Calashee Watch - An old term for "all hands on standby." One sailor's definition was an order to sleep on deck.  It has several spellings and probably comes from Hindi.

Fag End - The end of a rope that has come unlaid.  Also known as a cow's tail or a deadman.  The word probably came from Middle English, flokken, to flap about.

Offing - Being in sight of land but having adequate sea room. It is possibly a sailor's coined word, for being off from the shore.

Stive - A shipwright's and designer's term for the angle of the bowsprit to the deck or to the waterline. It was sometimes spelled steeve, and appears to have come from Old English, stifig, steep - which the angle often was.

Information is from the book "Origins of Sea Terms" by John G. Rogers

copyright 1985 Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc. and available from BlueJacket. 

Nic's bench: I'm almost finished with the Portland, only have some rigging and anchors left to do. During the build, I noticed some things in the parts and instructions that I will change to make the model kit better. I wasn't happy with how the nameboards came out, so I ripped them off, sanded and repainted the pilothouse roof, and made new ones. You can see how much better they look.

 

Al's bench: Al is continuing to refine the laser pieces for the  Kearsarge, and has also started to draw the plans for the Charles W. Morgan cut away kit. We have a way of making miniature bricks, so the modeler will build the tryworks brick-by-brick. Here's Al fitting the Kearsarge weather deck in place:

Here's what the bricks for the Morgan look like:

"Lexophile" is a word used to describe those that have a love for the use of words, such as "you can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish," or "to write with a broken pencil is pointless." A competition to see who can come up with the best lexophiles is held every year in an undisclosed location. This year's winning submission is posted at the very end.

Here goes...

.. When fish are in schools, they sometimes take debate.

.. A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

.. When the smog lifts in Los Angeles U.C.L.A.

.. The batteries were given out free of charge.

.. A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.

.. A will is a dead giveaway.

.. With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

.. A boiled egg is hard to beat.

.. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.

.. Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

.. Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off?             
        He's all right now.

.. A bicycle can't stand alone; it's just two tired.

.. When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.

.. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.

.. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.

.. When she saw her first strands of grey hair, she thought she'd dye.

.. Acupuncture is a jab well done. That's the point of it.

And the cream of the twisted crop:

.. Those who get too big for their pants will be totally exposed in the end.

This month's tip come from my brother-in-laws brother, Joe V. from Virginia.  

A while back I asked you how you stained your rigging. You mentioned dye markers which I tried, but found somewhat inefficient as I have a lot of line to dye. I had previously used RIT dyes but when I put the loose line into the pot of warm dye it got very snarled and a major effort to untangle... but it was colored well. Since I had multiple spools to dye I was looking for something easier. I finally had a brainstorm that solved my problem. I took and old spool of fishing line and emptied the spool. I then took the 1660 line off the small spools and wound it on the single, bigger spool. I was wondering how I would dip it in the dye without getting it all tangled and I came up with a plastic tube filled with dye and shaped like a "U". I bought  about 30" of plastic tube and used wire to attach it to a piece of scrap wood cut in the shape of the "U".

 

 

 

I poured the dye into the tube and put the line and spool on an arm above the tube. I then pulled the line through the dye tube and strung it out to dry. When it was dry, I rewrapped it on the spool using an electric drill. This made a very efficient process. Since I didn't let the line soak in the dye as long as the instructions called for, I pulled it through again until I got the color I wanted. I tried to maintain a consistent speed while pulling it through the tube so as to keep a consistent color.

 

 

 

The RIT dye can be purchased in super markets and other stores. You don't need much as the quantity in the tube is about a pint.

 

 

 

I thought you or some other modelers might find this solution helpful.

 

Joe