NAl'TICAL LANOUAGE. 163 



whalcback — an idea which was expressed earlier in turtle- 

 back, a deck curving from the sides upward to protect the 

 machinery within, and the phrases "to turn turtle," to cap- 

 size, with reference to a vessel's appearance when upset. 



But when the name of an animal is applied to a ship, the 

 transfer arises from the lifelike movements of the vessel 

 rather than from the resemblance of form. The use of the 

 feminine pronoun in speaking of a vessel may be considered 

 as a general expression of the Iivel^^ graceful action of a 

 vessel under sail, though the appellative nouns are not with- 

 out some freaks in the matter of gender. The apparent 

 inconsistency of gender in man-of-war, mcrcha7itman, fisher- 

 man and the like, can be explained satisfactorily by the fact 

 that all such names refer more particularly to the actions or 

 business of the ship's crew than to the usual, graceful — and 

 therefore feminine — movement of the vessel herself. This 

 also accounts for the use of jve and he for our own and the 

 enemy's vessel in conflict, where the hostile animus is so 

 strong that the vessels' personalities are completely overborne 

 by those of the combatants. In describing the "behavior" 

 of a vessel, her action under sail and so on, no matter what 

 her professional name may be, the pronouns applied to her 

 are always feminine because her motions are graceful. But 

 the gender is changed in those compounds where the unso- 

 phisticated mind is confronted with the absurdity of consid- 

 ering a vessel in the act of war, pirac}' or business — pursuits 

 pretty much alike at bottom — as other than masculine. 



Homer's metaphor, dAos Itv-koi, is paralleled l)y modern 

 instances. Arabian baggala, mule, is applied to a two-masted 

 vessel of the Indian Ocean, doubtless in reference to it as a 

 ship of burden. MoJikey-boat and cat-boat, German Katzschiff, 

 French chat and chatte, names of small boats, seem to refer to 

 quick, light moveiuent. IJf^hthorsemaii, a former name for 

 the boat we now call the gig, alludes to speed, a characteristic 

 still more plainly referred to in the term greyhound, which it 

 is said was first applied to the Atlantic Liner " Alaska " in 



