sea terms

[sad old git]

Hi I am reading an excellent novel about life on board destroyers protecting merchant convoys to Russia during the second world war.One paragraph remarks about conditions in the wardroom in bad weather ; " the fiddles are put on the dining table, the tablecloth is dampened to stop crockery sliding about and the "charlie noble is not lit".I think I know about the fiddles and the damp cloth but the "charlie noble" has me stuck, can anyone enlighten me? I am ex MN myself so you RN guys don't be too hard on me.

[dizmouk2009]

It's the galley (the kitchen)

[dizmouk2009]

more spefic I think it has something to do with the smoke stack. "Charlie Noble. The galley (ship's kitchen) smoke stack on early ships"

[burnhal]

So basically what he is referring to is the fact the galley fire was not lit. read this for a short factual accont of life on a corvette in bad weather http://www.bbc.co.uk/...ies/66/a1115966.shtml

[chakka35]

Rick Jolly's "Jackspeak" says that a Charley Noble was "An H-shaped galley stove-pipe seen in very much older warships, usually bound in brass and kept highly polished". He gives no derivation, though, so I'll keep looking.

[chakka35]

Hey, sad old git, it seems that it's your MN expression, not the RN's. Another source tells me that it's named after a Merchant Navy captain who always saw that the stove pipe was kept highly polished.

[redman41]

http://www.history.na...l/trivia/trivia03.htm