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work the vessel in

English translation: to sail against the wind by "beating"

09:27 Nov 3, 2012
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase: work the vessel in
I must explain myself here. All we wanted was to have the ship snugly anchored in Papeetee Bay; entertaining no doubt that, could this be done, it would in some way or other peaceably lead to our emancipation. Without a downright mutiny, there was but one way to accomplish this: to induce the men to refuse all further duty, unless it were to -----------------------work the vessel in. -----------------------The only difficulty lay in restraining them within proper bounds. Nor was it without certain misgivings, that I found myself so situated, that I must necessarily link myself, however guardedly, with such a desperate company; and in an enterprise, too, of which it was hard to conjecture what might be the result. But anything like neutrality was out of the question; and unconditional submission was equally so.

Thank you!
Michael Kislov
Russian Federation
Local time: 00:12
Selected answer:to sail against the wind by "beating"
Explanation:
... and thereby reach the safe anchorage.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 hrs (2012-11-03 18:35:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Another example:
"As a vessel is deeper aft than forward, her stern will always tend to drift faster than her head. If the current is setting out of a river or harbour, and the wind the opposite way, or only partly across the current, you may work out by tacking from shore to shore;"
http://www.woronorafire.org.au/maritime/working.html
Selected response from:

Martin Riordan
Brazil
Local time: 18:12
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +3to sail against the wind by "beating"
Martin Riordan
5 +1take the vessel into harbour
juvera
Summary of reference entries provided
working a sailing vessel
Martin Riordan

Discussion entries: 10





  

Answers


5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
take the vessel into harbour


Explanation:
To work the vessel means to manoeuvre it, to work the vessel IN is to manoeuvre into somewhere.
Here:
"All we wanted was to have the ship snugly anchored in Papeetee Bay..." so the only thing they were willing to do is to: take the vessel into harbour.

After letting us up from the fore-castle they ordered the sailors to work the vessel in near the land and anchor her.
books.google.com/books/about/Journal_of_voyages.html?id

Warps are ropes, which are used in the berthing of vessels, to work the vessel in to the wharf.
archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/MARINERS/.../1127005367

juvera
Local time: 22:12
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in HungarianHungarian
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Bernhard Sulzer: This is what I would take it to mean, based on what we have as context here.
59 mins
  -> Thanks
neutral  Martin Riordan: There is no mention of a harbour in the context. /Right. I thought it was a bay.
1 hr
  -> Papeete Bay IS A HARBOUR, and I referred to Papeete Bay in the text. Description for tourists: "The bay of Papeete became a large harbour."
neutral  Carol Gullidge: this is the same as Charles's answer - which he removed on the grounds that it was based on mere logic rather than on actual nautical knowledge//I realised that you hadn't seen Charles's answer, but it needed to be mentioned to explain where we're at :)
2 hrs
  -> Sorry, I did not see Charles's answer, I only saw the question 5 hours after it appeared and it wasn't there. I did not read the discussion, because I did not have the time for it. I didn't see a similar answer, therefore I posted mine.
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6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
to sail against the wind by "beating"


Explanation:
... and thereby reach the safe anchorage.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 9 hrs (2012-11-03 18:35:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Another example:
"As a vessel is deeper aft than forward, her stern will always tend to drift faster than her head. If the current is setting out of a river or harbour, and the wind the opposite way, or only partly across the current, you may work out by tacking from shore to shore;"
http://www.woronorafire.org.au/maritime/working.html

Martin Riordan
Brazil
Local time: 18:12
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 275

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  PoveyTrans (X): I don't agree with Bernard's narrow interpretation - the preposition 'in' adds to rather than changes the meaning. Juvera's answer doesn't seem wrong but this plus the reference is a more complete answer
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Simon!
agree  Carol Gullidge: yes, as backed up by your reference
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Carol!
neutral  Bernhard Sulzer: I looked at your link, Charles. the term is "beating/working", not working "in"; why can't "working in" mean "towards Papeetee Bay" where they intended to go? Just my thoughts. / Yes, possible. But the text implies preventing a refusal of "work".
2 hrs
  -> "to work", according to the link, is the technique of beating against the wind. In this case, the desired destination is the bay. So they have to "work the vessel in" to the bay.
agree  Phong Le
1 day 10 hrs
  -> Thanks, Phong Le!
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Reference comments


46 mins peer agreement (net): +2
Reference: working a sailing vessel

Reference information:
Beating or "working"
Using a series of close-hauled legs to beat a course upwind.

A boat can be 'worked to windward', to arrive at an upwind destination, by sailing close-hauled with the wind coming from one side, then tacking (turning the boat through the eye of the wind) and sailing with the wind coming from the other side. By this method of zig-zagging into the wind, known as beating, it is possible to reach any upwind destination.[9]


    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing#Beating_or_.22working.2...
Martin Riordan
Brazil
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 275

Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  Carol Gullidge: this looks far more convincing :) ... I learned the hard way never to take any potentially nautical expression at face value - however innocent/obvious it may appear at first sight!
1 hr
  -> Nothing like confirmation! I knew the expression, but not its exact meaning.
agree  PoveyTrans (X)
6 hrs
  -> Thanks, Simon!
neutral  Bernhard Sulzer: just a link "I was working the ship in" http://www.fatefulvoyage.com/xlogbook3/17881026.html / Yes. More context or knowledge of the general use of the word in the text would help too. :)
8 hrs
  -> Really I think that both explanations are reasonable. "working the ship" seems also to be a general term for handling large sailing ships, which did demand a lot of work.
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