Perils of the world-Life of a Sky sailor

[Lord Dick Tim]

So here I'd like to discuss the various perils ship captains may face in their trade adventures from one city to the next.  From water shortages, engine failures, poor weather and pirates.

I'd also like to speculate on some jargon that could be created about different things, situations, maneuvers and just some of the general mood of being onboard a sky ship.

Jargon

I'm more than a little biased in my opinion that naval language would become part of the sky ship life.  Port and starboard, deck, galley, head, fore and aft.
But there are things that aren't commonly known by the general public that should probably be fleshed out a bit, or changed up to fit in the space with a bit more ease.  I very, very much like the idea that languages other than English creep their way into this space as well.

Screw
My first example is jargon for the engines.  Usually known as "Screws", referring to the turbines on a ship.  So a squid would be a 4 screw ship.

Jib
The cut of the front sail of a ship, typically a defining feature of national vessels during the age of sail.  A jib could now mean the general profile or style of a particular national ship.  "Looks like a Yeshan Jib from here captain, could be Anglean though, they are similar". (I have no idea if they would be)

Cycle Guns/Gun Cycle
Refers to the manual cycling of a weapons firing cycle.  Feeding, Chambering, locking, firing, unlocking, extraction, ejecting, cocking.  (Charon will be happy I still remember that after a year of never having said it.)

Weather Deck
The floor of the ship exposed to the open air

Gun Deck
The platform on which a gun emplacement rests

Pilothouse
Where the ship is piloted from, also where the binnacle is usually at as well(compass)

This is a sample of just some terms.  What are some of the maneuvers that could come up as well?  What do we call it when a captain intentionally burns out their balloon to drop faster?  What is a typical meal onboard ship consist of?  What is it usually called? 
Lets bake some theories in every which direction, so I can get told no again

[Sgt. Spoon]

What is a typical meal onboard ship consist of?

Since the world is seemingly populated by skinny elves, the only viable food would obviously be Lembas bread

ok ok for a more serious approach:

Screw
My first example is jargon for the engines.  Usually known as "Screws", referring to the turbines on a ship.  So a squid would be a 4 screw ship.

I'm a bit conflicted about this word. Firstly I thought it sounded a little silly, but then again it rolls so easy of the tongue to say "oh yeah it's a 3 screw ship" that I've started to like it.

[Gato Blanco]

I wouldn't use Pilothouse
1) theres no "House," none of the ships offer significant protection to the pilot
2) I prefer the term Helm
3) sounds like "Outhouse"......

I use "Dive" and "Rise" for going up and down.  I use "Surface" when comming out of cloud cover

"Shiv" when ramming with a pyramidion

I like the term "screws", but I dont find the use of "Gun deck" very useful since the only ship with main guns below the weather deck is the galleon

Gato don't shiv, he slicer-dicer

[The Churrosaur]

What is a typical meal onboard ship consist of?

Since the world is seemingly populated by skinny elves, the only viable food would obviously be Lembas bread

Add barrels, curses, and maggots and voila! Sea biscuits

[HamsterIV]

I like the term "screws", but I dont find the use of "Gun deck" very useful since the only ship with main guns below the weather deck is the galleon

To me there is a Gun Deck on the Junker, Spire, and Pyramidion as well as the Gallion. However I prefer the term upper deck, middle deck, and lower deck. I tend to make deck references in relation to where the helm is.

I prefer to call ramming "boinking" for the humor value.

When annother ship is ramming my ship I use the phrase"(shipname) is trying to mate with us"

I don't know about you guys but I feed my crew a steady stream of verbal abuse sprinkled with occasional praise when they act above and beyond the call of duty.

[JaegerDelta]

I tend to use prop instead of screw.

while yes screw is a more nautical slang for the propellers on a mechanically powered ship having to deal with how the fins on that are shaped and how it moves the water. However, with Bi-planes being present in the world and the term pilot being used to describe the person controlling direction of the ship and the thin blades involved, i think the aviation slang is a bit more apt.

The life of the crew would be similar to that of a naval crew in battle but not in the day to day. with the sizes of the ships involved and the lack of real living space on the ships, I would not think these ships would be flying for months at a time. it would be more like a shorter term deployment specific for what you are doing, then you are back in a hangar until you go out again.

[Lord Dick Tim]

Awesome point Jaeger, I was hoping somebody else would bring up the "prop" being the amount of engines on a ship rather than a screw.  Didn't want to be the only one debating my own words.

Now what about this little wrinkle.  Most of the engines seem to have 2 props per screw.  So a Squid has 4 screws, 8 props, the earlier referring solely to the turbine action, the later the propellers themselves.

Though I do just like keeping it simple and referring to it just as a prop.

Pilothouse does sound like an outhouse lol.  I used the oldest term for it, again, to get some of the other words out.  I also enjoy helm over pilothouse, as really only the Goldfish has something close to a pilothouse.

Since we don't have a water line some of the terms in reference to the hull aren't used.  Namely, water line, freeboard, draw.  What are some plane terms that describe the outer body of the ships structure?

Do the ships have coaming?  Raised edges around hatches to keep water out?  I'd imagine that is a possibility on the weather deck at least, keep rain out of the hold.

[Mattiator]

A term for the main body of an aircraft is usually the fuselage, although "hull" is often used for flying boats and whatnot. I tend to prefer "screws" myself, same story for "helm".

[Lord Dick Tim]

I think we can have a nice division in the game lore space about this one Mattiator.  Engineers would call it a fuselage, everyone else calls it the hull, which makes true engineers loose their goddamn mind.

[JaegerDelta]

A term for the main body of an aircraft is usually the fuselage, although "hull" is often used for flying boats and whatnot. I tend to prefer "screws" myself, same story for "helm".

wellllll if we are being technical the correct term for airships, that refers to where the crew is located, is gondola. so you could say that the airships in this game have really augmented gondola's. but i think its better to try to work in universe as much as possible rather than relying on technicalities from the real world.

also on the prop/screw thing. it would probably actually depend on where the people were from. the coast would most likely use screw because they had to have had a mechinized naval past and the words from that probably survived in some form or another. while the land locked areas most likely knew of/ fought against the coastal region's naval forces but probably would have more experience in aviation/land based forces and would use the words of their people for the parts on an airship.

basically on the coast its probably a screw, in the interior its probably a prop.

[Clara Skyborn]

Rejected developer terms for airship components: "gondola" (oh, yes), "lifting envelope"

Also the regrettably misapplied term "zeppelin" for the balloon, which still slips out once in a while (that's what's in the code).

[HamsterIV]

I remember the original GOI had rigging instead of hull, which made a lot more sense. Those bullets are not going to permanently damage the hull plates, but if the ropes that hold you to the balloon fail, then it is all over but the screaming and the dieing. Also it made more sense to fix a rope mid battle then weld on a new plate of armor. 

[Captain Smollett]

Other languages creeping in you say?  Someone get Zwaene in this thread, those fiendishly Flemish Pastafarians have some delightfully colorful words they use in the heat of battle.

[Clara Skyborn]

Original GoI had rigging and hull both, both essential to survival. More ways to die!

[HamsterIV]

I thought it was rigging and balloon.