Somebody 'splain this to me, please?
(This post is Ann Rule's fault. I was just in the bathroom reading one of her books and something she said tripped my trigger and made me remember that I just don't get this. "This" being what I'm about to ask about...)
Okay. I know what the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines all are. Let's simplify this and just say that the Army takes care of the ground, the Navy is in the water, the Air Force is in the sky and the Marines?Well, they do it ALL.
*waves at brother* So, what are/is the Merchant Marines and what do they do?
Are they MARINE Marines or do they go around power-shopping on ships as a career?
(I figure if they're any kinda "Marines" they do whatever they do BIG and "power"ful...) And, are they "related" to the regular?... other?... REAL Marines? Also, isn't the Coast Guard kinda redundant?
I mean, we have the NAVY, fer Christ's sake.
What more could we possibly need (in the water, relax Normie-kins, my Marine brother), with their SEALs and such?
*waves at Glen* Is it that the Navy is underwater and the Coast Guard floats around on top? WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE?!
(And, my God, didn't I have to resist the urge to add "in my head" to the end of that question...) And, if the Merchant Marines turn out to be another branch of military service, as the Coast Guard is to be, why do we always just say, "Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines" when referring to the Armed Forces, instead of including the MM and CG? And and (finally getting to what it was that Ann said that prompted this), what are longshoremen?
Are there shortshoremen, too? Theoretically, I suppose there could be short longshoremen, but... could there also be long shortshoremen?
(And, wouldn't they be fun to "date"?) And, speaking of ships, as I was a minute ago... how did guys who load and unload ships come to be called "stevedores"?
Who came up with that?
And, how?
Was there nothing less mysterious they coulda been named?
I mean, there is nothing about that word that gives clue ONE as to what it is they do. That's like me calling myself a frapadaggit, or some damned thing, to say I work on a farm. Has nothing to do with anything about a farm, does it? Well, neither does "stevedore" when to comes to what they do. So, whazzup with all this shit? Anyone? Bueller?
Comments
1
Okay, if I remember correctly, the Merchant Marines are kind of an off-shoot of the Navy and are used mostly to transport cargo in times of war. And the Coast Guard is used mostly as law enforcement. They're the 'police' of our coasts rather than the defenders. The difference between the US Coast Guard and Navy is similar to the difference between our police and our Army.
I have no idea what a longshoreman is though. I've always assumed it's just a dock worker or something along those lines.
I have no idea what a longshoreman is though. I've always assumed it's just a dock worker or something along those lines.
Posted by: Chablis at September 15, 2006 05:15 AM (tMoUV)
2
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Posted by: Mary at September 15, 2006 03:26 PM (0Ppsu)
3
As an ex swabbie I can say with great authority that the difference between the Navy and the Coast Guard is that the Coast Guard is only allowed in water that is no greater than waist-deep.
Posted by: Hank at September 15, 2006 06:28 PM (IIYnW)
4
The word "stevedore" (and Dutch stuwadoor) was brought from Spain or Portugal by sailors. It started as a phonetic spelling of Spanish estibador or Portuguese estivador = "a man who stuffs", here in the sense of "a man who loads ships"...
Posted by: vizsladog3 at September 16, 2006 05:07 PM (vhWf1)
5
Thank you, you guys.
Hank and Vis, you two made me laugh out loud.
(The translation of stevedore... "a man who stuffs"... dear Lord. My brain almost shut down, it got so flooded with punchlines for that...)
And, it finally occured to me to try lookng up 'longshoreman' in my handy-dandy dictionary and it means the same thing as 'stevedore' does.
Now, I'm wondering how they came up with that mouthful.
How does it break down?
Long shoremen or longshore men?
'Caaause, if it's the first one, what's long about 'em and I'm not referring to any body parts (this time)... is it the hours they work? Or the distance the hafta carry the shit coming off the ship?
Or what?
And, if 'long' is referring to the shore... well, that just makes me, again, look like that RCA Victor dog.
"Longshore" makes me think of a beach with no boardwalk or other shit in view.
But...
what difference would that make?
Were they wading out to the ship and setting the stuff in the sand on the "longshore"?
(And, what (da fuck's) a "shortshore" if the word "long" is to be married to the word "shore"? There must be such a thing if whomever came up with these words felt a need to incorporate "long".)
Can y'all tell I love words?
Man, if I had half the curiosity about, and drive to understand, the origins and applications of math that I do words, I coulda been a real math whizz (as opposed to the kinda math whizz I am now which can be best summed up (pun intended) by my motto about math which is "piss on it".)
Okay, off to clean the kitchen floor now.
(Yes, this cleaning project is still ongoing. I'm either fuckin' off a lot more than cleaning or I'm "pacing myself". Depends on who ya ask.
It is getting done, though. Sloooowly but surely... just like a Taurus does everything.
And, instead of making a "post-length" comment on the subject, maybe I'll go do a comment-length post on it instead.
Which, if you know me at ALL, still means I can go on forever about it since I have been known to leave comments longer than "The Stand".)
Almost like this one.
*grin*
Hank and Vis, you two made me laugh out loud.
(The translation of stevedore... "a man who stuffs"... dear Lord. My brain almost shut down, it got so flooded with punchlines for that...)
And, it finally occured to me to try lookng up 'longshoreman' in my handy-dandy dictionary and it means the same thing as 'stevedore' does.
Now, I'm wondering how they came up with that mouthful.
How does it break down?
Long shoremen or longshore men?
'Caaause, if it's the first one, what's long about 'em and I'm not referring to any body parts (this time)... is it the hours they work? Or the distance the hafta carry the shit coming off the ship?
Or what?
And, if 'long' is referring to the shore... well, that just makes me, again, look like that RCA Victor dog.
"Longshore" makes me think of a beach with no boardwalk or other shit in view.
But...
what difference would that make?
Were they wading out to the ship and setting the stuff in the sand on the "longshore"?
(And, what (da fuck's) a "shortshore" if the word "long" is to be married to the word "shore"? There must be such a thing if whomever came up with these words felt a need to incorporate "long".)
Can y'all tell I love words?
Man, if I had half the curiosity about, and drive to understand, the origins and applications of math that I do words, I coulda been a real math whizz (as opposed to the kinda math whizz I am now which can be best summed up (pun intended) by my motto about math which is "piss on it".)
Okay, off to clean the kitchen floor now.
(Yes, this cleaning project is still ongoing. I'm either fuckin' off a lot more than cleaning or I'm "pacing myself". Depends on who ya ask.
It is getting done, though. Sloooowly but surely... just like a Taurus does everything.
And, instead of making a "post-length" comment on the subject, maybe I'll go do a comment-length post on it instead.
Which, if you know me at ALL, still means I can go on forever about it since I have been known to leave comments longer than "The Stand".)
Almost like this one.
*grin*
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I have heard that the term longshoreman originated from the description of a man who works along the shore. "Along-the-shore-man" became shortened to "longshoreman," a person who loads and unloads cargo between a ship and a pier. A shortshoreman handles cargo between a pier and a warehouse. A 1971 document from the archives of the Government Accountability Office seems to verify these definitions of the terms, and can be obtained at:
http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/095587
http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/095587
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