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From: "John D.Stevenson" <>
Subject: Re: [Mar] Heads Chapter 2
Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 19:34:37 +0100
References: <000001c312e9$dd594180$1ccd66c3@UKJLOVE>


> I don't wish to extend this noxious thread too far but can anyone
> explain why the term "head" is used? Is it an abbreviation for
> something else?

Hello again John,
Found another piece which might be of interest.

From "Ship to Shore" by Peter Jeans 1998.

HEADS
"..........the sailors privy (what Dr Johnson in his dictionary calls " the
place of retirement").................. it derives from the fact that early
sailing ships had a small deck built over the stem (foremost structural
timber of the vessel) which in turn had evolved from a similar, very strong
pointed projection known in the ancient warships as a "beak" or "beak-head"
so named from its shape.. This beak can still be traced to in the clipper
bow designs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ................."
Regards.
John.

John D. Stevenson
Lovely spring evening, 14C
Edinburgh.

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