Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-05-24
SUGGESTIVE AFFILIATIONS.

The Very Appropriate Names That Sailors Bestow on Ships.
 The sailors use some striking appella- tives to describe vessels according to peculiarities of movement, condition or management. A typical domestic ami nal IS referred to in hen-frigate, a yes sel on which the captains wife has hand in the regulations; and an animal of no less decided characteristics gave the name donkey -frigates to English men-of-war commanded by officers who had seen little or no service in lower grades-who had come on board
 through the cabin windows" and not lover the bows,'' as it is nau- tically described. Anyone who has seen from distance a number of small vessels lying close together will recog- nlze the appropriateness of mosquito f1eet, the blue-water sailors term for them. Perhaps only those who have experienced the tyranny possible on sh1pboard can appreciate the name of hell af1oat given a vessel notorious for such government. Another ominous term IS floating coffin for vessel that may be apparently seaworthy, but which in fact only awaits an occasion to V1ndlcate its name. In contrast to this, English sealers and whalers are known as hme-juicers because they are required by the British admiralty to carry lime juice as an anti-scorbutic Again, referring to the health ot the soul, what could be better than floating Bethel for an old ship in port used for religious services.
 As opposed to cutter and Cclipper, legitimate class names of vessels, from their cutting and clipping the water, the title of bruisewater is applied to a bluff-bowed vessel, one that bruises or breaks the water; with which compare French briser, to dash or break as waves, brisants, breakers. This action upon the water recalls the suggeted con- nectlon between sloop and slip, ,Skute and scud or shoot, and schoone and sco6n. Wet vessels, that take much water on deck, are known as diving-be1ls, from their plunging into the waves instead ot riding over them. A vessel that pitches heavily is called pile-driver- another term that can be appreciated only by those who have felt such pounding, well described in German as stampfreiten; to pitch when riding at anchor. A lighter degree of somewhat the same kind of movement seems to be the source of the legitimate terms skip jack and dandy, applied to light, speedy vessels.
 Tea-wagon, formerly applied to the ships of the East India Co.,, from their usual cargo, is a colloquial example of the large class of ship names referring to cargo and trade. The wagon idea appears again in wheelbarrows; applied to steamboats having large stern pad dle-wheel, which gives it general ap- pearance fully justifying the name. In allusion to their characteristic shape the canal-boatman calls his boat chunker and the sections of it boxes. Under the same idea butter-box was formerly applied in England to a beamy trading vessel. The ship as box is regularly exemplified by German Buse, Dutch buyse, Spanish bucha and En- glish buss, kind of fshing-boat.
 The transfer of the title of the com mander of the fleet to his own vessel is an old custom still in vogue. Milton speaks of
 The tallest pine
 Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
 Of some great ammiral.
 American Notes and OueriaS