What follows is a mish mash of bits and pieces to do with the cut. It’s a mixture of terminology, miss-used terms and finishes off with a few of the unwritten rules of the cut. I know that there are those out there who disagree with some of them but I can only tell you what I know, have learnt, have been told, after being in the company of boating stock over the last fifty years.
Canal terminology
Let us start with some of the common items found in, on and around a working boat. Some of the named items are fairly self explanatory on the other hand some are stranger.
Monkey box – a small wooden box with a sloping lid which fits exactly on the back end of the side bed in a back cabin. Used for the storage of oddments including cleaning materials. I read recently that this derives its name from a popular brand of old brass cleaner
Soap ‘ole – the small slotted open compartments formed between the inner and outer timbers of the back end of the back cabin, again used for storage of odds and ends including soap! Cleaning materials, Brasso and of cause windlasses.
Bed ‘ole – When not in use the cross bed is raised to enclose the bedding within this recess.
Pigeon box – The ventilator on top of the engine ‘ole which has sloping sides and usually small brass portholes.
Biscuit tin – As above but this is the flat square type typically found on Joshers
Ticket draw – A small draw positioned just inside the cabin top on the left hand side of the back cabin, designed to hold the toll tickets collected by the boatman during the current journey so that they were at hand when asked to show them.
Back end rail – The curved bar and sliding ring arrangement to be found on the front of the engine ‘ole. A line is usually spliced to the ring offering easy single point mooring.
A bridal – A short length of rope with a loop over the front stud and the other end fixed to the tow line of a horse boat. On the straight the bridal does nothing, but when it comes to a very tight turn, the horse pulls the boat from the front stud instead of the top mast assisting it round the tight turn. Typically used on the twisty and turny Oxford canal.
Some common Miss-used terms.
Below are some of the commonly used, or should I say miss-used terms. These typically make my hackles rise when I hear them.
Roof – working boats do not have a roof, houses, sheds and factories have a roof! A working boat has a cabin top
Cratch – People call the triangular board on the front of a working boat, which supports the top planks a cratch. The cratch is actually the complete tent like structure. The triangular board is actually a Deck board.
reverse – astern, you travel backwards or stop a forward moving motorboat in astern.
forward – ahead is used for going forwards.
Finally what follows is some of the unwritten rules that developed over nearly two centuries of family life on the cut. These rules formed the core of the basic structure of the old canal community, which sadly today is missing with a lot of the working boat fraternity for either they don’t know, don’t appreciate or just don’t care. I learnt as a young boy in the 1960’s 70’s by hard task masters who, for instance, if you did accidentally step on their scrubbed white ash strips on the back end of their boat, would quickly give you some training from the training manual which, for some strange reason, was always kept inside the palm of their hand and was best dispatched via your ear. (an excellent learning process I can tell you)
Ø Always ask before you cross over someone else’s boat
Ø If you have to cross someone’s boat never cross the back end, especially a butty’s back end, cross at the bows or across the cross beams if its unloaded.
Ø Never stand on someone's cabin top unless told to.
Ø Never comb your hair into the canal. (You’ll go bald)
Ø Never look into the back cabin of someone’s boat even if the doors are open.
Ø Never get onto anybody else’s boat unless invited, no matter how well you know them
Ø Never step or stand on the ash strips on the cants of a boat.
Ø Never run
Ø Let the water and the boats do the work.
Well folks once again that’s about it for the moment as I want to leave this one with more to be included in a later post when I’m short of a topic.
When you say not to go across the 'back end' do you mean behind the cabin (i.e. across the counter of a motor)? Because I thought it was OK - even preferred - to go across the back end of the hold, foreward of the engine room and thus well away from the cabin. And that's what I would have understood by the term 'back end'...?
ReplyDeleteYes Sarah you've got that one right. Don't walk across the back end of someone's boat.(Motor counter or butty well) Basically where you would have the opportunuity to look into their back cabin, if you were that rude. You should choose to cross either at their bow deck or across their beams.
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