flashlight or knock-me-up type of disconnect.
Jack also includes the historical background of certain
nautical terms and discusses the evolution of their common uses. For
example, shanghai is defined as "to forcibly recruit someone to the marine
(usually through a combination of drink, drugs, and the odd blow over the
head with a belaying pin); a great old Royal Navy tradition taken up by
many other nations. Shanghai itself is a fascinating city. In Chinese 'shang'
is used to signify the start of something and 'hai' means 'sea;' so
Shanghai is on the Huangpu River just south of where it joins the estuary
of the magnificent Yangzi."
He also takes on the age-old debate of "ship versus
boat" and sums it up with: "Is that clear? All right, it might be
difficult to define a ship or a boat, but most sailors certainly know a
ship when they see one bearing down on them."
There is a little "nautical dictionary" making the
rounds that pokes fun at nautical terminology with elaborate (but wrong)
definitions. This is not that sort of book. Jack has fun with the terms,
but he gives correct explanations. Leeward (pron. 'loo-w'd'), for example,
has this entry: "the side of a sailing boat presently away from the wind;
see windward. If you are feeling seasick, make sure you know which side
this is."
Jack Lagan
has fun with our favorite pastime. And we, recognizing his good intentions
and sense of humor/humour, have fun with his new book.
A-B-SEA: A
loose-footed lexicon
Jack Lagan. ISBN 0 95381808 X.
Pub: Seafarer Books. Available from the Water Craft Bookshop. Softback,
364pp £12.95
Not so immediately practical but
just as successful in dispelling on-board angst, this one takes over where
the late Denny Desoutter's excellent Boat Words, now sadly out of
print, left off. And Jack Lagan does it with a similar verve and sense of
humour.
The publishers advance info - it
came out in May - described it as `a dictionary with a difference' which
sums it up exactly. It's an enjoyably eclectic mix of clear factual
definitions of today's everyday boating terms with more arcane expressions
and curious digressions by the author. By way of an example, taking one
double page at random, on it we find the meanings of bowsprit, boxing
the compass and brail, along with brass monkey, to freeze
the balls off a - not as rude as you thought; all about brass trays
for iron cannonballs on sailing warships - and more improbably, bread,
with a nice narrative about the Bristol baker, Henry Jones, who in 1845
patented a method of making self-raising flour and a bread oven for use on
ships, much to the delight of the toothless matelots previously fed on
Hard Tack - see page 147, along with hard chine, the hard...
Highly recommended.
A B Sea: A
loose-footed lexicon
This is just the sort of tome to dip into on a pleasant
summer evening while anchored in a sheltered spot, or maybe when
stormbound and moored up in a harbour.
Jack Lagan has compiled a fascinating collection of
terms and expressions related to the sea and seafaring. In the
introduction the author admits that the words included are based “purely
on personal preference”, but this is part of the attraction. Jack
Lagan started sailing in the 1960s and during this time he has amassed a
wealth of intriguing experiences, historical facts, snippets of overheard
conversations and bad jokes. For instance, it seems that eight times
more people are killed each year by falling coconuts than by shark attacks
– so don’t fall asleep under a palm tree.
In addition to vaguely useful information, the lexicon
contains plenty of reference material, such as what to put in a grab-bag,
how to spot a nautical bargain and the best way to troll for fish.
As a reader who tends to blast through books at a rate
of knots, this publication will keep me interested for a long time.
Excellent!
Julia Maitland, Classic
Boat, June 2003
A B Sea,
Jack Lagan
A common language
Think of the hundreds of things,
little and big, that make up a sailboat – each with a specific name.
Then there’s all the scientific terminology related to sailing, including
all that concerning weather, fluid dynamics and material construction.
And of course there are the words of thousands of years of sailing
history, lore and literature. With all this verbiage it’s surprising
there are not more boating dictionaries out there.
Jack Lagan’s A B Sea: A Loose-footed Lexicon tries to fill in some
of the void with what is touted as a “dictionary with a difference”.
Certainly loose-footed is an apt description of this witty and slightly
twisted compendium. What the book is not is a dictionary of
technical terms. You won’t find definitions of such concepts as
“velocity made good”, “prismatic effect” or “DSC”. Even “lift”
doesn’t get a mention. What you do get is a lot of seafaring
language and lore. To give you an idea of the leanings of this book,
Capt. Joshua Slocum gets a full three and a half pages.
Note also that A B Sea was written by a Brit and was originally
published in the United Kingdom. Fortunately, Lagan includes those
Americanisms we’re all familiar with, so you’ll find both “vang” and
“kicking strap”, “flashlight” and “torch”. Lagan’s British blood may
explain why the book at times reads like a Benny Hill episode, with some
entries seeming to be included purely for a laugh. There is, for
instance, the entry for “cocaine”, which he defines as “a white corrosive
substance that can (a) cause your boat to be ripped apart even if you
don’t have any or (b) cause your boat to be confiscated and you thrown
into jail if you do.
To his redeeming credit, however, Lagan peppers the book with some
enlightening anecdotes and helpful tips. The life-tender (life raft)
entry includes some practical and ingenious advice garnered from personal
experience.
Take this book into the head. This dictionary is intended to be
read, perused and explored during those quiet times when you are looking
for a little mind candy.
-- Tim Gregoire, Sailing, October 2003
A B Sea: A
loose-footed lexicon, By
JACK LAGAN, Woodbridge, Suffolk, Published by SEAFARER BOOKS/SHERIDAN
HOUSE INC, £12.95
IF YOU HAVE ever been puzzled by certain nuances of the language and lore of 21st century seafarers then this is the book for you. As with any trade, that of seamanship has developed its own vocabulary and still today sailors use words which have origins as far back as the 14th century. There again there are a multitude of names for the different parts of a vessel, that even far travelled sailors forget what they are and substitute descriptions. Here's what one writer said about the situation in 1886: "Then the names of all the other things on board a ship! I don't know half of them yet; even the sailors forget at times, and if the exact name of anything they want happens to slip from their memory, they call it a chicken-fixing, or a gadjet, or a gill-guy, or a timmey-noggy, or a whim-wom -- just pro tem, you know".
This book is far more than an alphabetical list of words with definitions. There is a whole range of folklore explanations from the meaning of "Mother Carey's Chickens" to "McGonagall's Law". There are stories of specific ships that have passed into everyday sea-lore like the brigantines Mary Celeste and Dei Gratia, or the Queen Mary and the merchantman Liberdade. Superstitions and customs receive a good airing too, as well as quirky information. For instance, do many know who made the largest navy punch ever? Here's the answer: "On the 25th October, 1599, Sir Edward Kennel, commander-in-chief of the English navy, offered to his ships' companies a monster punch which he had prepared in a vast marble basin. For this concoction he used 80 casks of brandy, 9 of water, 25,000 large limes, 80 pints of lemon juice, 13 quinals (1300 pounds) of Lisbon sugar, 5 pounds of nutmeg and 300 biscuits, plus a great cask of Malaga (wine)".
Supplemented with a good bibliography the volume selects from 500 years of nautical history to make a cocktail of facts. And where did Jack Lagan obtain his title – loose-footed is any fore-and-aft sail which is not fitted to a boom and is thus loose at its foot, and flaps. From this we get the term "foot-loose-and-fancy-free", a good description of the book.
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