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Old 05-20-07, 01:08 PM   #13
Snowman999
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Join Date: Feb 2007
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Yes- but only during times it was safe to do so- the "Smoking Lamp is Lit/Off" order. (you get a cookie when you can find the reason for the "lamp" refference)
Nit for the purists: The official 1MC word would be "The smoking lamp is LIGHTED throughout the ship" ("on weather decks", "abaft frame 48", etc.) Lighted is incorrect in modern English, but it's the way it was handed down from the 18th C. I doubt if any USN man-o-war does it this way any longer, but in WWII they did.

The other order, still used today, is "The smoking lamp is OUT throughout the ship." ("Until 2300 hours", "While refueling is underway", "While ammunition is being handled on the port side", etc.) But most often with no further explaination.

In wooden ships the smoking lamp was an actual lamp used to light pipes and cigarellos. Smoking was ONLY permitted in the galley for crew (gunroom for officers and CO's quarters for Himself.) Since the cook had a bad temper and sharp knives there wasn't any smoking during the work day while he was busy in the galley. But pretty much every man used tobacco, either chewed or smoked. It was thought to "adjust the humors" and promote good health in the Four Humor theory of physiology. Tobacco was second only to rum in importance to discipline. Sailors would put up with being pressed, flogged, "started" with a rope end, and scurvy, but the prudent CO would begin to look for anyplace to replenish rum and tobacco when they ran low.
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