Comments on: An Alphabet of Feminism #19: S is for Ship

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:13:34 +0000

Thank you for correcting the O’Sullivan link!

The first piece of nose art on that page (“Baby”) connects neatly with the “infant” entry in this alphabet.

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:15:16 +0000

Although figureheads (and aeroplane nose art) often have the look of sexually stimulating images, during a voyage the sailors wouldn’t usually (ever?) see them. That seems to argue against figureheads serving the function of pin-up pictures. I think that, to get a really good view of the figurehead, a sailor would have needed to leave the ship and look at her from a dinghy.

By: Hodge

Hodge — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:28:02 +0000

In reply to David. Ooh that's interesting, I wonder if it's a Plato thing...

By: Simon

Simon — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:28:20 +0000

Whatever the reason for it the ship is definitely a pretty significant metaphor in culture. There seems to be an unspoken link between the common ocean-voyage-as-journey-into-the-infinite-unknown metaphor (a la Tennyson, Moby Dick, Rime of the Ancient Mariner etc.) and the popular perception of sailors as a breed of men somehow more in touch with their basic animal nature (they’re superstitious! They just want to sex and fight!).

I think Larkin is dryly commenting on this in ‘Next, Please’ (which is also relevant in that it features a figurehead with boobs out):
http://bit.ly/ijRrsQ

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 16:00:29 +0000

Further to my idea that a ship could be “she” because she carries the sailors like so many foetuses in her womb, it occurs to me that a ship disgorges the sailors when she berths. If I follow the online etymological dictionary correctly, “berth” stems from the same roots as “birth”. In berthing is the ship-as-mother giving birth?

By: David

David — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 15:09:36 +0000

On ships = states, one of my favourite etymologies is for “governor” (and, curiously, “cybernetic”), which ultimately derive from the Greek Kybernetes, or “steersman.”

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:28:53 +0000

In reply to Pet Jeffery. One of those is still wrong. I think the apostrophe is to blame.

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:28:00 +0000

Corrected versions on my links, which seem to have gone wrong:

http://www.nose-art.net/O'Sullivan.htm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasrfletcher/5208488985/

By: Pet Jeffery

Pet Jeffery — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:12:06 +0000

I think that one element in a ship’s figurehead is to have a watchful pair of eyes at the prow, looking out for danger. Consider the eyes traditionally painted on the prows of fishing boats from the Mediterranean http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomasrfletcher/5208488985/to eastern Asia http://funvinyldecals.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/why-should-boats-have-eyes/

Returning to sexualised images, the general idea of ship’s figureheads seems present in aircraft nose art: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nose_art. See these, http://www.nose-art.net/O'Sullivan.htm for example. I think that aircraft, as well as, ships have often been referred to as “she”. And I’ve met people who call their cars “she”.

Here’s another idea, off the top of my head — could a ship be “she” because she carries the sailors like so many foetuses in her womb?

By: Miranda

Miranda — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:12:59 +0000

Ah, I really wish we could have linked to the Cutty Sark's 60-strong gallery of figureheads for this entry! Alas, it is closed until the ship is fully restored after the fire damage a few years ago. They've even got a figurehead of Florence Nightingale, herself arguably eulogised as a kind of glorified national nanny...