TIL that forward part of a ship is called forecastle

You would be amazed how many short forms are used in sailing, sometimes crippled to letter salad with apostrophes. Fo’c’sle is not alone, by far.

My favorite is “lee” and “leeward.” Both have to do with something being down wind. The former is pronounced as it’s spelled, but the first syllable of the latter is pronounced “loo” or “lew.”

Of course, there’s also the Leeward Islands which are often (mis)pronounced as they’re spelled because most people don’t sail anymore!

What happens when the fo’c’sle falls off?

It’s Worcestershire all over again…

Lots of naval terms aren’t pronounced the way you would think, e.g. boatswain and gunwale pronounced differently than they are spelled.

Boatswain sounds like bo-sun

Gunwale sounds like gun-ull

For people reading the title and trying to pronounce this like a 3 syllable French word, Wikipedia pronunciation says it like “Fok-sull”, like “folk” minus the L and “sull” like sullied.

I knew that and it took all day for it to percolate that I’d learned it from Kingdom of Loathing.

Folks-sull

Fok this sull!