Deck Hand and what it means

Submitted by Sabine Eller on Tue, 08/12/2008 - 19:01.

I just noted that I am a "Deck Hand" in the African languages group on Facebook ... well so I had to look up what this means :-D

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Deck Hand and what it means

Submitted by Bèrto ëd Sèra on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 07:50.

It's seaman's English :) In ancient times all the work on ships was done by hand (and it still is, on most sailing ships). The deck... well, it's the deck. So when the Captain ordered "all hands on deck" he meant there was a lot of need for physical force :) And accordingly a sailor became a "Deck Hand". If you look for weird things coming from sailing slang, you should try and guess why the English say that it's "so cold it can freeze the balls of a brass monkey" :) A hint... balls were used with cannons :)

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