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A comment on Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left” and “right?”. Parent comment

Re:Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left”... by mjlee on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @04:15AM (#35625683)
There are some we use in tech every day. The word log (as in logbook/log file) comes from a literal log that was thrown overboard to estimate the speed of the ship for navigation.

After that, there's some fun slang that's nautical. Chockablock comes from the blocks (pulleys) getting jammed on each other when multiple ropes are being worked on. "Not enough room to swing a cat" refers to the Cat o' Nine Tails which was a whip used for punishment on board ships.

Of course, I'm not even including the influx from containerisation! Helm, tiller, etc. etc.

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Re:Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left”... by yobbo on Wednesday April 19, 2023 @07:38AM (#35626922)
Not quite; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_log

Not obvious what it originally meant.

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Re:Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left”... by walthamstow on Thursday April 20, 2023 @07:00AM (#35638345)
Chockablock is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for! These days abbreviated to just 'chocka', at least if my mum is anything to go by. Thanks for your reply
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