References
- The reader will have come across in some of Captain Basil Lubbock's boots the statement that the famous clippers were not frigate-built like the East Indiamen; many will know by their own observation that the clippers had a “fall” aft. In a previous note on “Frigate-built” it was mentioned that Falconer contradicted the general evidence that a frigate-built ship had a flush deck fore and aft; a closer examination of his Dictionary has revealed what seems to me a contradiction in his evidence. He states under “Frigate-built” that “such merchant ships as have a descent of four or five steps from the quarter-deck and forecastle into the waist, in contradistinction to those whose decks are on a continued line for the whole length of the ship, which are called galley-built.” Under the term “Waist” he gives: “When the waist of a merchant ship is only one or two steps of descent from the quarter-deck and forecastle she is said to be galley-built; but when it is considerably deeper, as with six or seven steps, she is called frigate-built.” It would be very helpful if seamen would give definitions of ships with a raised quarterdeck of a half-poop or monkey-poop and state whether the term “galley-built” has been used within living memory.
- Some have supposed that the “somercastle” was so called because it was used as a dormitory, and one has suggested that it had some affinity to the word somersault, which seemed rather to turn the more generally accepted meaning topsy-turvy. Bressummer is a word used in architecture to-day, it is I believe the name given to the beam over a shop. In A Glossary of Terms used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture, 5th ed. (Oxford, Parker, 1850), under the entry “Sommer, Summer, Sommer-beam” is to be found: “A main beam or girder…now seldom used except in the compound term breast-summer. In a framed floor the summers were the main beams…. The breast-summer was that summer which was in the front of a wooden house.” Two examples are given of ancient usage: “A roffe of tymber and a bourde made complete with a somer and joystes…,” and from Cotgrave: “Sommier, a summer, or great master beame in building.” It looks as though the “somercastle” was the structure built over the summer or great master beam of the ship. The Glossary gives “footing-dormant” as another term for a great beam; and it may be the somercastle was a sleeping place, but I think the sleeper was the beam and not a member of the crew. Mr Oppenheim tells us that in Notes and Queries, 8th ser. ii, 194, there is an exhaustive note on the derivation, but I have never seen it.