Jackspeak: A guide to British Naval slang & usage

Product Information

Simms, Brendan (2008). Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0465013326.

McLean, Samuel A. (4 May 2017). "The Westminster Model Navy: Defining the Royal Navy, 1660-1749" (PDF). Department of War Studies. Watson, Graham. "Royal Navy Organisation and Ship Deployment 1947–2013:1. ROYAL NAVY ORGANISATION AND DEPLOYMENT FROM 1947". www.naval-history.net. Gordon Smith, 12 July 2015 . Retrieved 10 July 2018.Strength of British military falls for ninth year". BBC News Online. 16 August 2019 . Retrieved 18 August 2019. Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015. McFarland & Co Inc. ISBN 978-0786474707. The Royal Navy is the oldest organised fighting service in the world and those of us with British ancestors would more than likely have a sailor somewhere in the family tree, be he with the RN or the merchant marine such as the East India Company. Naval slang would be part of his everyday language. It is surprising how many of these of terms are still heard today… here are a few gems from the A’s to F’s: HMNB Clyde". Royal Navy. Archived from the original on 30 December 2017 . Retrieved 30 December 2017. Hard to Fathom –a fathom is an old nautical measurement used for distances and depths. The Admiralty defined as 6.08ft (2m) or one thousandth of a nautical mile 6080ft (1853m) usually to make calculations easier it was rounded down to 6ft. The word comes from the old Anglo-Saxon word faeom ‘to embrace’ which referred to the distance along outstretched arms of a person when about to embrace. If a sailor, taking soundings could not find the exact depth, it was ‘hard to fathom’.

Couple of Shakes –the sailor’s way of measuring a show period of time alludes to the speed with which a sail would begin to shake if the helmsman allowed the ship to head too closely to the wind. Childs (RN), Cdr J R (June 2021). "British Forces South Atlantic Islands East Cove Port Navigation Risk Assessment 2021" (PDF) . Retrieved 17 May 2023. Respectful rebels: The Invergordon Mutiny and Granny's MI5 file". BBC. 20 December 2016. Archived from the original on 28 October 2018 . Retrieved 1 January 2018. Willmott, H. P. (2010). The Last Century of Sea Power: From Washington to Tokyo, 1922–1945. Vol.2. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253353597. Harding, Richard (2005). The Royal Navy 1930–2000: Innovation and Defence. Frank Cass. ISBN 978-0203337684.From the middle decades of the 17th century, and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid-18th century until the Second World War, it was the world's most powerful navy. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superiority globally. Owing to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, to refer to it as "the Royal Navy" without qualification. Following World War I, it was significantly reduced in size, [7] although at the onset of World War II it was still the world's largest. During the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines and mostly active in the GIUK gap. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its focus has returned to expeditionary operations around the world and it remains one of the world's foremost blue-water navies. [8] [9] [10] From 2015, the Royal Navy also re-formed its UK Carrier Strike Group (UKCSG) after it was disbanded in 2011 due to the retirement of HMS Ark Royal and Harrier GR9s. [170] [171] The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers form the central part of this formation, supported by various escorts and support ships, with the aim to facilitate carrier-enabled power projection. [172] The UKCSG first assembled at sea in October 2020 as part of a rehearsal for its first operational deployment in 2021. [99] Plymouth's proud naval heritage has shaped our city's identity and landscape, with many of our most prominent buildings and landmarks steeped in military history. During the USA Prohibition (1919 to 1933) sailors would make their own illegal booze and smuggle it on board in their boots. Pipe down New Royal Navy operations hub opens in Gulf". BIDEC 2019. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019 . Retrieved 13 November 2019.

a b "UK Carrier Strike Group Assembles for the First Time". Royal Navy. 5 October 2020 . Retrieved 5 November 2020. Bristol fashion: based on the reputation of ships sailing from Bristol where everything was neat, tidy and seamanlike in appearance and function. RAF chief opens state of the art helicopter training facilities in Shawbury/". Shropshire Star. 29 February 2020 . Retrieved 9 May 2020. There are two classes of MCMVs in the Royal Navy: three Sandown-class minehunters and six Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessels. The Hunt-class vessels combine the separate roles of the traditional minesweeper and the active minehunter in one hull. If required, the Sandown and Hunt-class vessels can take on the role of offshore patrol vessels. [110] Offshore patrol vessels (OPV) [ edit ]The French Navy and the Men Who Commanded It: Captains Who Served in the French Navy during the period 1791–1815". Napoleon Series. Archived from the original on 7 January 2018 . Retrieved 30 December 2017. East of Suez, West from Helmand: British Expeditionary Force and the next SDSR" (PDF). Oxford Research Group. December 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2015 . Retrieved 22 May 2015.

HM ships, when lying in home ports and roads, are to hoist their colours at 0800 from 15th February to 31st October, inclusive, and at 0900 from 1st November to 14th February inclusive, but when abroad, at 0800 or 0900 as the Commander in Chief shall direct; [2] Howard J. Fuller (2014). Empire, Technology and Seapower: Royal Navy Crisis in the Age of Palmerston. Taylor & Francis. p.173-174. ISBN 9781134200450. The Royal Navy nevertheless remained active in other theatres, most notably in the Mediterranean Sea, where they waged the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns in 1914 and 1915. British cruisers hunted down German commerce raiders across the world's oceans in 1914 and 1915, including the battles of Coronel, Falklands Islands, Cocos, and Rufiji Delta, among others. [69] Interwar period [ edit ] Battle of Britain | History, Importance, & Facts". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 17 September 2021. Neufeld, Matthew. "The biopolitics of manning the Royal Navy in late Stuart England." Journal of British Studies 56.3 (2017): 506–531.

New title for Duke of Edinburgh as he turns 90". BBC News. BBC. 10 June 2011. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011 . Retrieved 10 June 2011. The Royal Navy uses a number of unique ceremonies which often have their origins in the days of sail. Royal Navy failing to get enough recruits into basic training". Navy Lookout. 2 November 2023 . Retrieved 3 November 2023. The oldest ship in the Royal Naval Service to become the new Littoral Strike Ship | Navy Lookout". www.navylookout.com. 20 July 2022.