But no,
futtock is a corruption of foot-hook. In
wooden ships, futtocks are the curved parts of transverse frames extending from
the floor-timbers at the turn of the bilge to meet the top-timbers.
Most of us
will know the word from maritime historical novels, such as Patrick O'Brian's
Aubrey/Maturin series, where neophyte sailors are always getting into trouble
at the futtock shrouds on large sailing ships.
According to
Cornell's old Encyclopedia of Nautical
Knowledge, the futtock shrouds were usually iron rods, the harbingers of
the rod rigging found on today's ocean racers.
These rods were downward extensions of the topmast shrouds. They helped
stiffen the top in addition to taking the stress of the topmast rigging. They were adorned with ratlines so that
sailors could swarm up and over them, but the interesting thing about the
futtock shrouds was that they slanted outward from the mast, and thus presented
what the encyclopedia calls "an interesting obstacle to the beginner as he
scrambled aloft." Interesting
indeed. You had to be able to climb
upside down, almost like a fly landing on a ceiling. How they kept their feet
on the ratlines I'll never know.
Most ships also
had an opening next to the mast, through which you could crawl instead, but no
real sailor would be seen dead using what was called the lubbers' hole. So they all went a-futtocking, and sadly some
of them fell off. Perhaps it's for the
best that futtock shrouds have almost disappeared, but do let's try to preserve
the word itself. Say it after me.
Futtock, futtock, futtock. There, doesn't
that feel better?
Today's Thought
Words are, of course, the most powerful drug
used by mankind.— Rudyard Kipling, Speech
Tailpiece
"What
have you done to my article on organic milk? I wrote 1,000 words and you've
only used 300.""Sorry. We had to condense it."
(Drop by
every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
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