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Netters,
I also was very reluctant to send this to everyone, sorry Peter, but
maybe other teachers will get the right meanting of this word--poop.
Bill Sears, Information Telecommunication Teacher* Phone (916) 228-2353
Sacramento County Office of Education * FAX (916) 228-2493
9738 Lincoln Village Drive * CORE: bsears@ctp.org
Sacramento, California 95827 ******************** I ensure that
curriculum trainers have the expertise to help teachers use the Internet
as a resource to enhance the California State Curriculum Frameworks.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 1994 08:37:53 -0800 (PST)
From: Bill Sears <bsears@eis.calstate.edu>
To: Sandra Haggstrom <FTSLH@AURORA.ALASKA.EDU>
Cc: Bill Sears <bsears@eis.calstate.edu>
Subject: Re: poop deck ?
Sandra,
In my time in the Navy I was privlidged to write curriculum for New
members of a Navy Intelligence Command. The first module of the training
session was on Navy customs. I had to research that very question.
I have researched several explainations that seem to merge with time.
First, to get pooped in sailing is to get a wave to wash over the stern
(back end of the ship) and sink the ship. Older ships covered the stern so
this would not happen. Most 16th/17th century ships were built with poops.
The dictionary says Poop deck is a weather deck on top of a poop and a poop
is a superstructure at the stern of a vessel.
Second, in ancient times sailors would carry a representation of
their gods at the stern of the ship. Some of these representations were
statutes of gods or dolls. In German a doll is called a pupe plural
pupen. Ancient sailers when comming abourd a ship would face the gods
(stern) and pay homage. Sailers today salute the Ensign,when boarding a ship,
which is a flag or banner used to indicate nationality located at the
stern, off the poop deck. I believe the older explaination about the Gods
or dolls enitiated the term and then was expanded to mean a negative
sinking of a ship by a following wave. Therefore the negative conotation
to be pooped on (sinking a ship from behind or a wave moving faster than
you are moving). Then to stop this from happening to build a poop
reflector. To make sure this all worked, one puts his God (dall/statue)
on top of this reflector. In time ones country takes the place or equal
status with your God, so a representation of your country goes where the
statue was. After all these years the custom still is to pay homage to
the stern where some very important symbol is protecting the stern from
that wave that just may sink your ship. I hope this helps.
On Tue, 29 Nov 1994, Sandra Haggstrom wrote:
> I have a fourth grade teacher who asked me before Thanksgiving about poop deck
s
> on ships. I thought her students were being crude so ignored the question. I
t
> turns out they were discussing the Mayflower and in the book "if you saide on
> the Mayflower..." they say there are no toilets on the ship. A student notice
d
> on the poster of the Mayflower that there was a poop deck and he wandered why
it
> was called that if there were not any bathrooms. She has some pretty obnoxiou
s
> students but this student was serious in his question. Does anyone know the a
ns
> wer? I told her to tell the student they used honey pots but as for the sour
ce
> of the name poop deck I did not know. Sandy Haggstrom ftslh@aurora.alaska.ed
u
>
Bill Sears, Information Telecommunication Teacher* Phone (916) 228-2353
Sacramento County Office of Education * FAX (916) 228-2493
9738 Lincoln Village Drive * CORE: bsears@ctp.org
Sacramento, California 95827 ******************** I ensure that
curriculum trainers have the expertise to help teachers use the Internet
as a resource to enhance the California State Curriculum Frameworks.
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