Andy Dobson was your skipper, sailing the 50′ Bavaria Yacht ‘Atlas’ from Fleetwood Marina.
Throughout several years it was available for half day/full day charter, corporate days and sailing holiday packages. At the time it was the only yacht sailing from Fleetwood that you can go on just for fun with his company Atlas Sailing. Andy was also a fully qualified skipper and a safe pair of hands.
Andy and Seafaring Sayings
He’s also full of tales and information – like these seafaring sayings below:
TOE THE LINE
In the tall ships the space between the deck planks was sealed with a mixture of pitch and oakum. These all formed a series of parallel lines that were 150mm apart and ran the length of the deck.
When crew were ordered to fall in for inspection they mustered in a given area of the deck and stood with their toes just touching one of these particular seams.
MONEY FOR OLD ROPE
The proceeds for selling old and frayed ship’s rope to shore-side traders was a perk of the boatswain.
However sometimes the rope was not so old and the offence of cappabar (misappropriation of government stores) was committed.
IN THE DOLDRUMS
The doldrums is a belt of winds between the trade winds of the northern and southern hemispheres.
As ships passed through these latitudes there was often no breeze to fill the sails of cool the living spaces and they were becalmed in sweltering conditions, aimlessly drifting.
BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
Part of the maintenance of a wooden ship was the application of hot pitch to the devil (a seam of timber that ran between the waterways and ran along the ship from the bow to the stern).
The task involved being swung out to dangle precariously in a bosun’s chair over the rolling sea below.
THE COAST IS CLEAR
In the heyday of smuggling a boy led a white horse along a cliff as a signal, visible at night, that there were no Revenue Men about and it was thus safe for smugglers to land contraband cargo brought over from France by sea.
ON THE FIDDLE
In the old days sailors ate their food off square wooden plates with a raised edge called a fiddle. This design was to stop food falling off the plate and to set a limit on the amount of food taken.
If a seaman overfilled the plate he was said to be ‘on the fiddle’ and could be punished.
Other posts you might be interested in:
- A Day in the life of Homer
- Andy and seafaring sayings
- Bobby Ball – in memory
- Cliff and his Fylde Coast wildlife
- John Barnett – High Sherriff of Lancashire
- Michelle Harris and Brian Hughes – Local History Authors
- Peter’s Make Music Live – Busk 2018
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