Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
headed over
English answer:
closed by fitting the head
Added to glossary by Charles Davis
Jul 30, 2012 18:18
11 yrs ago
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English term
headed over
English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
While still warm, the oil, like hot punch, is received into the six-barrel casks; and while, perhaps, the ship is pitching and rolling this way and that in the midnight sea, the enormous casks are slewed round and headed over, end for end, and sometimes perilously scoot across the slippery deck, like so many land slides, till at last man-handled and stayed in their course; and all round the hoops, rap, rap, go as many hammers as can play upon them, for now, EX OFFICIO, every sailor is a cooper.
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Responses
+2
6 hrs
Selected
closed by fitting the head
The idea that "headed over, end for end", means "turned end over end", in the sense of repeatedly upended, sounds convincing at first, but I don't think it's right. I think "headed over" means "covered over with a head". This interpretation is based on the following arguments:
1. To head a cask is a standard term in coopering (barrel-making), meaning to fit the head, the flat round piece that closes the cask at the end. This obviously has to be done after filling the cask.
"head v.t.
To set on the head; as, to head a cask. [...] To head up, to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a head to."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=head&us...
("To set on the head" here means to fix the head on, not to stand the cask on its head.)
"head (transitive)
2. a : to put a head on : fit a head to"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/head
Here is a detailed description of how to head (and indeed unhead) a barrel:
http://users.tpg.com.au/borclaud/ranad/hints_coopering.pdf
So "head over" means "cover over", fix the head over the end of the cask. This is the logical sequence: first the oil is poured into the casks, then they are "headed over" in this sense: closed.
2. You ask why, if this refers to moving the barrels, they don't just roll them. It's a good question, though with the ship pitching, rolling them would be difficult to control. But moving them by repeatedly upending them, over and over, is very unlikely. Upending a full six-barrel cask would be a very arduous task. "Barrel" here is a measure of volume: a "barrel" was 31.5 gallons, so a six-barrel cask was 189 gallons.
http://books.google.es/books?id=L3HOpg4UamUC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA5...
A US gallon (3.78 litres) of whale oil probably weighed a little over 3 kilos (whale oil would have been a bit lighter than water). 189 gallons would have weighed 550-600 kilos. Add the weight of the cask itself, and you have an object which would have been very difficult to upend. To do so repeatedly would have been immensely hard work, and very difficult to control on a moving ship. If you want to move something like that across the deck of a ship, you lean it over very slightly and turn it round on its edge, or simply push it along. "Scoot across the slippery deck" means they slide along on their ends.
3. "Slew" does not mean roll; it means "To turn about a fixed point, usually the center or axis, as a spar or piece of timber; to turn; -- used also of any heavy body."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&resource=Webster'...
So this means that with the cask standing on one end it is filled with oil, then "headed", twisting it round while doing so. "End for end" refers to turning it right round, so that it's position is reversed. This is done while hammering the head into the groove to close the cask.
1. To head a cask is a standard term in coopering (barrel-making), meaning to fit the head, the flat round piece that closes the cask at the end. This obviously has to be done after filling the cask.
"head v.t.
To set on the head; as, to head a cask. [...] To head up, to close, as a cask or barrel, by fitting a head to."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster's&word=head&us...
("To set on the head" here means to fix the head on, not to stand the cask on its head.)
"head (transitive)
2. a : to put a head on : fit a head to"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/head
Here is a detailed description of how to head (and indeed unhead) a barrel:
http://users.tpg.com.au/borclaud/ranad/hints_coopering.pdf
So "head over" means "cover over", fix the head over the end of the cask. This is the logical sequence: first the oil is poured into the casks, then they are "headed over" in this sense: closed.
2. You ask why, if this refers to moving the barrels, they don't just roll them. It's a good question, though with the ship pitching, rolling them would be difficult to control. But moving them by repeatedly upending them, over and over, is very unlikely. Upending a full six-barrel cask would be a very arduous task. "Barrel" here is a measure of volume: a "barrel" was 31.5 gallons, so a six-barrel cask was 189 gallons.
http://books.google.es/books?id=L3HOpg4UamUC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA5...
A US gallon (3.78 litres) of whale oil probably weighed a little over 3 kilos (whale oil would have been a bit lighter than water). 189 gallons would have weighed 550-600 kilos. Add the weight of the cask itself, and you have an object which would have been very difficult to upend. To do so repeatedly would have been immensely hard work, and very difficult to control on a moving ship. If you want to move something like that across the deck of a ship, you lean it over very slightly and turn it round on its edge, or simply push it along. "Scoot across the slippery deck" means they slide along on their ends.
3. "Slew" does not mean roll; it means "To turn about a fixed point, usually the center or axis, as a spar or piece of timber; to turn; -- used also of any heavy body."
http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?action=search&resource=Webster'...
So this means that with the cask standing on one end it is filled with oil, then "headed", twisting it round while doing so. "End for end" refers to turning it right round, so that it's position is reversed. This is done while hammering the head into the groove to close the cask.
Peer comment(s):
| agree | B D Finch : That does make sense. 8 hrs |
| Thanks, B D | |
| agree | Lucy Hill : I was tempted to disagree because of the "til at last manhandled", but if barrels were cartwheeling about head-over-heels they might well cause a lot of damage, if not break! Thanks for the expert insight. 10 hrs |
| Thanks, Lucy! The "til at last manhandled" bit means that if they start sliding around the deck, the crew have to stop them and heave them into position for storage. The casks were tied in place, otherwise they'd have caused havoc. |
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+2
5 mins
turned end on end
I am pretty sure in the context that this means turned over end on end, i.e. stand the barrel up on one end, lift it and turn it over so the bottom is at the top and the top is at the bottom, and repeat. I have an image of them on their sides with the top to the left and the bottom to the right, lifted up and over so the top rises to the top then goes over to the right, again and again.
This contrasts with the slewing where the barrel would presumably be on its side and kept in that plane but rotated or spun.
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Note added at 13 hrs (2012-07-31 07:33:53 GMT)
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It would, but presumably this mixes up the oil in some way?
This contrasts with the slewing where the barrel would presumably be on its side and kept in that plane but rotated or spun.
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Note added at 13 hrs (2012-07-31 07:33:53 GMT)
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It would, but presumably this mixes up the oil in some way?
Note from asker:
| Wouldn't it be easier to just roll them? |
Peer comment(s):
| agree | Jenni Lukac (X) : yes 29 mins |
| Thank you! | |
| neutral | B D Finch : Having seen Charles' suggestion and reread this, I now think he has a point. 1 hr |
| I'm still not sure, because it's in the context of being slewed around, as I said, pivoted. But I'm not an expert on maritime barrel handling ... | |
| agree | Phong Le 14 hrs |
| Thank you! |
16 hrs
tipped over / knocked over
"Tipped over" sounds more like the way it would be said in English and it's a more vivid way to say it, although "turned end on end" will do as well.
You could also say "knocked over." Knocked over suggests a more violent pitching of the deck. Tipped over is not as strong a word.
I have provided 2 example sentences. I also changed "scooot across the deck" to "tumble across the deck." Tumble also helps to show how the barrels are going end over end.
You could also say "knocked over." Knocked over suggests a more violent pitching of the deck. Tipped over is not as strong a word.
I have provided 2 example sentences. I also changed "scooot across the deck" to "tumble across the deck." Tumble also helps to show how the barrels are going end over end.
Example sentence:
the enormous casks are slewed round and tipped over and sometimes tumble perilously across the slippery deck,
the enormous casks are slewed round and knocked over and sometimes tumble perilously across the slippery deck,
