Topic starter
04/11/2011 6:02 pm
You have all been patient with me, and I thank you.
I jonestly don't know if the following are stupid questions, but I'm not afraid to look like an idiot... what are the correct riverboat terms for the following:
1. stairs between decks
2. walkways around decks - promenades, yes?
3. ramp from wharf to main deck... gangway?
4. staterooms
5. windows and doors
6. kitchen - galley?
I ask because I know that there are special terms for many items on a ship.. but I don't know if those same terms are used with steamboats.
You have been a wonderful willing and thoughtful resource.. thanks!
Nan Hawthorne, Historical Novelist
04/11/2011 6:19 pm
AFAIK, #3 is a Gang Plank.
04/11/2011 6:32 pm
Good questions. I hate when somebody thinks they're smart and use ocean lingo about a riverboat. Stairs are stairs on the river. Passengers walk around the boat on the guard and not a prommenade. The room slept in is a stateroom, and the common area where meal were served is the boat's cabin. Windows are windows and a door is a door. Meals are prepared in the kitchen which was probably on the main deck and brought up to the pantry on the boiler deck where they were served from. On an excursion boat there probably was a raised area in the cabin called the bandstand. This is where the band played, of course. People and freight came aboard across the stage to the head of the boat. Perhaps a gangplank would have been laid if the boat was landed against another boat or wharfboat. A steamboat is piloted from the pilothouse and not the bridge, or God forbid from the boat's wheelhouses. And bodily functions are relieved in the toilet. Going to the bathroom over the head is bad luck to say the least.
04/11/2011 6:35 pm
boat terms
1) stairs
2) deck I guess you could be fancy with promenade
3) gangplank or stage
4) staterooms
5) windows and doors
6) galley
+ wall = bulkhead Toilets are toilets, not heads distances/speeds are miles, not knots, pilothouse is pilothouse - the wingbridge is the walkway extending from it on both sides, ropes are lines, etc.
04/11/2011 6:39 pm
Simultaneous postings, Frank!
But we said the same thing, other than kitchen/galley. At least on the NATCHEZ it is called the galley. Yes, we used to get a lot of ex-Navy guys who threw their lingo around, but we'd just answer in the correct term - except when we caused momentary panic by saying there was no head on the boat, or we pointed to the open bow area!
04/11/2011 7:01 pm
I forget which captain it was on the ISLAND QUEEN, but dad said this captain would refer to the kitchen as the "cookhouse." On "Big Liz" deckhands slept in a room called the bunkhouse forward of the wheel on one side and on the other guard was the kitchen. The captain would give an order something like this when comin' in for a landing, " Back 'er slow on the bunkhouse side, 'n stop her on the cookhouse side."
08/11/2011 6:06 pm
The Tolet vs. The Head !
Greetings From New Orleans !
Not sure how to address this issue , but every boat and for that matter shsip I either worked or served on , EVERYONE on board referred to the tolet as The Head .
Maybe I was just not on the right vessels ??
Smooth Sailing !
Ted Davisson
WA-4141
Frank X. Prudent;27964 wrote: I forget which captain it was on the ISLAND QUEEN, but dad said this captain would refer to the kitchen as the "cookhouse." On "Big Liz" deckhands slept in a room called the bunkhouse forward of the wheel on one side and on the other guard was the kitchen. The captain would give an order something like this when comin' in for a landing, " Back 'er slow on the bunkhouse side, 'n stop her on the cookhouse side."