- The Enterprise - The Recorder Recently, a team of volunteer
sailors from Patuxent River Naval Air Station embarked on an
Atlantic voyage, and they often spoke to one another in a
language shared by generations of seafarers. They yelled out
terms like “jib and jigger,” a way to use sails to travel. Or
“starboard,” which some historians say was coined by Vikings.
Those ancient sailors called the sides of their ships “boards.”
The oar was the “star” and they put it on the right side of the
ship. “It goes back to our old days of sail,” said Tim Holland,
commodore of the Navy Patuxent Sailing Club. Order had to be
followed correctly because lives hung in the balance, he said.
Captains barked short, clear commands so that sailors “would
respond instinctively.” Today, sailors and landlubbers alike
might recognize these nautical terms that have made their way
into everyday conversations. ź Above board: Pirates, pretending
to be merchants, hid their crew below boards of ships before an
attack. Today, it essentially