Sea voyage terminology

Use this forum to discuss the April 2019 Book of the month, "Adrift" by Charlie Sheldon
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Kajori Sheryl Paul
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Re: Sea voyage terminology

Post by Kajori Sheryl Paul »

Well, I was familiar with the nautical expressions used. Hence, it did not give me much pause.
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Surabhi Rani
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Post by Surabhi Rani »

My experience with the terminology of the book was that I could grasp the story only in a second reading as it had so many unfamiliar terms. I made it a point to take notes while reading. Some words that I couldn't understand were 'starboard', 'workhouse', 'deckhouse'. I usually enjoy difficult and challenging reads as this one!
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Post by Poppy Drear »

Honestly, I just skip terms like this. I'm usually able to deduce enough of their meanings from context clues. For example, I can piece together that "aft" is a part of the boat - in my mind, it doesn't really matter if it's more specific than that.
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Post by mmm17 »

I actually enjoyed the sea voyage terminology. I am used to it because I live by the sea and I appreciate boats of all kinds. For me, it was a plus. :wink:
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Post by jahagen »

There was a lot of words that I did not understand, but I didn't look them up. I generally just used context clues to have a relative idea of what they were talking about. I wasn't irritated by the use of the specific terminology, as it definitely works for the story and adds the reality of it. The only time I was sort of annoyed was when they constantly used a term over and over again (like "aft").
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Post by Choine »

I am not a boat person and the ocean scares the daylights out of me. I had to look up a lot of the terminology used in the book and make notes. After a while, it became confusing because there was so much information.
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Post by WaryReader »

I like learning new words and I write down the ones I really like, but I unfortunately tend not to retain technical terminology very much... You get used to it while reading a book though.
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Post by Christine Penny »

Growing up sailing with my father, on his 38 ft sailboat, i learned many sailing terms being his first mate, such as starboard, port, winches, coming about, sailing into the wind and why that is why at the beginning i assumed the boat they were talking about was a sailboat... but it wasn't then i imagined it was a boat like in the shows Deadliest Catch with all the barrels on the deck... then i knew none of the further terminology which was definitely irritating to me and why i gave the book low marks... i don't think this book is for everyone but for a very specific crowd of people who can appreciate the tugboats that come to rescue ships that have been abandoned which is what the majority of this book is about and what happened to that crew... so yes, i found it very irritating. if it hadn't been for Larry getting hurt, I was already at the point where the book was dragging too much for me, if it had been a book that i hadn't been reviewing i would have stopped reading.
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Post by Niski »

Before this book, I had zero idea!
It has definitely taught me a thing or two. Whether I remember the various terms is a different story.
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Post by Gikonyo Caroline »

What is a tug? Other terms stopper line I asked myself when reading first chapters if this book, ithink there should have been a list of definitions for the jargon to avoid readers without the benfit of se voyage techincal knowelege reading with a dictionary
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Post by Townsend2316 »

I enjoy learning new words and most of them were in the dictionary on my kindle so I just selected the word and it brought up the definition. If I was using a paper copy I would've gotten a little irritated maybe but I'm always eager to learn so it didn't bother me. I knew some things already after minoring in maritime history in college but the modern terms were new to me. I agree with one of the statements above, it would've been great if they had put a few footnotes about the terminology. I recently read another OBC book that was set in medieval times and had terminology and social structures I hadn't heard of but it had the footnotes to explain it and I really liked it.
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Post by brown09 »

I kept my phone's Merriam Webster dictionary app when I couldn't decipher the terms. Other than this, context clues :lol2:
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Post by Bluecobia »

I understood most of the terms used in this book. I do enjoy learning new terms when I come across them . I like to read a book that has a few new words for me to look up and learn .
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Post by Bluebird03 »

I have read other books also that utilize actual sea and nautical terms. But since I don't use them in daily life, I always have to look them up- it just adds to my enjoyment of reading the book and feeling like I am there in the story.
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Post by KDJ »

I enjoyed reading Adrfit very much. The uses of the actual terminology showed me the author was knowledgable of the subject. I think his usage of accurate terminology made the novel much better and more immersive. I also learned new words (although lee was the only definition I understood completely). I do not think it hindered reading or made it more complex at all. I did have to use the dictionary function in the Kindle app multiple times, but it increased my vocabulary and made the reading even more enjoyable to me. :D :D :D
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