The term gun deck used to refer to a
deck aboard a
ship
A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...
that was primarily used for the mounting of
cannon
A cannon is a large-caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder during th ...
to be fired in
broadsides. The term is generally applied to decks enclosed under a roof; smaller and
unrated vessels carried their guns on the
upper deck
The Upper Deck Company, LLC (colloquially as Upper Deck and Upper Deck Authenticated, Ltd. in the UK) is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. It was founded in 1988. Its headquarters are in Carlsbad, California, United ...
,
forecastle
The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck (ship), deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is t ...
and
quarterdeck
The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...
, and these were not described as gun decks.
[Knight, p 798][Cutler, p 107]
Slang
The term "gun decking" is also naval slang for fabricating or falsifying something. A possible explanation relates to
midshipmen
A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afric ...
retiring to the gun deck to complete their
celestial navigation
Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the surface ...
assignments of computing the ship's position three times daily following morning
star sights, noon sun line, and evening star sights. While some midshipmen might be conscientious about computing positions from new observations, others were reputed to
extrapolate
In mathematics, extrapolation is a type of estimation, beyond the original observation range, of the value of a variable on the basis of its relationship with another variable. It is similar to interpolation, which produces estimates between know ...
and back calculate observation data from
dead reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating the current position of a moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and incorporating estimates of speed, heading (or direction or course), and elapsed time. T ...
courses and speeds since earlier observations, and the computations performed on the gun deck were suspect.
[Origin of Navy Terminology]
This term is now used to indicate the falsification of documentation in order to avoid doing the work or make present conditions seem otherwise acceptable.
See also
*
Glossary of nautical terms (A-L) Glossary of nautical terms may refer to:
* Glossary of nautical terms (A–L)
* Glossary of nautical terms (M–Z)
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