Of mice and foxes

[anteros_lmc]

Earlier this week eglantine_br asked me the following question in an e-mail...

Btw--a mouse is something on a ship right? I seem to remember Captain Aubrey complaining about his mouse--and I can hear him and Mr Bush in my head now, snickering.

I confess I had no idea if a mouse was a thing, so I looked it up in my copy of Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine, which was a wonderful gift from the lovely esteven and of course eglantine_br and Jack are right. A mouse is indeed a thing! This kind of thing to be precise:

MOUSE a knot or knob, wrought on the outside of a rope, by means of spun-yarn, parcelling, &c. as the knot wrought on the stay of a ship, which prevents the collar from closing round the mast-head.

It is particularly used on the stays of the lower mast, to prevent the eye from slipping up the mast; a circumstance which would render it extremely difficult to remove the stay from the mast head, when necessary.

To MOUSE a Hook, to pass a yarn or fox around the hook or block, in order to prevent its clearing itself from any thing it may be hooked to.

So there you have it. Clear as mud! Captain Aubrey and Mr Bush can go on snickering.

Comments

[vespican.livejournal.com]

In "The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships", C. Nepean Longridge goes into a great bit of detail, explaining the lower masts' stays and the use of a "mouse." He in fact, details just how such a thing is made.
Dave

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I may have a mouse related crack-fic in the hopper. It is a total piece of self-indulgance but it just won't shut up!

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

There are also cats and fish, as I seem to have learnt from Patrick O'Brian!

[shepet.livejournal.com]

Great! Now no one can say that Mr. Bush does not mouse ;-))