Posted by Ed Kiser on June 29, 2004 at 16:44:14 from 205.188.116.8 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: aye aye, Sir - today posted by Ian E-N on June 28, 2004 at 11:06:44:
Ian - I looked in the "Covey Crump" reference you gave us, and have greatly enjoyed seeing the amazing collection of expressions, many of which have managed to migrate to ordinary speech unrelated to shipboard talk, but there is one nautical expression that our Ransome characters make heavy usage of that for some reason, I was unable to find it in your referenced listing, and that is the word: "AHOY" which strikes me as rather odd, considering the vast coverage that reference does contain.
I seem to remember from somewhere, maybe from a much earlier thread on this forum, and am very fuzzy about the source, but that this expression came about in this way: when a ship anchors in the harbour, various small service craft will go to it to carry fresh supplies. One of these service craft was a kind of tanker in that it carried a supply of drinkable water to refill those water tanks on board the ship. Not sure if it was a collection of smaller containers that were passed up to the ship to be poured into the tank, or to be just stored as is, or whether it was one large tank from which the water was pumped into the storage capacity of the larger ship. This tanker type service craft, for some reason, was called a "Hoy" which, when the sailors on board the larger ship saw it approaching, and greatly anticipating a taste of some decent water for a change, would point out the approaching tanker and call out its pending arrival by shouting, "A Hoy" which eventually became used as a greeting for any ship coming near.
My memory of this description is rather hazy, so forgive me if some of the details have been muddled over, as I have no reference material from which to draw this description, only an aging memory, so if there are those that know better, please correct my description, and, accept my apology for any incorrectness so encountered.
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On another side note here, regarding the fantastic display of ancient language origins displayed on this thread by our friend and able contributor, John Nichols, perhaps now we know who it was that worked with J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)in the creation of the Elvin tongue, and the basic Orkish oaths. And I thought digging through the "Canterbury Tales" was a bear to achieve a modicum of understanding.
I say, John, you did a bit of homework on that one...
Ed Kiser, South Florida