Back - Brass

"The Naval Badge"

The Royal Navy as such has no specific badge. On blazer pockets, Naval officers (and many ratings nowadays) wear the Naval crown but, as this crown is incorporated in the authorised badge of the Merchant Navy, it cannot be used to signify the Royal Navy specifically. The plain foul anchor (centre piece of the Naval cap badge) is probably the most appropriate badge to use to signify the Royal Navy.

"Ship's Badges"
Badges for use on ships, boats, letter paper, etc. began to come in when figureheads went out - the latter part of the 19th Century. (The battleship BARFLEUR, launched in 1892, was the last large HM ship to be fitted with a figurehead.) Badges used by ships were not officially sponsored until shortly after the first World War, when the following distinctive shapes were adopted for ease of recognition on boats: Circle for capital ships Pentagon for cruisers Shield for destroyers and Diamond for auxiliaries and small craft.

The circular frame was adopted for badges of all HM ships in August 1940 - originally as a war-time measure.

A meal of sandwiches, etc. provided in a paper bag for a man who, because of his employment, will not be at his normal meal place (ashore or afloat) in time for his proper meal.

The verb to bale out, meaning to remove water, comes from the old name "boyle" for a bucket.

A common slang expression - of Naval origin - to refer to the beginning of an evolution. It is a relic of the 1914-18 War, when the first visible sign of an operation was the sending up of observation balloons from HM ships fitted with them.

Prior to a Church of England marriage, "banns" must by law be published on three successive Sundays before the wedding: if the wedding does not take place within three months of the banns having been called, the banns must be re-published. Banns must be read in the parish churches of both the bride and bridegroom or in the churches where they are accustomed to worship, their names being on that church's electoral roll (one of which will be the church where the wedding is to take place). The officiating clergyman must not perform the marriage ceremony without documentary proof (i.e. "Banns Certificate") that banns have been read in churches of which he has not personal knowledge. A Naval man's ship is his ecclesiastical parish, so his banns must be read on board his ship and the ship's Chaplain or Commanding Officer must provide the Banns Certificate.

An old Naval name for a picnic party, especially nowadays by bus. The word "Banyan" originates from the time when, as an economy, meat was not issued on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays: these days were called "Banyan Days" after a religious sect in the East which believed it wicked to eat meat. It became the custom for men to save up portions of their rations to tide them over these meatless days, and also to be sent ashore on those days to gather fruit. Meatless days were discontinued in 1884.

A rare example of the good things in life being remembered better than the bad things!

A very popular saint in the Middle Ages, though it appears that she and her legends are wholly mythical. She is regarded as the patron saint of artillerymen and the chapel in HMS EXCELLENT (RN Gunnery School at Portsmouth) is dedicated to her. The legend associating St Barbara with artillerymen says that her father was a chemist of the town of Hippo in North Africa who had learned the secret of gunpowder when travelling in the East; when Hippo was besieged by the Vandals in AD 430, she made bombards and other weapons. On his death, his daughter Barbara - who alone knew the secrets - left the convent where she was a novice and continued her father's work making explosives. When the town fell, Barbara blew up the convent and all its occupants rather than let them fall into the hands of the Vandals.

Another legend has it that she was the very beautiful daughter (Christian) of a heathen Greek. Her father shut her up in a tower when he had to go away on a journey. Barbara had three windows cut in the bathroom of the tower, instead of the two her father had ordered. On his return this, together with her attempts to convert him to Christianity, infuriated him and he killed her with his sword. A flash of lightning devoured him forthwith and also the local Chief Magistrate who had connived at her death. For this reason, Barbara is invoked against lightning and fire and she is the patron saint of artillerymen.

The Royal Marines' mess deck in a warship called the Barracks.

"Royal Naval Barracks Chatham"
Built on the site of an old prison. The main buildings were designed by Sir Henry Pilkington and erected under his supervision. They were completed in December 1902 and were first occupied on 30th April 1903 by 5,000 officers and men marching in from the old hulks.

"Portsmouth"
Admiralty acquired the land from the War Office in 1899 and building began in December 1899, being completed in 1903, when 4,000 officers and men transferred to the new buildings from the accommodation ships (September 1903).

"Devonport"
Majority of the Barracks completed 17th March 1902. Cunningham Fraser Block, to accommodate about 625 Chief and Petty Officers, built 1952-55; opened by First Lord in July 1955.

Sailors' slang name for a blancmange (because it shivers and has lovely curves!)

Slang name for the Deck Landing Control Officer in an aircraft carrier, whose duty it was to direct the landing of aircraft on to the carrier's flight deck. He did this by signalling to the pilot of the approaching aircraft with fluorescent "bats" held in each hand. In outward appearance, the bats were very much like ping-pong bats. The introduction of the mirror deck landing sight (subsequently superseded by the Projector sight - an improved mirror deck landing sight) in 1954 made this duty obsolete.

"Battle Ensign"
In action, a ship wears extra "battle ensigns" in any convenient position. This has been done for years, to ensure that the colours remain flying whatever the damage received.

"Battle Blowers"

Common slang name for a steel helmet (often known as a tin hat).

"Battlers" or "Battle Wagons"

Naval slang name for battleships.

"British Battle Crusiers"

"British Battleships since the Days of Wooden Ships"

Naval slang expression normally, and originally, meaning retired from the Service, but of recent years sometimes used to describe an appointment to a shore establishment.

The scale was drawn up by Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort KCB, who was the Hydrographer of the Navy from 1829-55.

The uniform trousers of a seaman of height about 5ft 10ins measure 25 inches round the bottom. It is said that the practice of making sailors' trousers very full arose from the days when the men made their own clothes, when they found it easier and less wasteful of material to use the full width of the material. A bolt of serge in Britain has for years measured 54ins across. This, allowing to turn-ins, would just give the two trousers legs. That wide trousers legs were subsequently found to be easier to roll up when scrubbing decks is often given as the reason why trousers were made wide, but it seems that this was not the original reason.

General Navy slang for "half-witted".

An old sailor's nickname for his sennet hat (which was abolished in 1921).

Old Naval slang name for leg-irons (referred to in the phrase "clapped him in irons".

Common slang work of nautical origin for rubbish or nonsense. Bilge water is the water which collects in the bilges of a ship - if left, it soon acquires an offensive colour of corruption.

Officers' slang name (abbreviation of Bishop) for the Chaplain.

Common slang name for stewed prunes.

The name for this coloured coat comes from HMS BLAZER, whose Captain (Captain J. W. Washington) in 1845 had his boat's crew dressed in blue and white-striped jackets. This was, of course, before the days of authorised uniform for Naval ratings. See UNIFORM (RATINGS).

You have probably heard the expression 'Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey' , but what does it mean?

In the 17th and 18th centuries, cannon balls were stored on the decks of a war-ship in a pyramid shaped pile using a frame called a monkey to keep them in place. Sometimes these frames were made of brass, which could contract substantially in very cold weather and the balls would roll out of the frames. Hence the expression!