Even that, who is far from the maritime profession, known term "galleon". Moreover, not every person, knowing the meaning of this word, possesses information about, where did it come from and what did it originally mean. Today, "Military Review" has prepared a small material about this..
so, the generally accepted meaning of the concept of "latrine" today is ship (marine) restroom. In Russian dictionaries and encyclopedias, it began to flicker in fact from that very moment, how they themselves began to be published in our country. So, in the 4-volume encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron from 1905-1907 years there is a description of the latrine. This word came to the fleet, as, by the way, and many other naval terms, from Holland. It represents the Dutch "galjoen", which literally means "bow of the ship".
In this context, the meaning of the word should not be confused with another interpretation, which corresponds to the fish Dichistius capensis or black bream - the national symbol of South Africa. Its name also sounds like galjoen, but only in this context it should be read as a galleon. by the way, and the “ship” concept of “galjoen” itself often correlates precisely with the galleon - a Spanish sailboat 16-17 ages.
What do the Dutch dictionaries say about the "latrine"?
In particular, celebrated, that we are talking about a special platform on the bow of the ship, where were the toilets for the crew. added, that latrines were called toilets in the Frisian (Watt) islands until the 19th century. The Frisian Islands are a group of islands in the North Sea., which separates from it the so-called watts - shallow sea zones off the coast of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
On sailing ships, latrines were located along the sides of the ship in the bow - there, where the prince was located. What is another "beast"? Knjavdiget - the upper part of the water cut, "crown" which could carved figure. On the bow of the 17th century Swedish ship Vasa ("vase") this part is decorated with carvings on the outer side of the sides (first photo).
Any ship's cabin boy knew perfectly well, that the location of the latrines is precisely the bow of the ship. This is where you need to run in case of body urges…
Storm latrines could be several seats, which were, in fact, wooden boxes. Through these "boxes" the contents fell into a wooden tank and eventually went to the open sea..
At the same time, there was a system of fines and other punishments for captains and ship owners., which the contents of the latrine tank, for one reason or another, were drained near the ports, violating the "sanitary zone". But the fact, that the latrine tank was not on every ship. There were also cases of direct outboard “output” latrine.
So that when going to the latrine, the sailor is not washed overboard, there were various devices, including special mesh. Another option is wooden handles on the sides., that you could hold onto. what is called, on such a latrine you will not sit too long, if we are not talking about the calm.
In this way, the word "latrine" itself originally had nothing to do with "lavatory" in the current sense of the word. It denoted a platform in the bow of the ship: as a military, and trading.
Toilet on a submarine
On older ships, including galleys, with a toilet, as has been said for some time now, not so simple. For example, slaves, who were seated at the rowing oars, could send natural needs directly on the spot in case, if “change” impossible. In the end, everything was washed out with sea water.. but, according to understandable, reasons, it was not always possible to completely remove waste products in a short time, which led to the emergence of additional risks for outbreaks of infections.
